What happens to muscles when you die? Why do you become all stiff?
970442
A few hours after a person or animal dies, the joints of the body stiffen and become locked in place. This stiffening is called rigor mortis. Depending on temperature and other conditions, rigor mortis lasts approximately 72 hours. The phenomenon is caused by the skeletal muscles partially contracting. The muscles are unable to relax, so the joints become fixed in place. \nMore specifically, what happens is that the membranes of muscle cells become more permeable to calcium ions. Living muscle cells expend energy to transport calcium ions to the outside of the cells. The calcium ions that flow into the muscle cells promote the cross-bridge attachment between actin and myosin, two types of fibers that work together in muscle contraction. The muscle fibers ratchet shorter and shorter until they are fully contracted or as long as the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) are present. \n\nHowever, muscles need ATP in order to release from a contracted state (it is used to pump the calcium out of the cells so the fibers can unlatch from each other). ATP reserves are quickly exhausted from the muscle contraction and other cellular processes. This means that the actin and myosin fibers will remain linked until the muscles themselves start to decompose. \nRigor mortis can be used to help estimate time of death. The onset of rigor mortis may range from 10 minutes to several hours, depending on factors including temperature (rapid cooling of a body can inhibit rigor mortis, but it occurs upon thawing). Maximum stiffness is reached around 12-24 hours post mortem. Facial muscles are affected first, with the rigor then spreading to other parts of the body. The joints are stiff for 1-3 days, but after this time general tissue decay and leaking of lysosomal intracellular digestive enzymes will cause the muscles to relax.
245033
The brain dies, and is no longer telling the body what to do, muscles relax and that is what causes defication. \n\nThis can also happen during epileptic fit or unconciousness (though less than common) where the brain is either under extreme stress from lack of oxygen or just in shock from whatever is happening to it. The body can react this way from shock also.
818347
not so sure about the amount of time it takes for you to decompose. i guess it has alot to do with where you are  buried (temperarure and weather wise) and in what type of casket.  ive heard that things like hair and finger nails continue to grow after you are dead...im guessing your eyes and tongue dry out and eventually whither away.
22628
You can't die of arthritis, however arthritis can assist in the cause of death.  Arthritis will NEVER be listed on a death certificate from an autopsy.  However, if you get septic arthritis, meaning an infection in your joint, you can die if it goes unchecked and spreads to the rest of your body.  To read more about sepctic arthritis, refer to the source I site.  Osteoarthritis, which is probably what you're refering to, causes joint pain and stiffness.  This can lead to difficulties walking and falling down which can lead to death, but arthritis is NOT the cause of death just a factor associated with it.
115747
Our brain functions tell our heart to pump, it pumps blood throughout your body, when your heart stops pumping, it cuts off circulation to the brain and to the tissues in your body.  Without blood circulation, your cells in your body degenerate.  Your degeneration will start with rigamortis (makes your body turn cold and stiff).  After day 3, your body starts to swell up and deteriorate. The soul is not a physical part of your body but a mental part of your mind.
487716
So WHAT exactly got stiff?  Did your BACK get stiff?  Did your KNEE get stiff.  Dontcha just hate it when that happens!  You are a moron... moron's don't deserve REAL answers.
624942
You lose the ability to control voluntary movements. Depending on the amount and place of damage it may eventually effect your lungs and or heart. Keep in mind your heart is a muscle and you chest wall is full of muscles that allow you to inhale and exhale. As for your muscles that control movement they become flaccid . Anything that is considered to function by voluntary or involuntary movement may be affected depending on the kind of damage. Keep in mind only your physician can determine the extent of damage that will occur depending on diagnosis. Hope to have helped.
