Medical Animation Encyclopedia

Muscles perform four important body functions: maintain body posture, stabilize the joints, provide mobility, and generate heat that the body requires.

The body contains three types of muscle to perform these functions:
? Smooth muscle - involuntary muscle found in the walls of body organs; functions without conscious control
? Cardiac muscle - involuntary muscle found only in the walls of the heart; functions without conscious control
? Skeletal muscle - attaches to and covers the bony skeleton to provide movement of the body; the only type of muscle under voluntary or conscious control