Reading Recommendations- Anatomy DORKS

We try to keep your bookshelves lively in our reading recommendations with a wide span of categories to tickle parts of your brain that help you imagine, escape or emote. This round however we are unleashing our love of anatomy reads. There are so so many great books on this subject but here are a few of our favorites!

Image from Albinus on Anatomy

Albinus on Anatomy: If you have stretched at the ladder barrel and discussed the deep front line while doing so, you too already love this book. 

Anatomy of Movement: This book gives excellent movement and imagery that help you understand the anatomy from a more somatic perspective.

Netter's: This is a serious amatomy book for great, detailed anatomical drawings.

Anatomy Trains: You may have been hearing a lot about fascia in the last few years. This book breaks down anatomy from the lens of how the fascia interacts with the body. This is a different understanding than your average muscle and bone understanding.

Anatomy Coloring Book: For the visual learners out there, this is a really great workbook that is only a slight step away from a color by number.

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The Clavicle

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Your clavicles, or collar bones, are beautiful bones on either side of your sternum or breast bone. They use their wonderful double curves to connect your arms to your torso and help form your shoulder girdle. When we talk about the shoulder girdle we are referring to both clavicles and both scapula. Each clavicle connects to your sternum on the left and right at the sternoclavicular joint. The sternoclavicular joint provides the only connection between your quite complex shoulder girdle and your axial skeleton. 

Understanding how your clavicle is positioned and moves can greatly change your posture and your practice. These are the bridges from your arms to your center and are more articulate in movement than you might think. 

Not sure where yours are? They are easy to trace. Place your right hand on the notch of your sternum and trace this curvy bone out towards your left shoulder.

There's a lot in a name for this bone! Clavicle comes from the latin word for clavicula which means "key" or "little key". Your clavicle turns like a key at the sternoclavicular joint in relationship to how you are using your arms and shoulders. Your shoulder girdle floats on your rib cage like a collar floats around your neck. 

Interesting Facts to change the way you think about your collar bones:

1. We sometimes think of our collar bones as the top of our torso. In fact your first rib is above your collarbone. 

2. The clavicle is the first bone to begin the ossification process in the fetus and one of the last to finish ossifying. 

3.  It is the only bone that runs horizontal in the body. 

4. There are so many muscles, ligaments, and tendons that help make our shoulder girdle both articulate and stable. Here are some of the muscles you might know that attach directly on the clavicle: pectorals major, trapezius, sternocleidomastoid, deltoid, subclavius and sternohyoid!

5.  Birds that fly often and are not primarily ground dwelling have  particularly strong clavicles that are unified at the sternum into one bone. This creates a strong rebound up in the wings when flying and creates resistance in the flap down making the whole motion more effective. Other animals that rely on running fast have no collar bones at all!

** "Left clavicle - close-up - animation" by Anatomography - en:Anatomography (setting page of this image). Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.1 jp via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Left_clavicle_-_close-up_-_animation.gif#/media/File:Left_clavicle_-_close-up_-_animation.gif

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Sesamoids

Shorty here to tell you about some tiny bones you may not even know you have! A sesamoid bone is a bone that is held within a tendon or a muscle. Your knee cap is a sesamoid! Today I want to tell you about the sesamoids in your feet! At the base of your big toes, under the ball of your foot you have two tiny bones - sesamoids! 

These bones are floating in the flexor hallucis brevis muslce. The tendon of your flexor hallucis longus goes in between your two sesamoid bones. Both of these muscles attach to your hallux (your big toe). The FHB and FHL muscles help point your big toe, draw the toe medially (opposite of bunion!), and are important muscles in medial ankle support.

When your foot alignment gets off, or you develop strength imbalance in your feet, it is possible to develop sesamoiditis, a very painful condition where the ball of your big toe becomes painful and inflamed when you put weight into that part of your foot. It is also possible to fracture these tiny bones. OUCH.

We recommend keeping your feet strong and balanced as well as wearing footwear that doesn't put undue force through the balls of your feet!

This post is an addition to our #monthofthefoot series. Expand your foot knowledge with all the posts in the series and check out more of #ShortySwan's infinite anatomy wisdom here!

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What the %&#*# does that mean?

