Tra từ muscle - Từ điển LongMan Dictionary

I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a blood/nerve/brain/muscle etc cell
▪ No new brain cells are produced after birth.
couldn’t move a muscle (=could not move at all)
▪ Paul couldn’t move a muscle he was so scared.
develop muscle
▪ exercises to develop muscle strength
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
ADJECTIVE
abdominal
▪ This week she has devised the Oblique Crunch, to strengthen abdominal muscles.
▪ At the same time, middle linebacker Robert Jones was out because of a strained abdominal muscle.
▪ Your oblique abdominal muscle will contract as rib cage rotates.
▪ Some young people will slouch through habit or because they have weak back or abdominal muscles.
▪ Linebacker Gary Plummer and tight end Greg Clark are both nursing sore lower abdominal muscles.
▪ This exercise tones the outer thighs as well as the lower abdominal muscles.
▪ Middle linebacker Robert Jones missed the final three games with a strained abdominal muscle.
big
▪ Suppose a blacksmith does develop big muscles.
▪ Big father of the big muscles and the boom, boom, boom.
▪ Fighters need lots of things but not big muscles - one look at any of the lighter boxing greats tells us that.
▪ The heart beats thick, Big trout muscle out of the dead cold.
▪ Male speaker He's brilliant, big muscles and hard.
▪ If you've got bigger muscles and the will to use them, the others have to go along with you.
▪ She wrapped herself around him like a clam in formation, her body one big muscle, straining.
▪ And for bigger muscles, he needs to add a circulatory system that pumps the glucose to the muscles.
economic
▪ At least in Baja California, real estate should remain a prime factor in building new economic muscle.
▪ But by this time the North had begun to flex its superior economic muscles.
facial
▪ It's designed to gently exercise the small, delicate facial muscles to help prevent wrinkles and sagging.
▪ Those of you who move your lips when you read may take a 30-second break to rest your facial muscles.
▪ His thin body was rigid and they could see the contortions of his facial muscles beneath the skin.
▪ Watch for asymmetry of eyelid blinking or evidence of lower facial muscle weakness.
▪ It involved 14 groups of facial muscles and it releases chemicals to the brain that help combat depression.
▪ This is very important for facial muscles.
▪ Are there any exercises I can do to tighten up facial skin and muscles?
financial
▪ The deposits are, in the main, so marginal that large companies with financial muscle are required to exploit them.
▪ Mr Fineman says that Darden has the financial muscle to hurt its competitors -- if the company ever gets moving.
▪ We also have the commitment and financial muscle to back our judgement with our own resources.
▪ The initiative is seen as the start of a wider move by other charities to use their financial muscle on ethical issues.
▪ The new group will use its enhanced financial muscle to mount takeovers and become increasingly dominant on the global stage.
hard
▪ He was only small but he was wiry, with hard, knotty muscles.
▪ He looked to be all hard muscle.
▪ I pushed against its hard muscles, the nerves twitched under the smooth coat.
▪ His face was smooth as a bowling ball, the skin tight and bright, masking hard inner muscle.
▪ Katherine felt skin, hot, hard muscle.
▪ This is potentially significant for athletes because they are exercising so hard that their muscles readily burn the liberated fatty acids.
▪ The Kittyhawk's controls usually responded to a nudge or a twitch; now they demanded a heavy boot and hard muscle.
political
▪ But they will just as surely have died because they were too weak in political muscle to be able to fight back.
▪ And it says something about the amount of political muscle the Chamber has, too.
▪ Big operators have the political muscle to win development permits.
▪ Second, when they are raised, they are resolved according to the simple criterion of political muscle power.
▪ He began to flex his political muscles.
skeletal
▪ The inflammatory process was seen to extend into adjacent skeletal muscle and was consistent with a diagnosis of Riedel's thyroiditis.
▪ Consideration is given first to the anatomic arrangement of the nervous and skeletal muscle systems involved in this activity.
