Why are our abdominal muscles split into sections or “packs” rather than being one smooth piece?

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Why are our abdominal muscles split into sections or “packs” rather than being one smooth piece?

In: Biology

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Another answer could be; We inherited them from the muscle blocks used by early tetrapods (And their Fish ancestors) to swish their bodies side to side for swimming. The muscle blocks of early chordates (like pikaia) are called myomeres and are homologous to our blocks!

Anonymous 0 Comments

That’s because we got tenderness intersections which is basically just connective tissue zap I would assume makes it easier for the abdominals to shorten the way they do

Anonymous 0 Comments

The actual rectus abdominus muscle is one smooth piece. The ‘pack’ sections are caused by tendon-like tissue that runs over the top of it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Each muscle can move independently allowing a wide range of motion. Muscles can only relax or contract, there’s no nuance or flex. If the abdomen was a single muscle, you could sit up, but that’s it. The separate muscles allow for different levels of contraction at different places, lateral motion, etc. Those different muscles allow for a lot of flexibility and options besides just bending at the waist.