What Kind of Muscle Do We Use to Move Around?

October 2, 2025 •

4 min read

Did you know the human body contains over 600 skeletal muscles? These specialized muscles are the reason we can walk, run, and perform countless other actions. Understanding what kind of muscle do we use to move around is key to appreciating your body's incredible mechanics and how to keep them healthy.

Quick Summary

We use skeletal muscle, which is attached to our bones by tendons, to move around. These voluntary muscles respond to conscious commands from the nervous system, allowing us to control our body's motions.

Key Points

Skeletal Muscle: This is the type of muscle we use for all voluntary movement, including walking, running, and lifting.
Voluntary Control: Unlike your heart or digestive system, skeletal muscle is under your conscious control, responding to signals from your brain.
Nervous System Link: Your central nervous system sends electrical signals to motor neurons, which then trigger muscle contraction for movement.
The Sliding Filament Theory: Microscopic protein filaments called actin and myosin slide past each other within muscle fibers to cause contraction.
Attached to Bones: Skeletal muscles attach to your bones via tendons, and their contraction pulls on these bones to produce motion.
Essential for Health: Maintaining strong skeletal muscles through exercise is vital for mobility, posture, and preventing injury.

The Three Types of Muscle Tissue

To understand the muscle type responsible for movement, it helps to know the three kinds of muscle tissue in the human body: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. While all three are crucial for different bodily functions, only one is under our conscious, voluntary control.

Skeletal Muscle: The Voluntary Movers

Skeletal muscles are the primary focus when we ask "what kind of muscle do we use to move around?" They are called "skeletal" because they are attached to your bones via tendons. This attachment allows them to pull on the skeleton, creating movement. These are voluntary muscles, meaning you consciously control them. From taking a step to winking an eye, these muscles respond directly to signals from your brain. They are also striated, or striped, in appearance when viewed under a microscope due to the organized arrangement of their contractile proteins.

Smooth Muscle: The Involuntary Organ Power

Unlike skeletal muscle, smooth muscle is involuntary. It is found in the walls of internal organs and passageways, such as the digestive tract, blood vessels, and airways. These muscles operate automatically, managing critical functions without conscious thought. For instance, smooth muscles in your intestines propel food through your digestive system, while those in your arteries regulate blood pressure. Their non-striated appearance gives them their "smooth" name.

Cardiac Muscle: The Heart's Engine

Found only in the heart, cardiac muscle is a third type of involuntary muscle. It is responsible for the rhythmic, powerful contractions that pump blood throughout your body. Like skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle is striated, but its function is entirely automatic and controlled by the heart's own pacemaker cells and the autonomic nervous system. This automatic, tireless work keeps your heart beating without any conscious effort on your part.

The Intricate Mechanism of Movement

Skeletal muscle movement begins in the brain, which sends an electrical signal down the spinal cord to a motor neuron. This neuron then transmits the signal to the muscle fiber, triggering a cascade of events that leads to contraction.

The Role of Actin and Myosin

At a microscopic level, skeletal muscle is made of bundles of muscle fibers. Within each fiber are tiny, parallel filaments of proteins called actin and myosin. When the signal arrives, these filaments slide past each other, a process known as the "sliding filament theory." This sliding action shortens the muscle fiber, causing the muscle as a whole to contract. The force of this contraction pulls on the attached bone, resulting in movement.

Fueling the Motion

Muscle contraction is an energy-intensive process. The power for this comes from the breakdown of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The body produces ATP through various metabolic processes, both aerobic (using oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen). This is why intense exercise can quickly lead to muscle fatigue as your body's energy stores are depleted.

Key Muscle Groups for Locomotion

While the entire body is involved in movement, certain major muscle groups are critical for locomotion and stability.

Leg Muscles: The quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteus maximus are essential for walking, running, and jumping.
Core Muscles: The abdominal and back muscles (erector spinae) stabilize the torso, provide posture, and support the limbs.
Upper Body Muscles: The deltoids, trapezius, and latissimus dorsi, while used for arm and shoulder movement, also play a vital role in maintaining balance during locomotion.

Skeletal vs. Involuntary Muscles: A Comparison


Feature	Skeletal Muscle	Smooth Muscle	Cardiac Muscle
Control	Voluntary	Involuntary	Involuntary
Location	Attached to bones	Walls of hollow organs	Heart walls
Appearance	Striated (striped)	Non-striated (smooth)	Striated (branched)
Speed of Contraction	Fast, powerful	Slow, sustained	Moderate
Fatigue	Tires easily	Does not tire easily	Highly resistant to fatigue
Function	Locomotion, posture	Regulates blood pressure, digestion	Pumps blood

The Connection to Overall Health

The health of your skeletal muscles is directly tied to your overall well-being. Regular physical activity keeps these muscles strong, which is crucial for maintaining mobility, balance, and posture, especially as you age. Strong muscles also help protect your joints and can significantly improve your quality of life.

To learn more about the biology and function of skeletal muscle, read this authoritative resource: Physiology, Skeletal Muscle.

Conclusion

The next time you walk or reach for an object, you'll know that it is your skeletal muscles doing the work. This voluntary muscle type, controlled by the nervous system and powered by a complex internal mechanism, is what allows for the rich variety of movement we experience every day. Nurturing these muscles through exercise and proper care is a fundamental part of maintaining a healthy and active life.

Frequently Asked Questions

The human body has three types of muscle tissue: skeletal, which is responsible for voluntary movement; smooth, which controls involuntary functions in internal organs; and cardiac, which is found only in the heart and pumps blood.

Skeletal muscles create movement by contracting. This process pulls on the tendons attached to your bones, moving them into a new position. The contraction is triggered by electrical signals from your brain.

No, you cannot consciously control the muscles in your stomach or heart. These are both types of involuntary muscle—smooth and cardiac, respectively—that are managed automatically by the nervous system to perform essential functions without conscious thought.

Voluntary muscles, like skeletal muscle, are those you can consciously command to move. Involuntary muscles, such as cardiac and smooth muscle, work automatically and without your conscious control.

Yes, you use skeletal muscle for both. However, different types of muscle fibers within your skeletal muscles are specialized for these tasks. Slow-twitch fibers are better for sustained, low-intensity actions like posture, while fast-twitch fibers are suited for quick, powerful movements like sprinting.

The nervous system uses specialized cells called motor neurons to communicate with muscles. The brain sends an electrical impulse down the motor neuron, which releases a chemical that tells the muscle fiber to contract.

Keeping your skeletal muscles healthy is crucial for maintaining mobility, balance, and independence throughout your life. Strong, healthy muscles support your joints, improve posture, and can help prevent injuries from falls and other accidents.