What The Muscles Do
Muscles are what make you move. Literally. They are the parts of your body that actually allows for the joints to work and the bones to move. How this happens is the bone will contract and in that it will move the joint. this is true for every joint, and they only contract. For every muscle, there is another muscle that moves in the opposite way so the joint can move one way and the other.
How Muscles Contract
The picture above is a microscopic image of a muscle and it's components. All of these parts are all important to how the muscle contracts and allows for your body to move.
The Sliding Filament Theory
The sliding filament theory is a theory on how muscles contract. How this happens is at a very microscopic level of the muscles in your body. Think Filament is made up of the protein Myosin and Think Filament is made up of the protein Actin. The picture to the left is a microscopic view of the different proteins found in the muscles. The Sliding Filament theory on has a couple of steps to allow the muscle to move:
1) The tropomyosin is held in place by the troponin, because of this myosin cant get to the myosin bonding site inside the actin. So calcium will come and attach to troponin, this gives troponin the energy to move out of the back, making tropomyosin go with it like a gate.
2) Now that tropomyosis is out of the way, myosin can now bond to the myosin bonding site. Once it is bonded, myosin will then use all of if energy from it's store of ATP and fall over, taking the actin with it. The myosin will be given a new store of ATP and let go of the actin, then straighten up and start the whole process over again. Your muscles do this every single time you contract a muscle, no matter how big or small it is.
1) The tropomyosin is held in place by the troponin, because of this myosin cant get to the myosin bonding site inside the actin. So calcium will come and attach to troponin, this gives troponin the energy to move out of the back, making tropomyosin go with it like a gate.
2) Now that tropomyosis is out of the way, myosin can now bond to the myosin bonding site. Once it is bonded, myosin will then use all of if energy from it's store of ATP and fall over, taking the actin with it. The myosin will be given a new store of ATP and let go of the actin, then straighten up and start the whole process over again. Your muscles do this every single time you contract a muscle, no matter how big or small it is.
Muscles Of A Marching Band Member
As we know, muscles are what makes it able for our bodies to move and march. These are the major muscles in a marching members body that move the major bones and joints.
The Feet And Calf Muscles
The Gastronemius and Soleus muscles are located in the calf of your foot. The end tendons of these muscles connect to the Calcaneus bone in the ankle. Since muscles only contract and get smaller, and move from the bottom up, the gastrocnemius muscle allows your foot to move backward, while the soleus will move in the opposite direction and allow it to pull upward.
The Upper Leg Muscles
There are a lot of muscles in the upper legs, and all of them allow for the the leg to move up, down and around. The Sartorius is the main muscle that allows the knee to move upward towards the body, as well as the Vastus Lateralis and Medialis. The Muscles on the back of the leg will be responsible for for bringing the leg back down, and these are called the Biceps Femoris, Semitendionsus and Semimembranousus.
The Back Muscles
The huge muscle on the back of the body, called the Latissumus Dorsi, is most responsible for your upper body being able to rotate side to side, which is really important in marching band because of the slides you have to do in keeping your body facing the side line. And the Trapezius allows the movement of your neck and shoulders.
The Arm Muscles
The Deltoid is your shoulder muscles, it allows for your arm to move upward, and then the Triceps Brachii, under the deltoid, allow for your arm to come back down. The Biceps are in the front of your arm, and allow for your elbow to bend towards your body. All the other muscles in your forearm allow for the movement of your hands and fingers. These muscles are very important in marching and must be strong because you have to carry your instrument in them at all times with no relaxing throughout the show.