Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: bizerl on 03/04/2013 03:21:17
-
I've heard that muscles either contract, or relax but we can only create movement by contracting a muscle. So..
a) Is this correct?
b) If so, what would we look like if all of our muscles were relaxed at the same time?
c) What would happen if someone managed to simultaneously contract all their muscles at the same time? (I have an image of horrible muscle damage due to all the muscles pulling away from eachother).
-
b) floppy and unconscious/dead as they would stop breathing ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curare#Management_of_curare_poisoning
c) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus
-
Not breathing would be manageable medically.
No heartbeat and no blood pressure would be at least as big a problem.
It would be messy too, the bladder and bowels' sphincters are muscular- though that wouldn't worry you in the circumstances.
-
In answer to your third question, the neurotoxin from Clostridium tetani causes sustained skeletal muscle contraction, and this is a painting of what it looks like. Rather unpleasant. In normal people the nervous system is wired so that contraction of one muscle often inhibits the nerve that contracts the antagonist muscle so that they don't occur at the same time or to the same degree.
-
Yes i studied that movement occurs as a result of contraction in muscles, but without relaxation of muscles movement can't be completed. Biceps and triceps is a good example for such movement.