Our body is a complex system comprised of various systems, organs, tissues and cells. For the body to function as required, the different systems must work in a coordinated manner. To illustrate such a coordinated work between different body systems, this paper uses two systems, the skeletal and the muscular systems.
The Skeletal System
The skeletal system is a structure of bones that provide the framework. A human body has 206 bones that are well organized along the body’s line of symmetry to provide the necessary framework (Stewart, 2004, p. 12).
The Muscular System
The muscular system is comprised of various muscles that perform various functions most importantly moving various parts of the body (Stewart, 2004). This movement can serve various functions some of which include communication such as opening and closing of mouth, feeding such as chewing, moving such as moving leg bones and working such as opening and closing hands to grip something.
How the Skeletal and Muscular Systems Work Together
The functional unit of a skeletal muscle is a bone while the functional unit of a muscular system is the muscle. Without the muscle, a bone cannot move and without a bone, a muscle will not find somewhere to attach. Therefore, the two systems work together in the following ways:
- Muscles attach to the bone via tendons and bones provide necessary attachment for pulling purposes
- Skeletal muscles then move bones through contraction and relaxation (Stewart, 2004). For example, for a person to eat so that he can survive, he needs to pick food using his hand and move it to his mouth. To facilitate this, various hand muscles operate their respective hand bones such as elbow, wrist and finger bones to facilitate such an action.
References
Stewart, G. (2004). The Skeletal and Muscular Systems. NY: Infobase Publishing.