▪ Finally, we determined the activities of the respiratory chain enzymes in skeletal muscle.
▪ Another possibility is that caffeine affects skeletal muscles indirectly.
▪ Thus carnitine is crucial for mitochondrial energy production, and this is of particular importance in skeletal and heart muscle.
▪ Here the processes of breakdown are qualitatively similar to those in vertebrate skeletal muscle.
▪ Gap junctions are distributed in a wide variety of tissues, with the possible exceptions of adult skeletal muscles and most neurones.
▪ Their properties are in some ways intermediate between those of the skeletal muscles and the smooth muscles found in other phyla.
smooth
▪ In addition to its potent vasoconstrictive actions, ET-1 is also a mitogen for vascular smooth muscle cells.
▪ Here adenosine helps control the tone of the smooth muscles used to propel feces on its way.
▪ When thought to involve abnormalities of smooth muscle without abnormalities in myenteric neurons the syndrome is termed hollow visceral myopathy.
▪ The smooth muscles thus more easily contract in a characteristic rhythm called intestinal peristalsis.
▪ The L-arginine-NO system exerts various biological actions including vascular smooth muscle relaxation and inhibition of platelet aggregation.
▪ This would facilitate the calculation of peristaltic velocity and the speed of contractility of gut smooth muscle with high temporal resolution.
▪ Electrical control activity is caused by the entrainment of the fluctuations of the transmembrane potentials of individual smooth muscle cells.
▪ Several theories of the factors causing smooth muscle cell proliferation have been made.
strong
▪ Such embryonic creatures needed stronger muscles, too, and a skin that was resistant to drying out.
▪ The mining industry especially rewarded strong back muscles without much regard for smart minds.
▪ Do remember that strong arm muscles and shoulders will help protect the back.
▪ Doctors reasoned that limbs left untreated would draw into deformity by strong muscles pulling against weakened ones.
▪ He was a little ponderous, but it was thick strong muscle which made him so.
▪ You should never apply pressure to the spine itself, but the strong muscles either side can take firm pressure.
▪ Strength Strong muscles are not necessarily big and bulky muscles.
▪ The knee, then the still strong muscles of the thighs.
NOUN
arm
▪ Do remember that strong arm muscles and shoulders will help protect the back.
▪ Fig. 8 Arm muscles Ballistic stretching is more vigorous, as the name suggests, and involves bouncing and jerking movements.
calf
▪ Any exercises which use the calf muscles, such as heel raises, hopping, standing on one leg would be beneficial.
▪ There were thick bulbous calf muscles teetering on stiletto heels.
▪ If you can improve the power of your calf muscles you will find that you can build up your mileage without difficulty.
▪ George Williams played his first game after suffering from a strained calf muscle and quite clearly didn't have his full movement.
▪ But defender Andy Barlow will be sidelined for a month after straining a calf muscle in training.
▪ Harvey Williams did not suit up because of his torn calf muscle.
▪ Only a few minutes ago I felt a slight twitch in the boy's calf muscle.
▪ Williams said Thursday that he expects to miss three weeks with his partially torn calf muscle.
cell
▪ In addition to its potent vasoconstrictive actions, ET-1 is also a mitogen for vascular smooth muscle cells.
▪ Then the cells were exposed to cytomegalovirus, to which the muscle cells are particularly susceptible.
▪ Heart tissue has a complex architecture that includes blood vessels and connective tissue, as well as muscle cells.
▪ The production of a visceral-specific anti-peptide antibody should permit a further investigation of its expression in smooth muscle cells.
▪ There is no difficulty in recognizing a red blood cell, a muscle cell, or a nerve cell.
▪ Electrical control activity is caused by the entrainment of the fluctuations of the transmembrane potentials of individual smooth muscle cells.
▪ Several theories of the factors causing smooth muscle cell proliferation have been made.
