Sources: Canva and Deepai.org
There are many ways the muscle has been described:
- Contractile tissue
- The mover and the shaker of the body
But I bet you've never heard it being called a bag of water. This was one of my big realizations of 2023. It took so much time in the lab working with a radioactive monkeys-rat hybrid before I landed on this discovery.
Finally one of the radioactive monkey-rat hybrids bit me and I realized everything I was looking for was inside a textbook. It's all biology really when it comes down to it with a sprinkle of thermodynamics.
In this post, I will be taking you on a similar wild goose chase around the topic before I land and tell you that muscles are 80% water and I could just simply tell you that they are but where's the fun in that?
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Water and the cell
Cells are the structural units of almost every life form including the cells that make up the tissues and organs of the human body. The human body itcellf(see what I did there?) is a bag of water and I will be going on yet another wild goose chase before I tell you that the human body is 60% water.
Every cell needs water to function even the dry bones require water and are 22-31% water. Some cells like the brain are up to 95% water. So when people called me a coconut head back then I should have just smiled and said the brain is mostly water.
Water in every cell acts as a universal dissolver, a solvent for many substances that the cell has to interact with. Without this, the cell's enzymes and other proteins would not function properly and if they don't function properly then the cell would not be able to stay nourished.
In addition to water being a solvent, it also acts as a main component of various chemical reactions. Most catabolic and anabolic reactions take place because of water or produce water. The most famous example of this in chemistry is in acid-base reactions where water and salt are created due to the movement of a hydrogen atom (chemistry big big English).
Water is also vital for the movement of waste produced within the cell and waste to the organs that are involved in waste removal from the body like the kidney.
What the muscles do for you
Well if you've made it this far down the goose chase, you'll probably want to stay till the end. The muscles are a specific type of tissue known as contractile tissue. What does this mean? It means just like an elastic band the muscles can change their length except unlike an elastic band, the muscles are elongated and shortened againt a load but an elastic band is shortened and gets elongated against a load.
There are different types of muscle depending on where in the body they are found and their specific function. Muscles can either be skeletal, smooth, or cardiac. Almost every time someone in the fitness community is talking about muscles they are hardly ever referring to the cardiac muscle or super rarely the smooth muscle.
The skeletal muscle is the most obvious of all the muscles but the cardiac muscle is also very important...I mean that's what all this cardio we do is all about.
Regardless of what muscle time is in question, the function of the muscle is mostly a movement of some kind. With the skeletal muscle its movement of the body and load. There are also precision movements playing a guitar or piano or handling a surgical blade... as you can tell from the name of the movement, it's still movement.
With the other muscle types like cardiac muscle and smooth muscle their function depends on the content of the cavity of the muscle. For cardiac muscle, its primary function is the movement of the blood within its cavity. For Smooth muscle, its function is to move the food or chyme within its cavity.
The main forms of movement we are interested in are those of the skeletal muscle and to a minor extent those of the smooth muscle.
Are you still here or have I lost you in translation?
Why the muscles need water
I'd like to congratulate you for making it this far, you now know a little more than you did previously about muscle physiology and a little about histology. Just don't go writing an exam thinking you'll pass off the information I have given you so far...It might end in tears.
Now for the main course meal for those who stock this long, why do our muscles need all that water? From what I showed you in the second section, compared to the brain, the muscles are the number 2 tissue type with the number 1 being the brain.
The main reason muscles need all that water is that water ensures that the electrolytes in the body are adequately distributed and thereby support the contraction of the muscles, energy supply, and normal function.
Besides the proper distribution of energy for the muscles, water also helps with proper lubrication of the muscles prevents joint inflammation, and promotes smooth muscle movement.
I already told you that muscles are close to 80% water, now ask yourself, how you are going to grow muscles in the gym to make the best of your workout without water. Besides this, your endurance is aided by water intake.
Water also loves to take up heat wherever it finds itself and wherever there is motion there is friction and wherever there is friction there is heat. The presence of water around your muscles can help a great deal in preventing them from overheating.
Last words in this post
This is a cropped out picture from an old image
So, are you on your way to the gym? Are you stepping out without a liter of water in your bag? Or are going out with money so you'll buy yourself some energy-producing, joint-lubricating, muscle-building, body-cooling water?
If you're not, get out there do your thing don't let things stop you even if it's some dehydration. PEACE!!
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