Three Kinds of Muscle · Muscles
One type takes orders; two run themselves.
Of the three muscle types, only skeletal muscle waits for your decision. Cardiac and smooth muscle simply get on with it — and that's a mercy, because you would be very bad at remembering to digest.
The split isn't as clean as it sounds. Breathing is skeletal muscle running on autopilot until you choose to take over. And you can't consciously slow your gut, but stress hormones absolutely can.
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