Your marvelousmuscles

What are the three types of muscles?

How do we identify them?

What do they do?

There are more than 600 muscles in our body!

These muscles make up our muscular system.

Our muscles are divided into

2 main groups

Involuntary muscles

Voluntary muscles

There are three (3) types of muscles

in the human body

1. Smooth - involuntary

2. Cardiac - involuntary

3. Skeletal - voluntary

Smooth muscles • Smooth muscles help us move food

through our digestive tract. • Involuntary means we don’t have to think

about it, it happens automatically. • Smooth muscles are found in the digestive

system

Think of a SMOOTH milkshake going down your throat to your

stomach!

Cardiac muscles • Cardiac muscles move blood around our

circulatory system• Involuntary means we don’t have to think

about it, it happens automatically. • Cardiac muscles are found in only one

place in the human body … the heart!

To remember this name … just think of Valentine’s Day …

when people share heart-shaped CARDS - CARDIAC

Skeletal muscles • Skeletal muscles move all the body parts we

choose to move• Voluntary means we choose to make these

muscles move.

• Skeletal muscles are found all over the human body.

• Tendons attach these muscles to our skeleton

Most muscles work in pairs to cause movement

One skeletal muscle pulls a bone one way, and its partner muscle pulls the bone the opposite way. One of the best-known skeletal muscles is the bicep.

A flexor is a muscle that causes a joint to bend when it contracts

An extensor is a muscle that causes a joint to straighten when it contracts.

Flexor - a muscle which bends a joint when it contracts. Your bicep is a flexor.

Extensor – a muscle which straightens a joint when it contracts. Your tricep is an

extensor.

Wrap up … Turn to your partner and share …• What does involuntary mean?• What does voluntary mean?• How do voluntary muscles work?

On your slates …• Name the three types of muscles• Give an example of each type