Video Transcript
There are three major types of
muscle tissue in the human body: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth. Which type of muscle is primarily
involved in conscious movements of the body?
The question asks us to identify
which type of muscle is involved in conscious movements. While some muscles are under
conscious control and so are called voluntary muscles, other muscles are controlled
subconsciously, so they’re involuntary. We cannot simply decide to stop
involuntary muscles from working. Smooth muscle is a type of
involuntary muscle involved in lots of different organ systems. For example, smooth muscles are
found in the walls of hollow organs like our stomach and intestines to help move
food through the digestive system. Smooth muscle is also found in the
walls of arteries and contracts to help push blood through these blood vessels
continuously.
Cardiac muscle cells are only found
in the heart. And like smooth muscles, these
muscles are also involuntary. They need to be controlled
subconsciously to ensure that the heart continuously beats in a consistent rhythm to
pump blood around the body. Voluntary muscles are skeletal
muscles such as those in our limbs which are our arms and legs, and they are those
which are attached to bones and can be controlled voluntarily to allow coordinated
movement of certain parts of the body. In addition to helping us to move,
skeletal muscles also help us to maintain our bodies’ posture. As they are the only type of
voluntary muscles, the type of muscle primarily involved in conscious movements of
the body is skeletal muscle.
