Physiology, Skeletal Muscle

Excerpt

Skeletal muscle is found throughout the body and functions to contract in response to a stimulus. Skeletal muscle serves many purposes, including producing movement, sustaining body posture and position, maintaining body temperature, storing nutrients, and stabilizing joints. In contrast to smooth and cardiac muscle contraction, most skeletal muscle contraction is under voluntary control, receiving neural inputs allowing conscious control of muscles. Skeletal muscle comprises approximately 40% of the human body weight and contains 50 to 75% of all body proteins.