To practice our muscle naming, we're going to fill out this table here, and it says that the table below lists several muscles. Put a check in the box if the muscle's name involves a particular naming convention. Our naming conventions are if it's named after the body region, the shape, the size, the muscle action, the direction of fibers, the location of attachments, or the number of heads. Let's take a look at our muscles.
First up, we have the biceps femoris muscle. Looking at the word "biceps", what do you see? I see "bi". "Bi" means 2. So I'm going to put a check in the number of heads box because "biceps" indicates it has 2 origins or 2 heads. And then we have "femoris". What does that tell you? Well, it tells me it's a body region. "Femoris", referring to the femoral region, is in your thigh. That's a muscle with 2 origins in your thigh, part of your hamstring.
Next, we have the brachioradialis. What do you think that's named after? You might be tempted to say you see "brachio" there, indicating a body region, your upper arm. So let me go ahead and put a small check there. But, another component "radialis" indicates a listing of two body regions. It has "brachio", which is the upper arm, and "radialis", one of the bones in your forearm. This tells us it's the origin and the insertion of this muscle; the origins are in the brachial region on the humerus and the insertion is on the radius. This means I am going to put a check in the location of attachments box. When you have a muscle named directly after the location of the attachments, it always lists the origin before the insertion.
Next, we have the transverse abdominis. What do you see in the name "transverse"? "Transverse" is a directional term indicating it’s running crossways, which will be the direction of the fibers. Then "abdominis" clearly refers to the muscle's location, being in the abdominal area – a body region.
Then there's the serratus anterior muscle. What do you see in the word "serratus"? It’s slightly tricky. It’s derived from "serrated". The serratus anterior muscle extends from the scapula around your back, and its insertions are along the ribs. Because it inserts along many ribs, the edge of the muscle is somewhat jagged, looking serrated. When you contract this muscle, it pulls your shoulders forward. The term "serratus" is telling you about the shape of that muscle. Additionally, "anterior" indicates a body region or location that’s towards the front. It pulls around to the front. So, we'll add a check for body region.
Finally, we have the flexor hallucis brevis muscle. We have three important words here. "Flexor" implies the action to flex, which is a muscle action of bending at a joint. So, I'll put a check in muscle action. "Hallucis" refers to a body region; your hallux is your big toe. So what is it going to flex? It’s going to flex your big toe, indicating the body region. Lastly, "brevis" means "short", indicating the size of the muscle. It's essential to learn this as it often appears in muscle names.
Although it’s unlikely you will need to break down muscle names as we just did all the time, remembering this information about the muscles as you learn them helps you understand what the muscles are, what they do, and their size. As always, there are 4 practice problems to follow. Give them a try.