Obviously our muscles contracting allows movement, but how do they contract? Do cells in the muscle get pulled closer by a chemical process or something?
In: Biology
The cells that make up your muscles are long and stretchy, like little rubber bands.
These cells form long strands, which exist in bundles, and those bundles are in groups which form a muscle.
Like rubber bands, they stretch. They can relax to get longer or contract to get shorter.
Chemical reactions in the cells cause them to either relax or contract, by themselves they’re weak and could tear easily, but because they’re bound together in large bundles, they’re stronger and tougher, like a group of people in tug-of-war vs a single person.
The muscles connect to tendons, that connect to bone, anchoring them together so that when the muscle moves, the bone moves with it.
So when your arm muscles move? They pull or relax the bone in your arm, causing it to move.
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