Muscle contraction is the tightening, shortening, or lengthening of muscles when you do some activity. It can happen when you hold or pick up something, or when you stretch or exercise with weights.

The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, according to a new study. The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, ...

Using powerful new visualization technologies, researchers have captured the first 3-D images of the structure of a key muscle receptor, providing new insights on how muscles develop across the animal ...

For most people, swallowing is second nature, but how does it occur, and why do some people have difficulty with it? Researchers at Kyushu University in Japan have started to tackle these questions by ...

Eccentric exercise focuses on movements, or phases of a movement, that lengthen the muscles. Some examples of eccentric exercise include lowering into a squat or lowering into a press-up. In contrast, ...

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy, affecting about 1 in 8,000 people. While it is well known for causing muscle weakness and stiffness, DM1 also ...

At one point or another, we’ve all experienced the unexpected, intense pain of a muscle cramp. Muscle cramps, also known as muscle spasms or charley horses, are the involuntary contraction of muscle ...

Dehydration may be one cause of muscle cramps, and some evidence suggests that electrolyte imbalances also contribute to them. Muscle cramps are painful, involuntary contractions of the muscles that ...

A gush of water, being doubled over in pain, the head of your baby crowning. These are things many women picture when they think of labor. However, for most laboring women, these things take time and ...

In a serendipitous discovery, UC San Diego researchers using cryo-EM technology captured the first visualizations of the 3-D structure of the muscle acetylcholine receptor in fetal and adult muscles.