Re: How many muscles do you use to throw a football?

Hi David!

You ask an interesting question. Simply put, there are about thirty muscles involved in throwing a football. They are the muscles in your rotator cuff (shoulder), your entire arm (biceps, triceps, forearm), also, your trapezius (neck-shoulder) and the latissimus dorsi, and serratus anterior muscles (the muscles over the side of your ribs). Now, the interesting part is that there are a whole bunch of muscles that are indirectly involved, like your leg muscles that help propel your body for momentum, your finger muscles that hold the football and some stomach muscles that twist your body for "proper position". A neat way to see for yourself which muscles are flexing is to motion like you're throwing and feel the muscles in the places I mentioned with your other hand (I've been doing this in front of my computer!). Thanks for your question!

Jen Paur