The muscular system is responsible for the movement of the human body and muscles come in all shapes and sizes but.. which one is the strongest muscle in the body?
In the muscular system, muscle tissue is categorized into three distinct types:
- Skeletal muscle: Skeletal muscles (also called voluntary muscles) are attached to bones by tendons and produce all the movements of body parts in relation to each other.
- Smooth muscle: Smooth muscle is composed of involuntary muscles and generally forms the supporting tissue of blood vessels and hollow internal organs, such as the stomach, intestine, and bladder.
- Cardiac muscle: Cardiac muscle are involuntary, striated muscles that constitutes the main tissue of the walls of the heart.
Which muscle is strongest in human body?
There is no easy answer to that question and the strongest muscle in the body is debatable. There are more than 600 muscles in the human body and everything depends on how you define “strongest”.
Many different muscles might be considered the strongest, depending upon exactly what kind of strength we are talking about. So here we have the top five strongest muscles in the human body based on different ways to measure strength:
Top 5 strongest muscles in the body:
Heart
The heart, which consists of cardiac muscle, is said to be the muscle that performs the largest quantity of physical work in the course of a lifetime. Highly coordinated contractions of cardiac muscle pump blood into the vessels of the circulatory system.
If you use an average of 80 beats per minute, your heart beats about 4,800 times per hour, 115,200 times per day and 42,048,000 times per year!
Masseter: the strongest muscle
The masseter is located in the jaw and is one of the muscles of mastication or chewing. If we define the “muscular strength” as the ability to exert a force on an external object, the masseter or jaw muscle is the strongest muscle in the human body based on its weight.
With all muscles of the jaw working together it can close the teeth with a force as great as 55 pounds (25 kilograms) on the incisors or 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) on the molars.
Gluteus Maximus
The gluteus maximus muscle is the largest of three gluteal muscles. It is a large muscle located in the buttocks and has the job of keeping the trunk of the body in an erect posture. If we define the “muscular strength” as the force exerted by the muscle itself, the strongest muscle of the body would be the gluteus maximus.
Soleus
The soleus is a powerful muscle in the back part of the lower leg and is said to be the muscle that can pull with the greatest force. The soleus muscle is very important for walking, running, and dancing.
It is considered a very powerful muscle because it pulls against the force of gravity to keep the body upright.
Uterus
The uterus is a hollow muscular organ located in the female pelvis between the bladder and rectum. Functions of the uterus include nurturing the fertilized ovum that develops into the fetus and holding it till the baby is mature enough for birth.
The muscles of the uterus have the ability to stretch and contract with considerable force and the muscles used in childbirth.
The tongue is not the strongest muscle in the body
Some people think the tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body but it is definitely not the strongest one.
The tongue is an essential part of human anatomy. It does not get tired, is constantly working and you can do all kinds of acrobatics with it. However, the tongue is not in the top 5 of strongest muscles, first, because the it is not a single muscle, It is actually made up of eight different muscles. Second, while very strong and flexible, it is not strong enough to be in our list.
Images: Pixabay and Freepik modified by Bescienced