About 240 of them have specific names. A third kind of muscle, called cardiac muscle, has characteristics of both skeletal and smooth muscles. It is found only in the heart. Kinds of muscles Skeletal muscles help hold the bones of the skeleton together and give the body shape. They also make the body move.
Skeletal muscles make up a large part of the legs, arms, abdomen, chest, neck, and face.
These muscles vary greatly in size, depending on the type of job they do. For example, eye muscles are small and fairly weak, but the muscles of the thigh are large and strong. Skeletal muscles All muscles are made up of cells called muscle fibers. Each skeletal muscle is composed of thousands of long, cylindrical muscle fibers. When viewed under a microscope, these fibers show alternating light and dark bands called striations.