▪ When the horse is resting, this heat production is minimal because the muscle cells are fairly inactive.
contraction
▪ The taser fires a two-pronged dart that overrides the central nervous system and causes uncontrollable muscle contractions.
▪ The vascular changes and muscle contraction then could be considered to be of secondary importance.
▪ Locomotion is effected by undulating waves of muscle contraction and relaxation which alternate on the dorsal and ventral aspects of the worm.
▪ The problem is that this wrong-way impulse sets off a muscle contraction in each of those several hundred muscle fibers.
▪ Even more ciliary muscle contraction will be required for near vision and this may be uncomfortable.
▪ Attention originally focused on the way caffeine affects muscle contraction and reflexes.
▪ The tetanus bacteria grow at the site of the injury and release a toxin which produces rigid muscles and muscle contractions.
▪ The powerful involuntary muscle contractions are often quite distressing to the patient.
fibres
▪ In cases with massive deposits, there were degenerative changes in muscle fibres, with muscle tissue being replaced by amyloid.
▪ Myoglobin, a protein similar to haemoglobin in red blood cells, acts as a store for oxygen within the muscle fibres.
▪ The muscle fibres of white meat, by contrast, have a low content of myoglobin and mitochondria.
▪ Remember calcium is an electrolyte and is vital for the contraction of muscle fibres.
▪ They have no nervous system, no muscle fibres.
▪ In muscle disease degeneration of muscle fibres and replacement with fibrous tissue have been seen.
▪ Indeed, some animal tissues still practise anaerobic respiration - including muscle fibres, for short periods.
▪ The small, bouncing stretch routine is likely to introduce minute tears in muscle fibres and so should be avoided.
group
▪ The trapezius muscle group is kite-shaped and basically pulls the head and the shoulders back.
▪ Focus on certain muscle groups for sports that tend to overuse specific muscles.
▪ Well-equipped gyms will have a large selection of leg machines designed to isolate the various muscle groups.
▪ These are the major muscle groups at work when the transfer from backswing to forward swing starts.
▪ The twenty original muscle groups may be combined, as follows, into seven separate exercises.
▪ Practitioners vary in their technique but most use fewer muscle groups and exercises than the original procedures.
▪ If you fail to experience tension you must try to develop your own exercise which serves to tense that particular muscle group.
▪ Tensing the muscle groups Hold each tensing exercise for approximately five seconds then release the tension immediately not gradually.
heart
▪ The attack was over, but how on earth could Shelley know what damage had been done to the heart muscle?
▪ Heart failure means that the heart muscle is not pumping well enough to meet the need for oxygen-rich blood.
▪ Magnesium is thought to affect the heart muscle.
▪ The beat also can be affected if sections of the heart muscle are unusually thick.
▪ Thus carnitine is crucial for mitochondrial energy production, and this is of particular importance in skeletal and heart muscle.
▪ Death occurs when a quickened beat pushes the heart muscle to complete collapse.
▪ However, if the mice were taken off the drug treatment, the damage to the heart muscle started immediately.
▪ Amyloidosis occurs when an abnormal protein becomes fibrous and becomes deposited in the heart muscle.
leg
▪ Particular attention should be paid to the lower spine and leg muscles - they remember every step of the way.
▪ Pull up your leg muscles and feel how solid that left thigh is becoming!
▪ Their leg muscles were stiff, their knees hurt, their shoulders resented the weight of their rifles.
▪ How else, besides using her leg muscles, might she be able to help herself to stand up?
▪ You can feel the leg muscles really hardening as you pedal hard up a hill.
▪ Sit as shown, and place your hands on the lower thighs so you can feel the leg muscle contractions.
▪ Ooooooh, how her leg muscles did ache from holding her skirt in this proper fashion - with blue flowers on it.
neck
▪ At the same time she could feel her neck muscles being strained.
▪ Surgical therapy has been attempted by section of various neck muscles or the accessory nerve.
▪ Gosse had been watching all in silence, his jaw clenched, his neck muscles taut.
