Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about muscles

Building them, tearing them, repairing them, eating them.

 Getting Familiar With Your Muscles

There are three general types of muscular systems in your body. Some of these are controlled voluntarily by your nervous system. You move them by thinking about them. Others work involuntarily, so you can’t control them. They work automatically, taking cues from other systems in your body, like your cardiovascular or digestive systems.

 Longest, Strongest, and Biggest Muscles in the Body

How well do you know the muscles in the body?

 The Role of Muscle in Health and Disease

How about we take some time to recognize muscle for more than just brute strength?

 The underappreciated role of muscle in health and disease

Muscle plays a central role in whole-body protein metabolism by serving as the principal reservoir for amino acids to maintain protein synthesis in vital tissues and organs in the absence of amino acid absorption from the gut and by providing hepatic gluconeogenic precursors. Furthermore, altered muscle metabolism plays a key role in the genesis, and therefore the prevention, of many common pathologic conditions and chronic diseases. Nonetheless, the maintenance of adequate muscle mass, strength, and metabolic function has rarely, if ever, been targeted as a relevant endpoint of recommendations for dietary intake

 What Animals Can Teach Humans about Muscle Maintenance

Understanding how animals immediately return to using their muscles and nerves normally after long stretches of dormancy is a major area of research. By learning how different animals dodge neuromuscular problems related to inactivity, scientists can figure out why human muscles and nerves are not as well-equipped. For example, hibernating animals activate genes that reduce the loss of muscle protein and use less energy during periods of inactivity to avoid atrophy.

A guide to the muscles you forget to exercise

TO MAINTAIN a healthy level of physical fitness, everyone should commit to at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or strength training a day. That’s easier said than done.

Breakfast Might Be the Secret to Building More Muscle

When it comes to breakfast, most experts agree that incorporating plenty of protein is key for maintaining energy and satiety. But consuming a breakfast high in protein might help your efforts to build a healthy physique too. “Starting the day with protein will help you have fewer cravings for sweets and carbohydrates throughout the day, and also help you build muscle mass,” explains nutritionist Mariana Pérez Trejo Soltwedel.

Building better muscle

These strategies can help maintain more muscle as you age.

Can stronger muscles pump up your heart health?

Strength training may be just as good as aerobic activity for reducing cardiovascular risk.

Get To Know Your Muscles

Several articles about specific muscles...

Glycogen – Your Muscle’s Best Friend

If you’re an endurance athlete, you already know glycogen is your best friend. If you’re just getting into the arena, understanding what glycogen can do for your physical performance will help take you a long way. So, let’s break it down!

Hoping to Grow Your Muscles? Be Sure to Eat These 8 Essential Foods

If your goal is to increase muscle mass, you need to eat the right things. Follow this simple list for daily tips.

How Artificial Muscles Could Transform the Lives of Some Military Veterans

From pig muscle, scientists are developing an organic material that may help heal volumetric muscle loss.

How do strong muscles keep your brain healthy?

There’s a robust molecular language being spoken between your muscles and your brain.

How Fast Can You Expect to Build Muscle Naturally?

An expert trainer explains the role of genetics, muscle memory, and lifestyle when you're trying to gain as much strength as possible—without turning to supplements or steroids.

How muscle mass shapes your health

Muscle mass can also play an important role in the prevention of certain conditions and chronic diseases. In addition, gaining muscle mass can give you more energy and stronger muscles to perform daily tasks.

How to Keep Your Muscles Strong as You Age

Researchers are looking at promising treatments including inhibiting a naturally occurring protein called myostatin that curbs muscle growth. Pharmaceutical companies already have drugs in the pipeline that act by blocking myostatin or blocking the sites where it is detected in the body, potentially rebuilding muscle.

Human Anatomy Surprise: New Muscle Layer Discovered in the Jaw

The masseter muscle is the most prominent of the jaw muscles. If you place your fingers on the back of your cheeks and press your teeth together, you’ll feel the muscle tighten. Anatomy textbooks generally describe the masseter as consisting of one superficial and one deep part. Now, researchers led by Dr. Szilvia Mezey from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and Professor Jens Christoph Türp from the University Center for Dental Medicine Basel (UZB) have described the structure of the masseter muscle as consisting of an additional third, even deeper layer.

Human Muscles Evolved Into Weakness, In Order to Boost Our Brains

Much like our brains, human muscles have evolved several times more rapidly than primate muscles, according to a new study — but that process has made us weaker over time in a process, while brains become more advanced.

Looking after your pelvic floor is so important (yes, even if you're not pregnant) – here's how

When it comes to strengthening muscles, our pelvic floor often gets neglected. Squats, lunges and sit ups all get a lot of airtime, which is why our legs, butts and abs are pretty covered by numerous workouts. But our pelvic floor is an essential muscle, and looking after it can be key to our physical health (yes, even if we're not pregnant).

Maintain Your Muscle

“As we age, I think it’s even more important to consider incorporating some strength training into our physical activity routines,” says Fielding. “We can either slow down the progression of age-related muscle loss or prevent it.”

