Can You Tell Me Something About Skeletal Muscle?

Skeletal muscle is the muscle in the body that is mainly responsible for voluntary movement.

Like other types of muscle, it has three basic properties. Firstly, it is excitable - this doesn't mean it is silly and giggly, it refers to the ability of muscle to respond to eletric stimuli sent through to it from nerves. This enables muscle to respond to signals from the brain.

The second property of skeletal muscle is extensibility - it can be stretched or it can contract. These two opposing actions bring about movement.

The third property that skeletal muscle has is elasticity - it has the ability to return to its original shape after it has contracted.

Skeletal muscle is described as voluntary muscle because we can make it contract as and when we decide to - it does not do so automatically, like the muscle in the heart. This is smooth muscle that contracts and relaxes repeatedly about 70 times every minute, without us having to think about it once.