My strongs. Let me show you them.

In my last post I asked you dear readers what you thought was the strongest muscle in the body is. Many of you agreed that the tongue is the strongest. If this were a contest I’d be hanging onto the prize because due to a technicality I’m afraid you all lost. (Though to be honest, you’re not alone. The tongue is possibly the most common answer for this question.)
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So what is the strongest muscle in the body? Well that’s debatable. There are various reasons why this is so. One being that there are different ways to measure strength: Absolute strength (maximum force exerted), dynamic strength (repeated motions), elastic strength (exert force quickly), and strength endurance (withstand fatigue).
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Another reason being that muscles do not work alone. It’s not realistic to isolate the rectus femoris and compare it to others because other quadricep muscles contract with it. I suppose one could argue that the quadricep group is the strongest, but then you wouldn’t be singling out one muscle and claiming it as the strongest, but an entire group. That opens up a whole new category.
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There are also different biomechanical factors that one would need to consider as well. Muscle length and the points on the bones where muscles attach (origins and insertions) also play a role in a muscle’s strength.
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The statement that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body, while obviously a crowd favorite, isn’t so. It is difficult to find any definition of strength that would make this true. Also, note that the tongue is made up of 16 muscles, not one. This puts it into that “other” category along with the quadriceps.
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Strength usually refers to the ability to exert a force on an external object. By this definition, the masseter (chewing muscle) would be the strongest. It can close the teeth with a force as great as 55 pounds on the incisors and 200 pounds on the molars.
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If strength refers to the force exerted by the muscle itself, then by definition the quadriceps femoris (not to be confused with the quadricep group) or the gluteus maximus would be the strongest. Did you know that the gluteus maximus is referred to as the anti-gravity muscle? It is quite powerful because one of its jobs is to keep our trunk erect.
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Pound for pound, the myometrial layer of the uterus may be the strongest muscle in the human body. Short muscles are stronger than long muscles. This muscle is one of the many that assists during labor.
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The external muscles of the eye are frequently considered the strongest muscle for the job they have to do. They are constantly moving to readjust the position of the eye. It is said that in an hour of reading, the eyes making nearly 10,000 coordinated movements.
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The heart is considered the hardest working muscle. Daily it pumps at least 2,500 gallons of blood. It also has the ability to beat over 3 billion times in a person’s life. 3 billion doesn’t seem like that much when spread out over 80+ years does it?
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Some other fun facts:
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Bulkiest muscle = gluteus maximus

Muscle with the most surface area is the latissimus dorsi

The smallest muscle is the stapedius, attached to the smallest bone in the ear.

The longest muscle is the sartorius.

The only jointless bone in your body is the hyoid bone in your throat.

The average cough comes out of your mouth at 60 miles per hour.

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.

There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye, hip, arm, leg, ear, toe, jaw, rib, lip, gum)

The average human will shed 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime (imagine losing that all at once!)

You were born with 300 bones. When you get to be an adult, you have 206.

Each square inch of human skin consists of 20 feet of blood vessels.

Share and Enjoy:

23 Comments so far

Question: Where do the other 94 bones go when you grow up?
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Inappropriate reply to losing 40lbs of skin at once: You should ask an amputee. I’m sure they can imagine that.

Renee -
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I eat them. Actually I don’t know. I didn’t research it, but if I had to guess, I’d say that some of the bones fuse together.

You are a veritable mine of information today!

I liked it better when I just assumed it was the toungue…:-P
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And, for the record…some gluteus maximuses are bulkier than others!!!

so, wait, did you give the answer? or is that there IS no real answer…
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my rear’s pretty muscular. thanks to all those cuppies.
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er, no, thanks to years of volleyball “ready position” and squats…

Amy -
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There is no one definite answer. It just depends on how you’re measuring the strength.

Very interesting trivia, thank you! I think the 94 bones do fuse together. I think the point of that is that babies bones are very soft, not hard like adult bones. As we know, babies and young children can withstand much activity to their bodies that we as adults cannot handle (i.e., jumping from the couch and landing, running head full blast into corner of table). We don’t (normally) do those things as adults, so the bones fuse together and harden. This is all a guess, you know, what sounds logical to me. It could TOTALLY be all wrong. I’m no Dr. Google.

Very interesting! I’m glad we don’t really realize our bones are fusing together. That sounds like it might become problematic.

umm…I don’t know why doesn’t show up with a link to my blog what did I do wrong? hehe.

i don’t think i have ever learned so much about the human body before, haha, not even in bio. thank you dr. jenn

what a veritable font of knowledge you are today!! also: that back picture = SEX-AAAY. i have a weakness for muscular man-backs.

ok, I got it to work! hooray! I don’t know what my problem was earlier…

it was still using my blogger account and got confused. no more notes from me for today!

Umm yea….my gluteus maximus is totes my bulkiest muscle..I knock stuff over with that thing…I come with my own “backing up beep” (aka: my bf)
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We saw that Bodies Exhibit at the science center a couple of weeks ago…the blood vessels were amazzzing! but the whole thing overall was just ‘ok’.

One of my very favorite Brand New songs contains the line:
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“Oh my tongue’s the only muscle in my body that works harder than my heart.”
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It’s incorrect, and only somewhat irrelevant. But I really like the line - so there you go.

This is one of the most interesting things I’ve read all day.

Wow! I took both anatomy AND physiology, but I learned more about muscles from just this post!

I didn’t read this post. That is because science things give me the heebie jeebies. This makes my Dad (biologist) want to disown me. Then I just remind him of the time I was doing communications on the threat of pandemic and avian influenza and how I didn’t sleep at night worrying about it.
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Thank you for the attempt at educating me. Sorry for ignoring it completely. Let’s still be friends.

Wow. . . this was very informative. It was like I was back in anatomy/health class. I feel like I’m learning more through reading your post than through the class I’m currently sitting through.

I know that when babies are born, the bones that make up the skull are not yet fused (makes it “easier” for mom to give birth as the bones slide over each other to compress the head a little) and these bones fuse together as the child ages. But that doesn’t account for all 94 - so I’m going to go with fusion for the rest too!

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete?!!
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WOW.

“You were born with 300 bones. When you get to be an adult, you have 206.”
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Um… where the heck do those baby bones go? Weird!

I was going to guess the masseter was strongest. You have certainly schooled me in muscles today!

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