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Anterior view -
Posterior view -
A more detailed overview
This is a table of skeletal muscles of the human anatomy, with muscle counts and other information.
The muscles are described using anatomical terminology. The columns are as follows:
| Name | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Muscle | US English[a] name of the muscle per Terminologia Anatomica (TA),[13] minus the term "muscle", with the words reordered occasionally for better sorting. Parts and bellies are listed out as separate rows, as they are sometimes considered separate muscles. - Anything denoting the muscles relationship to another muscle such as e.g. superior, inferior etc. should always be used as a suffix and not a prefix, to create better sortability of the list. |
| Location | The location of the muscle in a standard human body. The location first specifies a group such as head, neck, torso, upper limbs, or lower limbs, then may have more specific information. However this additional information must be describing location not function. |
| Origin | The bone or other structure the muscle is attached to that remains immobile during the action. The term "bone" is omitted from bone names. |
| Insertion | The attachment point of the muscle, on a bone or otherwise, that moves during the action. |
| Artery | The artery which supplies the muscle with blood. The term "artery" is included to avoid confusing columns. |
| Nerve | The nerve(s) which tell the muscle to act (innervates the muscle). The term "nerve" is included for clarity. |
| Action | The movement performed by the muscle from the standard anatomical position. In other positions, other actions may be performed. |
| Antagonist | The muscle which can 'cancel' or to some degree reverse the action of the muscle. Muscle synergies are noted in parentheses when relevant. |
| O (Occurrences) | Number of times that the named muscle row occurs in a standard human body. Here it may also be denoted when a given muscles only occurs in a male or a female body. By (F) for female and (M) for male, if nothing is denoted. The muscle can be assumed to occur in both genders. This gender denomination should always be behind the number, not in front of it. |
| TA | The number of rows in the table for the relevant Terminologia Anatomica muscle. For example, TA splits the nasalis muscle into transverse and alar parts, so their TA column entries are 2. |
For Origin, Insertion and Action please name a specific Rib, Thoracic vertebrae or Cervical vertebrae, by using C1-7, T1-12 or R1-12.
There does not appear to be a definitive source counting all skeletal muscles. Different sources group muscles differently, regarding what is defined as different parts of a single muscle or as several muscles. There are also vestigial muscles that are present in some people but absent in others, such as the palmaris longus muscle.[14][15] There are between 600 and 840 muscles within the typical human body, depending on how they are counted.[16][17][18] In the present table, using statistical counts of the instances of each muscle, and ignoring gender-specific muscles, there are 761 skeletal muscles. Sometimes male and females have the same muscle but with different purposes[19]
Numbers based on the list above:
| Total number | |
|---|---|
| Types of skeletal muscles - in a standard human 2023 | Male / Female[20] | ??(M) / ??(F) |
| Total number of skeletal muscles - in a standard human 2023 | Male / Female | ??(M) / ??(F) |
| Types of skeletal muscles - Non gender specific - listed | ?? |
| Total number of skeletal muscles - Non gender specific - listed | 761 |
| Types of skeletal muscles - Gender specific - listed | 4? |
| Total number of skeletal muscles - Gender specific - listed | 8? |
| Types of skeletal muscles listed | 290 |
| Total number of skeletal muscles represented in table (inclusive) | 791 |
| Total Number of entries in Terminologia Anatomica represented in table | 337 |
| Muscles listed which do not appear in a standard human 2023(gender specific muscles that appear in a standard male or female are not counted here) | 18 |
Muscles are often paired as agonistic and antagonistic muscles.[21] This can be a bit misleading as, in general, it is groups of muscles working together to either make or cancel a movement.[22] The present table lists some well-known relationships but is not at all complete.
