Why do muscles only pull and not push?
Muscles are essential for the normal functioning of your body because they help you control movement and posture. You use them every day, without fail, because without them, you wouldn’t be able to exert force in what you’re doing. By adjusting the length of the muscle, also the tension, your muscles can contract.
You have three different types of muscles: cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and skeletal muscle. These types of muscles control the entirety of your body. The heart muscle manages blood flow, oxygen and electrical signals, as it is responsible for the heartbeat. Your heart muscle works involuntarily, so you have nothing to do about it. Smooth muscle pulls on the hollow structures in your body, which is also an involuntary action. And of course, skeletal muscle, which includes most of the muscles in your body, supports your entire body. You need these muscles because without them you couldn’t move, you would just be immobile.
Many people are confused as to how muscles work. In fact, muscles can only pull or contract (and not push). Every day, muscles work in pairs for a person to bend, lift, and do many things. By doing these things, one muscle within the body lengthens and the other shortens. The one that is shortened is the one that is contracted, also called agonist. While the muscle that is lengthening is called antagonist. Well, muscles are only designed to contract and not to push. That’s why muscles can’t push.
The muscles could not pull if the two protein molecules are not present: actin and myosin. These two are arranged end to end of the muscle cells, thus giving the muscles a striated appearance. Muscles help joints so you can move, and they also perform other actions and transmit them to other parts of the body, so you can achieve what you want to do.
Muscles contract or pull when an electrical impulse from a part of your body, say the brain or other organs, stimulates the muscle at the neural synapse. The electrical impulse is then converted into a chemical signal, which results in the neuron terminal activating the chemical signal, releasing neurotransmitters.
There are so many things to learn about muscles. You have to maintain them, do everything you can to protect yourself so that you are strong in the long run. Of course, you need to understand why your muscles contract because you use them in your daily life. To learn more about muscles, talk to your local manual therapist, such as your trusted osteopath or physical therapist.