▪ Tony smiled and without moving his left knee dodged the blows, his torso jinking, neck muscles popping.
▪ Francesca's neck muscles tensed every time she took a breath and her nostrils dilated.
▪ The high rate of acceleration strained her neck muscles.
▪ This exercise relaxes the neck muscles and relieves tension.
▪ We stood there a long time watching, heads tipped back, neck muscles beginning to ache.
relaxation
▪ I use acupuncture to promote muscle relaxation and reduce inflammation in the back's muscles.
▪ A follow-up study that looks at the long-term effects of transcendental meditation and muscle relaxation is expected to be completed in August.
▪ The L-arginine-NO system exerts various biological actions including vascular smooth muscle relaxation and inhibition of platelet aggregation.
▪ The study found that transcendental meditation was twice as effective as muscle relaxation in reducing blood pressure.
▪ Non-viable cells did not produce muscle relaxation.
▪ Only viable mononuclear cells and granulocytes caused muscle relaxation, suggesting that the relaxing factor is not stored by these cells.
stomach
▪ Northern's biggest setback came with the loss of midfield maestro Deryck Fox with pulled stomach muscles.
▪ Byrd had his arm broken, Noville had his stomach muscles torn.
▪ My stomach muscles were up to it, but I didn't want to lose any more teeth.
▪ Using his arms and stomach muscles, trying to keep his chest still, he sat.
▪ A day later, the tissue was inserted between stomach muscles, just above the bellybutton, where blood supply is plentiful.
▪ Then, glancing quickly at Jem, he slowly climbed the stairs, feeling his bruised stomach muscles protest with every step.
▪ Star Damon Bailey is playing with a torn stomach muscle.
strain
▪ Warming up Before you begin, take time to do the leg stretches overleaf which will help prevent any muscle strain.
▪ Hill has ended his last three games in agony since he first suffered the muscle strain at Ipswich earlier this month.
▪ After missing the first Test because of a muscle strain, Gillespie now has 18 wickets in the series.
tension
▪ Any experienced masseur can tell how often, as they release muscle tension, tears are shed.
▪ A series of twitches builds up muscle tension into a sustained contraction.
▪ In this way heart rate, respiration rate, oxygen consumption, and muscle tension all reduce without conscious effort.
▪ They suggested that the newfound connection might explain the apparent link between muscle tension and severe headaches.
▪ Cervical reintegration relieved muscle tension, principally in the neck and back regions, but also locally around specific joints as indicated.
▪ This prolonged tension travels up to your shoulders, neck and face and increases muscle tension in these areas.
▪ Many people control their feelings through muscle tension and may re-experience these feelings spontaneously when the muscle spasm is broken up.
thigh
▪ DeFreitas injured a thigh muscle early in the tour and missed the first Test.
▪ Frank had a perfect bubble-butt and massive thigh muscles clearly outlined in his khaki pants.
▪ As Grant hurried down the narrow concrete stairs, he felt the first warning stab of pain in his torn thigh muscle.
▪ Quickly Robert inserted the needle into the thigh muscle, and in about a minute, the small body went limp.
▪ Carling strained a thigh muscle in Dunedin and Bayfield ended that match on a stretcher with a neck seizure.
▪ This stretches and tones the front thigh muscle without adding bulk, and relaxes the muscles after the previous exercise.
▪ When finally I made the summit, my throat parched, my thigh muscles trembling, the herb woman was waiting.
▪ Former Manchester United reserve Paul Dalton is rated extremely doubtful with a strained thigh muscle.
tissue
▪ Lose weight too quickly and you will lose muscle tissue as well as fat.
▪ Massage-Good for general relaxation and to relieve stress buildup in the muscle tissue.
▪ In cases with massive deposits, there were degenerative changes in muscle fibres, with muscle tissue being replaced by amyloid.
▪ Nessim, who has created a documentary on cancer survivors, beat a rare muscle tissue cancer 21 years ago.