Millions of women are 'under-muscled.' These foods help build strength

Muscle mass peaks in our 30s and then starts a long, slow decline. Muscle-loss, also called sarcopenia, affects more than 45% of older Americans, especially women. "As a country, we are under-muscled," says Richard Joseph, a wellness-focused physician. It's a key culprit of physical decline.

Muscle Anatomy: Human Anatomy Chart

Discover the muscle anatomy of every muscle group in the human body.

Muscle is important for good health – here’s how to maintain it after middle age

While researchers aren’t entirely sure why muscle mass decreases so much as we get older, the good news is that we do know regular exercise can help lessen this impact – and can even delay some of this inevitable muscle loss. Regular physical activity is also shown to lower risk of preventable diseases, maintain physical function well into old age, and even improve immune function.

Muscles are important, but stiff tendons are the secret ingredient for high-speed performance

Muscles are remarkably powerful. The average human calf muscle weighs less than 1 kilogram, but can lift a load of 500kg. In some cases, our calf muscles have even been shown to handle loads approaching a tonne (1,000kg)! But muscles have a major performance issue: they can’t produce much force when they’re shortening at high speed. In fact, when we move at our fastest, muscles can’t theoretically shorten fast enough to help us at all - so how is it that we can move so quickly?

Muscles May Preserve A Shortcut To Restore Lost Strength

Can muscles remember their younger, fitter selves? Muscle physiology lore has long held that it is easier to regain muscle mass in once-fit muscles than build it anew, especially as we age. But scientists haven't been able to pin down how that would actually work.

Should You Work Out if Your Muscles Are Sore?

A hard workout can come back to haunt you. When you wake up the next morning and try to get out of bed, everyday motions like rolling over and standing up can make your muscles whine in pain. You might have wanted to exercise again, but now you’re wondering: Can I still work out if I’m this sore? Well, it depends.

Skeletal Muscle

The musculoskeletal system comprises one of the body's major tissue/organ systems. The three main types of muscle tissue are skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle groups. Skeletal muscle attaches to the bone by tendons, and together they produce all body movements.

Strength training does more than build muscle. Its hidden benefits are massive

Research shows people who do weight training a few days a week live longer. Women get the biggest boost in longevity. Strength training is also good for mood, and it helps protect joints and bones.

Strengthening muscle may be healthier than losing fat

Focusing on strengthening our muscles rather than losing fat may be a better way to protect ourselves from weight-related hazards like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, investigators say.

The Beauty of Smooth Muscle

And for those of you who might be wondering just what smooth muscles are, they’re the involuntary muscles found in places like the walls of our blood vessels, the digestive tract, the bladder, and the respiratory system.

The Complete Guide to Your Butt Muscles

Here's how to ensure the largest muscle in your body isn't also the laziest. Read up on all the different butt muscles and how to effectively train them.

The Importance of Muscles to Overall Health and HMB's Role

Trillions of myocytes, or muscle cells, make up muscle tissue. Each can contract by sliding proteins, known as actin and myosin, past one another. Their ability to change shape allows them to generate the collective tensile force that carries out the body’s physical work. Because muscles support all tissues, diseases associated with muscle health can lead to the onset of ailments in other organs. For example, age-related muscle loss not only causes decreased muscle and strength but also impacts metabolism and oxygen consumption. It affects every cell in the human body and can lead to total debilitation. Total debilitation prevents many mature adults from leading independent, satisfying lives.

The muscle miracle: can I build enough in my 60s to make it to 100 – even though I’ve never weight-trained?

To live a long and healthy life, you need plenty of muscle. But we all start losing it in our 50s. Can a 60-year-old man build himself up – and maybe even get a little ripped?

There are only two supplements proven to help you build muscle

A balanced diet is best, but these additions could help. You could save yourself time and money by just eating a healthy, balanced diet with enough protein to meet your needs. But you came here for supplement advice, not to be told not to do stuff. So here’s what the research says you should do.

This Fitness Blogger Shut Down the Idea That Muscles Aren't Beautiful

When it comes to women's bodies, it seems many people think they're open to be criticized. Whether it's fat shaming, skinny shaming, or sexualizing women, the comments seem to be rampant, and athletic women are no exception. After getting many comments from people saying her body makes her less feminine, one blogger is fighting back against the idea that muscles aren't beautiful.

What are the major muscle groups?

There are hundreds of different muscles in the body. Over 650 in fact. From the big ones that run down your thighs to the tiny ones found in your ears – all of them are recruited in different ways when we perform different movements. But it’s the biggest ones that we usually want to focus on. Understanding which ones are the prime movers and knowing the exercises that target them will help you be more efficient with your training.

What lifting weights does to your body—and your mind

Resistance training like weightlifting improves your metabolism, allowing your body to burn more calories even at rest.

Why It Matters If One Side of Your Body Is Stronger Than the Other—and How to Fix It

Right-handed? You're probably right-muscled, too.

Why Some People Have an Easier Time Building Muscle Definition

Experts explain why some people build more strength, and what you can do to better define your muscles — no matter your body type.

Your Guide to Leg Muscle Anatomy — Plus, How to Make the Most of Your Leg Exercises

Get to know the anatomy of the leg muscles — that's everything below the all-powerful glutes — and your hard work will show for it.