| Are you aware that you actually possess
six senses? The sixth is a muscular sense responsible for directing your muscles
intelligently- to the exact extent necessary for each action you perform. For
example, when you reach for an object, the sensory nerves linking the muscles to
the brain stop your muscles in relation to the object is your muscular sense in
action. Muscles are stringy bundles of fibers varying from one five-thousandth of an inch to about three inches. They have three unique characteristics: they can become shorter and thicker; they can stretch to their original position. Under a high-powered microscope, muscle tissue is seen as long, slender cells with a grainy texture like wood. More than half of a person's body is composed of muscle fibers, most of which involuntary-in other words, work without conscious direction. The voluntary muscles, those that we move consciously to perform particular action, number more than five hundred. Women have only 60 to 70 percent as much muscle as men for their body mass. That is why an average woman can't lift as much, throw as far, or hit as hard as an average man. |