▪ Their finding could lead to new treatments for muscle wasting in humans, or ways to conserve muscle tissue during space flight.
▪ Loss of muscle tissue is accelerated in women at the time of menopause.
▪ The results in Fig. 3 confirm that the isoform is only expressed in visceral smooth muscle tissues.
▪ Larding slows the cooking process, however, since the fat heats more slowly than the muscle tissue.
tone
▪ We are taken to a place where characters have nice little problems and impressive muscle tone.
▪ Atonic seizures are characterized by a sudden loss of postural muscle tone.
▪ These can be very helpful in cases where lack of muscle tone is the main reason for incontinence.
▪ She also pointed out balance, muscle tone, and motor planning problems.
▪ They looked fantastic, all appealing muscle tone and clean, well-conditioned hair.
▪ A baby with low muscle tone has a slumped posture and is slow to sit up.
▪ Good weight control must be coupled with good nutrition and adequate exercise to maintain muscle tone.
▪ Someday these exigencies will show up as bad skin and collapsed muscle tone.
VERB
build
▪ Experts say there's no scientific evidence the drug helps build muscle.
▪ At least in Baja California, real estate should remain a prime factor in building new economic muscle.
▪ This is why people who want to build muscle have 4 or 5 smaller meals throughout the day.
▪ A series of twitches builds up muscle tension into a sustained contraction.
▪ Again, this is a very friendly area ideal for building up muscles and confidence.
▪ He was wiry and supple and began to train with weights to build up his muscles.
▪ But if he really wants to build up his muscles for a gold, he should try lifting his wallet.
▪ It is the fastest, most effective way to build muscles in existence.
cause
▪ These synapse with six motor cells, whose axons cause the muscles which withdraw the gill to contract.
▪ This may be due to the severe hypokalemia, which can cause respiratory muscle dysfunction.
▪ Parkinson's disease is a degenerative brain disorder that causes tremors and muscle rigidity among other symptoms.
▪ The sedative effects of alcohol cause the throat muscle to relax too much and also interfere with the involuntary awakening mechanisms.
▪ The taser fires a two-pronged dart that overrides the central nervous system and causes uncontrollable muscle contractions.
▪ By instigating a calcium deficiency inside the cells, the drugs cause muscles lining arterial walls to relax.
▪ You can expect a few aches tomorrow, as new exercises usually cause our muscles to respond 48 hours after we do them.
▪ Usually caused by muscle imbalance, but can be aggravated by bad shoes.
control
▪ The subject remains conscious and alert, but can not control his muscles.
▪ This hormone helps to control growth of muscle, bone and the cells of the immune system.
▪ More neurons are needed to control their larger muscle mass and to collect data from their extra sensors.
▪ He seemed to be having difficulty in controlling the muscles which worked in his forehead and at the corners of his mouth.
▪ At the junction of nerves and muscles, these neurones control the contraction of muscles.
▪ Many people control their feelings through muscle tension and may re-experience these feelings spontaneously when the muscle spasm is broken up.
develop
▪ Suppose a blacksmith does develop big muscles.
▪ Helen had developed muscles in her arms after all, it was carrying children that did it.
▪ He appeared unrepentant and impassioned in favour of us developing our nuclear muscle - for defence.
▪ The skeletal width of the shoulders is hereditary but an illusion of breadth can be created by fully developing the shoulder muscles.
▪ But these muddy-water fish have developed banks of modified muscle tissue that generate electrical charges on a much greater scale.
▪ Running or jumping exercises can encourage cellulite and swimming will develop the muscles in the shoulders.
▪ Obviously weight-lifting will develop many muscles.
▪ Perhaps you are developing the wrong muscles or refining movements which are opposed to the natural physiology of your hands.
feel
▪ There was the crunch of his feet rapidly moving away over the snow and she felt her tense muscles relax.
▪ Mitchell inhaled the laundered fragrance of her skirt, felt the pack of muscles on her thighs beneath the denim.