Hey it's Shorty :). I realized there are some terms we use all the time in Pilates that may need some explaining. Here is a list that I will continue to update with anatomical terms!

adduction - moving a body part towards center.  I remember this by thinking "add up to center to build a stronger midline"

abduction - moving away from center. We usually say "A-B-duction because the two words sound very similar. Side leg lifts is a hip abduction exercise that is easy to use as a reminder of what the movement is

anterior - on the FRONT of the body or body part. This word applies to a bunch of different actions but in simple terms - the front

posterior  - on the BACK of the body or body part

sagital plane - this plane divides the body down the midline into two halves - right to left

coronal plane - this plane divides the body in half - front to back (or belly and back :))

transverse plane - this plane cuts horizontally through the body, dividing into superior and inferior

superior - above or top portion

inferior - below or bottom portion 

plantar - bottom of foot - think plantar fasciitis.  OUCH!

proximal - close to center - think center of the breastbone or sacrum

medial - pertaining to the middle, or in towards the middle of the body - as in the side of your knee that is closest to the other knee aka closer to the midline of your body

distal - far from center - think fingertips and toes

lateral - the opposite of medial - as in the outside of your knee or the side farthest away from the midline of your body

flexion - closing a joint. Think hip flexion - folding hip and drawing knee into chest

etension - opening a joint - Think back extension - opening front of body and shortening back of body

internal rotation - rotating towards the midline of the body

external rotation - rotating away from the midline of the body

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Gluteus Minimus

Gluteus Minimus is the smallest and deepest of your glutes. If we work our way superficial to deep you have Gluteus Maxiumus, Gluteus Medius and now Gluteus Minimus. 

Where is it?

Glute min originates on the posterior ilium  and inserts on the anterior (towards the front of the body) portion of your greater trochanter. 

Image from wiki images. 

What does it do?

Glute min is an assister. Minimus helps medius abduct the leg (move it away from the mid-line of the body), and when the hip is extended min helps internally rotate it too! Minimus also aids in flexion of the hip joint.

Stay tuned for some excellent exercises to help you identify and utilize all those #gloriousglutes muscles!

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Gluteus Medius

Our #gloriousglutes series continues with a #Shortyswan lesson on the Gluteus Medius. Stay tuned for at-home exercises and articles to continue your glute education!

WHERE IS IT?

The Gluteus Medius muscle originates from the outer surface of your ilium and inserts on your greater trochanter. It is sometimes called the deltoid of the hip, as it resembled the deltoid in your shoulder. Like the deltoid, glute med holds the outside of the joint from the top to the side, kind of like a shoulder pad, or a hand holding the outside of the joint.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

The main function of the glute med is to abduct the leg (move it away from center) and to assist slightly in medial (internal) rotation. When lying on your side, the Glute Med should be the main mover in your side leg lift. It is also a key stabilizer when standing on one leg and walking. In the picture above you see a stabilized pelvis on the left and on the right, a pelvis that is not properly stabilized by the glutes. The glute med helps to keep the top of your femur from sliding laterally (to the side) and thus helps secure the head of the femur more soundly in the hip socket -- it helps make space in your hip socket and helps the weight of your torso transfer through your legs in a healthy way.  

WHY DO I CARE?

A healthy, strong set of Gluteus Medius muscles helps protect your back, your knees, your feet and ankles. It is a massively important muscle used to control alignment through your legs, ankles and feet. Maintaining strong glute meds can help conditions such as piriformis syndrome, runners knee, ankle instability and more. Stay tuned for ways to strengthen these puppies!

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Gluteus Maximus

It's time to talk those #gloriousglutes! We all know what those are, right?! Glutes get talked about all the time through a variety of lenses. Let's begin our anatomical break down from the outside in, or superficial to deep. Today we will focus only on Gluteus Maximus and later this month we will look at Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Minimus as well as how they all three work together!

Where is it?

Your Glute Max has some interesting attachments. This large muscle originates along multiple surfaces -- just behind the posterior gluteal line of the ilium which is a land mark along the back of your iliac crest, your lumbodorsal fascia, the lower back side of your sacrum, the side of your coccyx , and the sacrotuberous ligament !! Whew!

Your glorious Glute Max's insertions are just as interesting. Roughly the upper 2/3 of it's fibers (those closest to your waist band) pass over the greater trochantor and insert into the iliotibial band. The lower 1/3 of the glute max are a bit deeper in and insert to the gluteal tuberosity, a raised portion on the lateral edge of your femur bone.

What does it do?

This most superficial Glute does great things! 

Hip Extension

When our thigh or femur is held still, it brings our pelvis forward and on top of our femur. Think going up stairs or going up front on the chair in the studio! In daily life this happens every time you bend over and lift something off the floor. And SQUATS!

When our pelvis is still, the glute max brings the femur in line with the body. Think swimming legs on the mat or the barrel, holding your legs up in swan on the chair or single leg elephant! 

