Introduction
The muscular system consists of all skeletal muscles that can be conrolled voluntarily.
Skeletal muscles (700):
Axial muscles support and position axial skeleton.
Appendicular muscles support, move, and brace limbs.
Cardiac muscle is found only in the heart and consists of specialized cells that establish a regular rate of contraction independent from nervous system influence.
Smooth muscle acts either independently or in response to neural activity. Smooth muscle is found within almost every organ forming sheets, bundles, or sheaths around other tissues regulating movement of that particular organ:
This page was updated in December 2005.
Almost all skeletal muscles either originate or insert on the skeleton producing various forms of movement: flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, protraction, retraction, elevation, depression, rotation, circumduction, pronation, supination, inversion, or eversion.