▪ He could feel a muscle twitching under his eye.
▪ I could feel the muscles on his back struggle as we made our sixth circle around the house.
▪ At the same time she could feel her neck muscles being strained.
▪ It reached the flat tummy and Ronnie spread it for a moment, feeling Mavis's muscles quiver.
▪ She felt the muscles of her face lock with distaste.
▪ Then, glancing quickly at Jem, he slowly climbed the stairs, feeling his bruised stomach muscles protest with every step.
flex
▪ This is an unfamiliar luxury for Labour voters; now they want to flex their muscles.
▪ Soldiers, who previously had lacked social status, were now flexing their muscles because the military ran the country.
▪ She watched him raise one hand to rub the nape of his neck, then flex his shoulder muscles.
▪ If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to flex your muscles.
▪ Only several good saves by Nicky Weaver kept the score down as Arsenal flexed their attacking muscles.
▪ At the same time, it was beginning to flex its muscles on the world stage.
▪ He seized a horrible pair of forceps and I closed my eyes as he started flexing his muscles.
▪ It also allows Delaney to flex her acting muscles.
move
▪ I was in no fit state to move a muscle.
▪ And yet in spite of that - or maybe because of it - she could not move one single frozen muscle of her body.
▪ The exercise allows you to move and stabilize muscles in the movement.
▪ So deeply asleep, he moved not a muscle.
▪ They will not move a muscle for at least another month or two.
▪ The soldier waited without moving a muscle.
▪ Virginia felt frozen to the spot, unable to move a muscle.
pull
▪ It tends to go on strike by pulling a muscle or twisting a joint.
▪ These help reduce the risk of pulled muscles.
▪ Naked, Julia stretched under the sheet, stretched so hard she pulled her stomach muscles to their full length.
▪ It came 11 days ago, when Ramon Martinez pulled a groin muscle and had to leave a game in Chicago.
▪ I was still at the crease, but having pulled a muscle in my leg I was batting with a runner.
▪ Washington pulled the muscle while covering Galloway in the third quarter.
▪ On the Thursday Luis Mendoza pulled a groin muscle, so Luke had to take his place.
▪ Slowly and smoothly pull your abdominal muscles in tight, keeping your chest and thighs in contact with the floor.
relax
▪ Gently stretch upwards for 15 counts. Relax the tummy muscles, then repeat.
▪ Conditioning the patient to relax these muscles through electromyographic biofeedback techniques has been attempted with some degree of success.
▪ These five-minute injections plump out the frown lines and defeat wrinkles by relaxing forehead muscles.
▪ The therapeutic pool helped patients build strength and stamina, while the warm saltwater relaxed their muscles.
▪ Hold this position for 5 counts. Relax your tummy muscles by cuddling the knees and repeat the exercise.
▪ We learn to relax the muscles in our throat, jaws, even in our shoulders and back.
▪ When you get home, take your heels off, stretch your toes and rotate your ankles to relax the muscles.
▪ Marvellous for relaxing aching muscles after a hard day in the hills.
strengthen
▪ The good news is that you can strengthen pelvic floor muscles through exercises.
▪ For example, football players should focus strengthening lower extremity muscles.
▪ This week she has devised the Oblique Crunch, to strengthen abdominal muscles.
▪ The group strengthened like a muscle.
▪ He joined in exercise classes to stretch and strengthen his muscles, and consequently became increasingly disabled.
▪ This situation will respond to exercises directed at strengthening the muscles.
▪ They will be able to advise you and may recommend exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles or other treatment.
▪ Treatment often begins with simple Kegel exercises designed to strengthen pelvic muscles.
stretch
▪ He joined in exercise classes to stretch and strengthen his muscles, and consequently became increasingly disabled.
▪ Be sure never to rush them, but feel how they are toning and stretching your muscles as never before.
▪ Not any more: your body is stretching magnificently and your muscles are getting into better shape every day!
