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Muscular System

An Overview of the Muscular System

An Overview of the Muscular System
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.47

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    actin, axial, diaphragm, fibril, fibrils, gluteus, handstand, intestinal, involuntary, maximus, moods, myosin, resonance, ropelike, thereby, tomography

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An Overview of the Muscular System
By Jennifer Kenny 		  
1     Can you play the violin or run in your backyard? Can you jump? Can you turn the page of your favorite book or pick up the television remote? If you can, your muscles are moving your body in some form or fashion. Even if you think you are completely still, there are muscles in your body that are causing your eyelids to blink or making you breathe.
 
2     In the average person, forty percent of the body weight comes from muscles. Ten percent comes from fat. You have approximately 640 muscles that you can control and many others that you can't.
 
3     How do muscles move your body? By contracting, of course. When a muscle contracts, it shortens, thereby moving the bones to which it is attached. Muscles tend to work in pairs. When one pulls the bone, another relaxes. Muscles are attached to bones by tendons. These are narrow, ropelike tissues.

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