Contracting Muscle

Muscle Physiology

In this course, Professor Jon Scott (Independent Scholar) gives us an overview of muscle physiology, looking at their structure on a macro- and microscopic level. We begin by (i) understanding the importance of muscles as a means of the brain interacting with the world, and the immense power and dexterity they can provide; before (ii) understanding how muscles fibres change their organisation, and examine the different types of motor units we see across the body; and then (iii) looking at the sliding filament theory, and examine the structure of the fundamental contractile unit, the sarcomere; then looking at (iv) how the nervous system manipulates muscle fibres by frequency of activation to generate different amounts of force; and then (v) observing how muscle fibres conserve energy by natural frequencies of contraction; before finally (vi) understanding proprioception as the sixth sense of the body.

Contracting Muscle

In the first mini-lecture, we begin by discussing the importance of muscles. Muscles are the way that we can interact with the world around us. You are likely already familiar with the concept of muscles when you think about your thighs or your arms, but in this lecture we also appreciate the variety of muscle shapes, sizes and functions around the body, as well as the dexterity some muscles can offer. Continuing, we then look at the muscle structures within our arm, including the biceps and triceps brachialis. To finish off this lecture, we then examine the different types of muscle contraction through a brief demonstration.