There are more than 600 muscles in the human body. Over 100 of these are in our faces, which is why we can have so many different expressions. Although we can perform a great variety of movements, each muscle can only do one thing: contract. That is why muscles often work in pairs, so that one muscle can move a part of the body in one direction, while its partner can move it back again. Perhaps the most important muscle in the human body is the heart, which is contracting and relaxing all the time to pump blood around the body.
There are about 700 named skeletal muscles in the human body, including roughly 400 that no one cares about except specialists. There is just one important cardiac muscle. And there are literally countless smooth muscles (which do the work of the autonomic nervous system, mostly squeezing and squishing stuff in tubes).
It’s surprisingly hard to tell. You wouldn’t think the total number would be ambiguous, but it’s difficult to know what to include and exclude, and anatomists don’t always agree. Some muscle tissue really can’t be separated into countable muscles. And, believe it or not, the science of anatomy is still advancing. No, entirely new muscles aren’t being discovered — but novel variations in individual muscle anatomy are found more or less constantly, and supernumerary muscles — extra muscles — are not unusual. Many muscles, like the four-part quadriceps, are normally split into different parts that may or may not traditionally count as separate muscles — but then some people’s muscles are more divided than others. It makes a firm count just about impossible.
There are only about 200 to 300 muscles that anyone, even a massage therapist, might actually be interested in knowing about. When most people ask how many muscles are in the human body, they mean the serious bone-movers — Pecs, delts, lats, traps, glutes, biceps & triceps, hams & quads & let’s not forget the cloits & dloits!muscles that do real work, muscles like pecs, delts, lats, traps, glutes, biceps and triceps, hams and quads, and let’s not forget the cloits and dloits! There are maybe another hundred muscles if you include the fiddly little muscles of the hands and feet, and the major face muscles.
But that’s including about 600 muscles that, mostly, no one cares about except specialists. I am aware of a few that have clinical importance to a massage therapist, but I’m mostly just barely aware of their existence — like the smaller facial muscles, like the mess of little muscles around and under the tongue and around the voice box, like the muscles around the eyeball, or the crazy trampoline of muscles on the pelvic floor.
Picture Credit : Google