804801
Death begins when the heart stops beating. Deprived of oxygen, a cascade of cellular death commences. It begins with brain cells and finishes with the skin cells. Death is therefore a process, rather than an event.\n\n When the heart stops beating\n\n1. Heart stops beating and/or lungs stop breathing.\n\n2. Body cells no longer receive supplies of blood and oxygen.\n\n    * Blood drains from capillaries in the upper surfaces and collects in the blood vessels in the lower surfaces.\n    * Upper surfaces of the body become pale and the lower surfaces become dark.\n\n3. Cells cease aerobic respiration, and are unable to generate the energy molecules needed to maintain normal muscle biochemistry.\n\n    * Calcium ions leak into muscle cells preventing muscle relaxation.\n    * Muscles stiffen and remain stiff (rigor mortis) until they begin to decompose.\n\n4. Cells eventually die and the body loses its capacity to fight off bacteria.\n\n5. The cells' own enzymes and bacterial activity cause the body to decompose - muscles lose their stiffness.\n\nTiming?\n\n    * Brain cells can die if deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes. Muscle cells live on for several hours. Bone and skin cells can stay alive for several days.\n    * It takes around 12 hours for a human body to be cool to the touch and 24 hours to cool to the core.\n    * Rigor mortis commences after three hours and lasts until 36 hours after death.\n    * Forensic scientists use clues such as these for estimating the time of death.\n\n What is rigor mortis?\n\nRigor mortis refers to the state of a body after death, in which the muscles become stiff. It commences after around 3 hours, reaching maximum stiffness after 12 hours, and gradually dissipates until approximately 72 hours after death. Rigor mortis occurs due to changes in the physiology of muscles when aerobic respiration ceases.\n\nMuscles are made up of two types of fibre. These fibres have connections between them that lock and unlock during muscle contraction and relaxation. These connections are controlled by a biochemical pathway within the cell, which is partially driven by the presence of calcium ions. The concentration of calcium ions is higher in the fluid surrounding muscle cells than it is inside the cells, so calcium tends to diffuse into the cell. High calcium levels inside the cell drive the biochemical pathway in the direction that maintains muscle contraction. To relax, muscle cells must expel the calcium ions from the cell and this requires energy molecules to pump them across the cell membrane.\n\nAfter a body has died, the chemical reaction producing these energy molecules is unable to proceed because of a lack of oxygen. The cells no longer have the energy to pump calcium out of the cell and so the calcium concentration rises, forcing the muscles to remain in a contracted state. This state of muscle stiffening is known as rigor mortis and it remains until the muscle proteins start to decompose.
463157
A few hours after a person or animal dies, the joints of the body stiffen and become locked in place. This stiffening is called rigor mortis. Depending on temperature and other conditions, rigor mortis lasts approximately 72 hours. The phenomenon is caused by the skeletal muscles partially contracting. The muscles are unable to relax, so the joints become fixed in place.
226430
Since none of us died, we don't know if that happens. It may be crazy survivor stories. Or it could be when your brain can't get enough oxygen, you may have synestatic experiences due to a hormone imbalance.
1169292
Tough question.  By the time rhabdomyolysis occurs there is a lot of damage to the extremity.  The damaged muscle crumbles up and gets taken into the blood stream.  It circulates around and gets trapped by the kidneys.  If there has been a lot of damaged muscle the circulating remnants can clog up the kidneys and you can get kidney failure.  This can take a while to cure.  I hope things are getting better for your friend.  Did they figure out why she got the rhabdomyolysis in the first place?
339385
Your heart stops beating.  Your synapses slow their firing until you are brain dead and no electrical current is flowing through the nervous system.  Your body will generally expel any waste matter (air, urine, feces) being held.  Sometime around this time, you will either discover that there is an afterlife of some sort, or you will blink into nothingness, with absolutely no consciousness to be aware of the fact that there is no afterlife.  The body will begin the approach to rigor mortise.  And bacteria will begin decomposing the body.  Years and years later, only ash (and perhaps fossilized bones) will be left of your body.  If there is an afterlife, you will never be able to tell anyone.  If there isn't, you will never be able to tell anyone.  Those who say they know the truth about the afterlife, either way, are not intellectually honest.  Which is why this question will continue to evoke philosophical debate ad infinitum.
649493
Well, yes, i think so, because of the breathing and relaxing.  When you learn to relax your body, the blood vessels are included.  When you learn to breathe fully the body gets more oxygen and the circulatory system doesn't have to work so hard.  Plus there is significant exertion in those postures (try it with a good teacher and you will see) and you will start sweating and breathing hard if you are out of shape.  So your muscles are getting a workout.
539604
as you move your muscles, they burn oxygen...blod flow increases to muscled to replace this lost oxygen...
1013459
rigor mortis, algor mortis, and i forget the other. they involve the loss of blood flow so the organs stop functioning and harden. also, muscles relax, such as the sphincter. yeah, i didn't know that until recently, either.
290563
The resistance from the human body creates heat, which burns tissue. The cause of death, though, is because a surge of electricity induces ventricular fibulation in the heart. The heart muscle cells begin to spasm out of unison, so that the heart cannot beat coherently. The person dies because there is no blood being pumped to their brain.
577363
If your muscles get sore and your breathing gets heavy, it means you are out of shape.