▪ The environment, in fact, does work on him, by stretching the antigravity muscles in his legs on impact.
▪ Simply allow the body to fall forward and the weight of the body will stretch your muscles.
▪ That you can carry heavy bags and bend down without a twinge in the back? Stretch those muscles and smile!
▪ He got out to stretch his cramped muscles.
tense
▪ There was the crunch of his feet rapidly moving away over the snow and she felt her tense muscles relax.
▪ He thinks it is a type of shivering similar to repeatedly tensing one's muscles.
▪ Another technique for delaying ejaculation is for the man to practice tensing his muscles to stop the flow while urinating.
▪ If you fail to experience tension you must try to develop your own exercise which serves to tense that particular muscle group.
▪ Try not to tense the muscles so hard that you produce cramp or pain.
▪ They still breathe out when they strike, forcing the air out of their body and tensing their muscles.
▪ Her hand froze against his cheek as the realisation tensed every muscle in her body.
use
▪ In the great pressure for profits, the large stores are using their muscle to get their share of the market.
▪ The boat seemed to be crying out in pain, like an arthritic suddenly called upon to use weak muscles.
▪ We then start to use our voluntary muscles for support - something for which they were not designed.
▪ The ball is so outstretched that Edney can not bend his elbow to use his upper-arm muscles.
▪ Any exercises which use the calf muscles, such as heel raises, hopping, standing on one leg would be beneficial.
▪ It was clearly a case of workers trying to use union muscle to hold off reality.
▪ Some flies no longer use muscles directly attached to the bases of the wings.
▪ Just to be using brain and muscles and feelings all together at once, and not failing.
work
▪ These latter exercises also work the lower trapezius muscles and the rhomboids.
▪ Phenolphthalein apparently works by stimulating muscles responsible for forcing matter through the intestines.
▪ The Ultratone Facial works by stimulating the muscles and giving them concentrated exercise.
▪ She practiced the Sister Kenny method of muscle reeducation, working even with the muscles that appeared to have lost all function.
▪ This time it held out longer, and gradually it learned the way to work its muscles and to develop their strength.
▪ And if we want to tighten and tone our bodies, we need to do toning exercises that work specific muscle groups.
▪ But there will never be an exercise as good as squats for working all of the muscles together.
▪ Swimming is one of the most effective exercises, working every muscle in your body for all-over fitness and body-confidence.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
flex your muscles
▪ This new position should give you the chance to really flex your muscles.
▪ At the same time, it was beginning to flex its muscles on the world stage.
▪ Harold was flexing his muscles for the perfect balance, teeth bared, knife poised over his head.
▪ He seized a horrible pair of forceps and I closed my eyes as he started flexing his muscles.
▪ If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to flex your muscles.
▪ Like Querelle, men in tatty soiled uniforms are flexing their muscles, while others stare vacantly into the middle distance.
▪ Read in studio Finally tonight we're going to flex our muscles.
▪ Soldiers, who previously had lacked social status, were now flexing their muscles because the military ran the country.
▪ This is an unfamiliar luxury for Labour voters; now they want to flex their muscles.
nerve/muscle fibres
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Hanson Trust has the muscle to buy up some of America's biggest companies.
▪ Panetta used his muscle to keep the budget agreement intact.
▪ The government has for years been trying to destroy the muscle of the trade unions.
▪ The Republicans do not have the political muscle to prevent the treaty being rejected by Congress.
▪ This exercise works the muscles of your leg.
▪ U.S. military muscle
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ His body tightened, the muscles drawing in on themselves.
▪ Low vitamin D also is associated with muscle weakness, which could contribute to a fall.
▪ Now, leg stretched and r-o-l-l back those muscles.
▪ The group strengthened like a muscle.
▪ The joint and muscle were all right.
▪ The trapezius muscle group is kite-shaped and basically pulls the head and the shoulders back.
▪ There may also be numbness or muscle weakness occurring in a segmental pattern.
