How do our hearts beat 24/7 without needing to take a break/rest period?
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Basically there are 3 types of muscle cells in your body.
The most basic is the ones that you think of when thinking “muscle”, these are called “Skeletal Muscle Cells”, these muscles can produce a very fast and strong contraction, but generally they can only act in a short period of time before they get “fatigued”. These are you voluntary muscles (at least most of them).
The second type of muscle is called “Smooth muscle cells”, these are located in your internal organs like your stomach and intestines. You are not able to control them, they usually are able to work without “fatiguing”, but have a low contraction power.
The third muscle cell type is your Cardiac Muscle cells, these are the muscles that make up your heart, and basically, they are the best of both muscle types. Not only are they adapt in working basically forever, but also have a fairly strong contraction potential.
Each cell type is built differently for different functions, but basically, it is the way the heart cells are built.
One primary reason they are able to resist fatigue is that they have much more mitochondria than other muscle cells and the structure of the proteins are different as well.
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