Know Your Muscles
Sometimes athletes tend to think that their talent is the most important feature of the game. Unfortunately, this may cause some to forget about sportsmanship, helping others, and educating yourself in all aspects of the sport and your health. Once you know about how the things that make you talented work, you can improve your entire performance.
For now, let’s talk about the extremely important, all-powerful (well, hopefully) muscles! Muscle in general is defined as “an organ, composed of muscle tissue, that contracts to produce a particular movement.” When we workout we hope to tone, build, and strengthen our muscles. You may have learned about muscle in high school biology, but things take on a whole knew meaning when you are dedicating these muscles to a sport that you are passionate about as an adult.
There are three different types of muscle: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth, all of equal importance with their own jobs and locations in the body.
Skeletal muscles are attached to… the skeleton! Surprised? It makes up the majority of the muscle in your body and consists of both dark and light fibers. This is the only type of muscle that is under voluntary control. Tense up your calf and feel the muscle harden. This is skeletal muscle and is what you usually think of when you are running and soreness sets in; or what is being worked when you lift weights.
Cardiac muscle is specific to only one area: the walls of the heart. This muscle looks just like skeletal muscle in color and the striation of the fibers, but is usually not under our control, or involuntary. This is the muscle that benefits especially from cardio workouts and aerobics. It pumps blood throughout the body and to the other muscles when they are working overtime.
Smooth muscle is that major muscle type. These are non-striated, but actually smooth, and are also involuntary. They line the inside of blood vessels, the bladder, the stomach, and the intestines. These muscles are the least likely to tear and are miraculous in the way that they can grow and shrink through the process of hyperplasia. This happens mostly in the uterus during pregnancy.
Muscles love to be worked and kept healthy through exercising, proper diet, vitamins and products that will increase your endurance and ability to keep pushing them, such as EPO-Boost. Muscles really love all-natural and safe substances, so choose wisely what you ingest and keep your fibrous friends in shape!
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Very well written post. Definitely something to think about. I wholeheartedly agree with only using natural supplements to help support your muscles…