Big Vs. Small Muscles

While there are various types of muscles in the human body, there are more than 650 skeletal muscles which are attached to your bones via tendons, and are responsible for everyday movement. Generally, when people compare big vs. small muscles, they’re referring to the relative visual size of the skeletal muscle. How much the muscle is used for motion may also be a comparative factor. However, because big and small muscles usually work together to facilitate everyday movement, exercising both is beneficial for overall fitness.

  1. Arms

    • Large muscles in your arms include your biceps, which are located on the top of your upper arm. They’re used frequently for daily activities, such as for lifting, pulling or moving your arm forward. Triceps are relatively smaller, and are situated on the back of your upper arm. Triceps are employed less often, but are used when pushing and straightening out your lower arm. Arm exercises include curls for large bicep muscles, and pushups or dips for the smaller tricep muscles.

    Legs

    • The legs have groups of large muscles. Your big quadriceps consist of the four muscles in the front of your thigh. Your hamstrings make up the three muscles in the back of your thigh. Together these large muscle groups are used for many activities such as walking, standing up, climbing stairs and stretching. A smaller leg muscle is your gastrocnemius, or calf muscle. Calves work with the large muscle groups for activities. Exercises for your leg’s large muscles include lunges, squats and leg presses. Calf raises condition your smaller muscle.

    Upper Torso

    • The bigger muscles in your upper torso include your chest muscles, or pectoralis muscles -- also called pecs -- which are used for pushup or pull-up exercises, and your upper back muscles, or latissimus dorsi,-- also known as lats -- which are engaged while pulling or pushing. Smaller muscles include your deltoids, which are located on the top of your shoulders, and are used for lifting up your arms. Pull-up exercises will work both the large chest and upper back muscles, while pushups primarily condition the chest muscles. Deltoid exercises include pushups, arm raises and bench presses.

    Lower Torso

    • Your lower torso primarily consists of sets of large muscle groups. The muscle group located on the front of your stomach are your abdominals, or abs, and they’re used when you’re sitting up and for aligning your posture. The sides of your waist are made up of your oblique muscles, which help facilitate bending and rotating. Your gluteus muscles, or glutes, is the group that makes up your buttocks. The gluteus maximus, which is a muscle within that group, is the largest muscle in the human body. Crunches and leg raise help to condition your abs, whereas twisting crunches or Russian twists work out your obliques. Exercises that engage your glutes include squats and leg presses.

    Exercise Strategies

    • Len Kravitz, Ph.D., professor at the University of New Mexico points out that most exercise strategies involve training the big muscles first and the smaller muscles thereafter. He, as well and the American Council on Exercise, recommends alternating strength training strategies. ACE reports that progressively increasing the workout intensity and adding cross-training techniques – which involves both resistance training and aerobic exercise – will help prevent fitness plateaus.