▪ They had to cut out seven inches of muscle in my legs.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
ADVERB
in
▪ The last thing she wanted was to have some overbearing man muscling in.
NOUN
way
▪ But other alleged triad leaders used violence to muscle their way into the business, according to the police.
▪ Guliaggi and Norrejo are muscling their way through the mob.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
nerve/muscle fibres
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And for Gingrich to try to muscle anyone would backfire.
▪ At the same time, Rick Zombo was muscling Rob Niedermayer into the crease.
▪ Yield grade is based on the degree of fatness and the degree of muscling.

muscle

I. mus‧cle¹ S2 W3 /ˈmʌsəl/ noun
[date : 1300-1400; Language : French; Origin : Latin musculus 'little mouse, muscle, mussel', from mus 'mouse'; because a muscle moving looks like a mouse under the skin]
1. [UNCOUNTABLE AND COUNTABLE]
one of the pieces of flesh inside your body that you use in order to move, and that connect your bones together:
　 ▪ Relax your stomach muscles, then stretch again.
　 ▪ Regular exercise will help to strengthen your muscles.
　 ▪ Rooney has pulled a muscle in his thigh and won’t play tomorrow.

2. not move a muscle
to stay completely still:
　 ▪ The soldier stood without moving a muscle.

3. [UNCOUNTABLE]
power or influence
military/economic/political etc muscle
　 ▪ The unions have a lot of political muscle.
　 ▪ The agreement will give the UN some muscle to enforce human rights.

4. [UNCOUNTABLE]
physical strength and power:
　 ▪ It took muscle to work in an old-fashioned kitchen.
put some muscle into it (=used to tell someone to work harder)
⇨ flex your muscles at flex¹(2)
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
adjectives
▪big muscles
　 ▪ He's developed big arm muscles.
▪hard muscles (=strong, firm muscles)
　 ▪ the hard muscles of his back and shoulders
▪arm/leg/stomach etc muscles
　 ▪ Her leg muscles ached after the run.
▪rippling muscles (=muscles that move in a strong attractive way)
　 ▪ The sight of his rippling muscles sends women wild.
verbs
▪use your muscles
　 ▪ Bend your knees and use your thigh muscles when picking up heavy objects.
▪strengthen/build up your muscles (=make them stronger)
　 ▪ If you strengthen the muscles in your back you are less likely to have back problems.
▪pull/strain a muscle (=injure it)
　 ▪ He pulled a muscle in his calf.
▪stretch your muscles
　 ▪ It’s a good idea to stretch your muscles after weight lifting.
▪flex your muscles (=bend your arm muscles so that people can see how strong you are)
　 ▪ He was lifting weights and flexing his muscles.
▪relax your muscles (=make them feel less tight)
　 ▪ A hot bath will help relax sore muscles.
▪tense/tighten your muscles (=make them more tight)
　 ▪ He tensed his stomach muscles, ready for the blow.
▪your muscles contract (=tighten so that you can move a part of your body)
　 ▪ These nerves tell the muscles when to contract.
▪your muscles ache (=hurt after being exercised too much)
　 ▪ I ran until my muscles ached.
muscle + NOUN
▪muscle strength/power
　 ▪ This exercise will help increase muscle strength.
▪muscle tone (=the firmness of your muscles)
　 ▪ Swimming is good exercise for improving muscle tone.
▪a muscle spasm (=when your muscles tighten suddenly)
　 ▪ The drug helps control painful muscle spasms.
▪muscle tissue (=the substance that muscles are made from)
　 ▪ If you lose weight too quickly you will lose muscle tissue as well as fat.

II. muscle² verb
muscle your way into/through etc something to use your strength to go somewhere:
　 ▪ Joe and Tony muscled their way through the crowd.
muscle in phrasal verb
to use your power to get involved in or take control of something that someone else was doing, especially in business – used to show disapproval
muscle in on
　 ▪ Banks are muscling in on the insurance business.