The human body has approximately over 650 skeletal muscles.
While "over 650" is the commonly cited number, it's important to understand the nuances of this figure:
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Skeletal Muscles: This number refers primarily to named skeletal muscles. These are the muscles attached to bones that you consciously control to move your body.
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Smooth Muscles: Beyond skeletal muscles, you have smooth muscle tissue, which is responsible for involuntary actions like digestion and blood vessel constriction. These exist at a cellular level, numbering in the billions. While not individually named muscles, they are a crucial muscle type.
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Cardiac Muscle: The heart is comprised of cardiac muscle, a specialized type of muscle tissue.
Therefore, while the named skeletal muscles are usually quantified at "over 650", the total number of individual muscle cells is far higher when including smooth and cardiac muscles.
In summary, the best answer to "how many muscles are in the human body" depends on how you define "muscle." If you mean named skeletal muscles, the answer is over 650. If you include all muscle cells, the number is vastly higher.
