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Are There Muscles in Fingers?

Fingers and thumbs do not contain any muscles. Rather, they are composed of bone, ligaments and tendons. The tendons connect the skeletal structure of the fingers to the palm and forearm muscles to make movement possible.

More about fingers:

  • The skin on the fingertips has many more nerve endings compared with most of the body.
  • Contrary to popular belief, cracking the knuckles will not cause arthritis.
  • On average, women have longer index fingers and men have longer ring fingers.

Discussion Comments

By croydon — On Oct 16, 2013

Apparently this is one of the reasons that normal keyboards are so bad for you. People have to shift their arms around in an unnatural way in order to reach the keys properly and it puts strain on the muscles and the tendons. It's one of the reasons they recommend that you get one of those keyboards that has a rise in the middle, so that the hands are on an angle and they align better with the muscles in your arms.

By Mor — On Oct 15, 2013

@Ana1234 - Well, if you want to see how it works, you just have to watch your arm while you're flexing your fingers. You can usually see the muscles moving in your arms and they work a bit like puppet strings, pulling the fingers in different directions.

It's actually a marvel of engineering if you think about it. It's difficult enough to maneuver a puppet with strings, let alone such delicate movements as we are capable of with our fingers.

By Ana1234 — On Oct 15, 2013

If you had asked me this before I read this article I think I would have said, duh, of course there are muscles in your fingers. I guess it makes sense, since skinny people have such thin fingers it doesn't look like they have enough room to fit in any muscle.

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