Muscles on body! How to call?

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crazYgeeK

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Could you please let me know how to call the muscles at hand, calf, thigh, chest, bellum ...? I mean the phrases native speakers use when talking about them.
Thank you so much!
 

Allen165

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Could you please let me know how to call the muscles at hand, calf, thigh, chest, bellum ...? I mean the phrases native speakers use when talking about them.
Thank you so much!

NOT A TEACHER.

You've answered your own question.

I cannot think of more specific terms for any of those body parts, although I'm sure there are such terms. They're probably very technical and not used in day-to-day English. For example, one of the butt muscles is the gluteus maximus, but regular people wouldn't say such a thing, unless perhaps they wanted to poke fun at your behind.

I don't know what a "bellum" is. Did you mean to say "belly"? If so, most people would say "abs" or "ab muscles."
 

Barb_D

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The front of your thigh are your "quads" for quadriceps, which are actually four muscles. The back muscle is your hamstring.

Usually you only talk about them when something hurts hurts. You had a particularly tough exercise class and your quads hurt, or you spend the day doing things that involved stooping down and standing up again and now your hammies hurt.

The top of your chest are your "pecs" or pectoral muscles. When you first start a regimen of push-ups, you'll feel it there.

You have abs and obliques on your belly. I haven't seen visual evidence of those since my first child was born. .
 

BobK

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The front of your thigh are your "quads" for quadriceps, which are actually four muscles. The back muscle is your hamstring.

...
:up: The back of the thigh, that is. There are many muscles in the back (of the body); the two major ones I can recall are the trapezius and the latissimus dorsi or 'lats'. But I've never heard these mentioned in conversation (though people who frequent gyms probably say 'lats'). Either gym membership or a medical background seem to be required for talking clearly about muscles. People normally just append the name of the part of the body: 'calf muscle', rather than gastroc nemius.

b
 

crazYgeeK

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Thank you all! Some scientific names of some muscles are so difficult for me to remember. Does this happen to some native speaker?
Thank you so much!
 

5jj

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Thank you all! Some scientific names of some muscles are so difficult for me to remember. Does this happen to some native speaker?
Yes. Those of us of a sedentary disposition have not the faintest idea what such unpleasant-sounding things as 'abs' or 'pecs' or 'quads' might be. Nor do we have any wish to know.
 

Allen165

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Yes. Those of us of a sedentary disposition have not the faintest idea what such unpleasant-sounding things as 'abs' or 'pecs' or 'quads' might be. Nor do we have any wish to know.

Talk about setting a great example!;-)
 

5jj

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At least I have my stomach to rest my glass of gin on while I answer questions.
 

Allen165

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At least I have my stomach to rest my glass of gin on while I answer questions.

So now you're endorsing alcohol consumption as well? This is all terribly disappointing!:-D
 

BobK

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Thank you all! Some scientific names of some muscles are so difficult for me to remember. Does this happen to some native speaker?
Thank you so much!
Yes. I just had a mad maths master who devoted one period a week to 'physiology'. (Hint: There may be some link between the facts that it was an RC school and we were adolescent. Genitalia and procreation were mentioned in passing. ;-))

b
 

5jj

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So now you're endorsing alcohol consumption as well? This is all terribly disappointing!:-D
I follow Descartes: I drink, therefore I am.:roll:
 

Barb_D

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(Yes, sorry, I certainly did mean the back of the thigh. Thanks to Bob for making it clear for anyone who may have been confused.)
 
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