For both of these actions the gluteus maximus is assisted by the hamstrings to create hip extension. A tight psoas or illiacus can make hip extension hard. 

**This is a great time to mention while I often explain muscles individually they hardly ever work alone to move your body. I like to give the information to you this way to make it easy to digest. Our muscles are a connected, happy family that need each other to move us through space. This is why balanced strength and mobility are so important among all your groups of muscles!**

Lateral or External Rotation of the Femur

The lower fibers of the Glute Max assist in laterally rotating your leg- aka turning it out. Working with them are your deep six rotators and your quadratus femurs. This happens during clam shells and side lying leg press. 

Adduction of the Femur

Adduction is moving your leg towards your midline. Again the lower fibers act on the femur here, drawing it in towards the mid-line of your body and drawing the femur in toward the hip socket. This happens in your back leg as you step forward or lift your leg in swimming legs. 

Abduction of the Femur

This talented muscle also moves your femur in the opposite direction. Abduction is moving the femur away from your mid line. The top fibers of the glute max work with the Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Minimus to move your leg out to the side. Think of side lying leg lifts! 

Now that you know the many movements the Gluteus Maximus helps create go back and look again at the origin and insertion- sometimes knowing the two together helps you more clearly understand the muscle and how it pulls on your bones! 

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Healthy Hammies

me: Hey Shorty, what are hamstring good for anyways?

Shorty: Well my friend, let me tell you a thing or two :). Your hamstrings have a few key functions in leg movement, as well as in stabilizing your knee and pelvis. Last week I laid the hamstrings out in anatomical detail, but today I will talk about them in pretty simple movement terms.  

An easy way to feel your hamstring working is doing an exercise like bridging. This movement is moving towards hip extension (aka moving your leg behind you). The hamstrings help with the first few degrees of hip extension in movements like walking, running, swimming etc. Exercises like bridging and swimming in Pilates can help you feel a strong contraction of the hamstrings.

Another healthy function of the hammies is to stabilize your pelvis. huh? 

Because parts of your hamstrings connect to your sits bones, the hamstrings can work to stabilize your pelvis bones.  When the muscles around your pelvis are in harmony, the hamstrings work to pull the sits bones earthbound, helping ground you! Conversely, if your hamstrings are unevenly developed right to left, they can unevenly pull on your pelvis and cause sacroiliac or back discomfort. If your hamstrings aren't firing well at all, you may be stressing the joints of your pelvis and lower back too much because it cannot stay solidly grounded.

Healthy hammies work to stabilize and flex (bend) your knees. Last week I showed how your hamstrings attach to either side of your knee, just below the joint. When your hamstrings are evenly developed, you will have a nice even gait and support from both sides of your leg. However, your knees are tricky. It is very easy for your lower leg to spin in or out. The hamstrings can help this by pulling on one side or the other. It is important to keep the inner part AND outer part of your hamstrings strong so that the force on your knee stays balanced! 

You must maintain even strength between the hamstrings and quadriceps. This balances the front and back forces on your hip, support of your knees, the relationship of your legs to your torso, and overall grounding to the earth. 

Many of us have slight imbalances with the way that we work our hamstrings - either one side is stronger than the other, one part of a hamstring dominates, one side is more flexible than the other, the hamstrings are much weaker than the quads etc. A lot of time hamstrings are forgotten when working on leg strength but they are SO important for finding balance in strength building and alignment. Always make sure to take the time to check in with them, strengthen them, stretch them, and use them to help you stay strong and grounded!

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Hamstrings

Shorty Swan here to help you understand your hamstrings. Let's talk about where they are and what they do. Stay tuned for #hammies posts with exercises and more! There's a lot to cover so let's jump right in. 

Your hamstrings are the set of three muscles that make up the back of your thigh. (Must admit they are one of Shorty's favorites!). All three hammies cross over the back of your knee joint and articulate your hip joint. This is important for understanding how they move your body and how to stretch them properly when they are tight. 

Let's do a roll call:

1. Biceps Femoris 2. Semitendinosus  3. Semimembranosus

Biceps Femoris

This hammie has a long head and a short head as it's name indicates. The long head originates at the ishcial tuberosity or sitz bone and the short head originates at the linea aspera which is a ridge located in the middle of the back of your femur or thigh bone. Both heads thread together, pass over the  back of the knee, and insert on the lower leg. The long head inserts on a lateral edge of the tibia and the short head inserts on the lateral head of the fibula.  (Some of you are very familiar with your sciatic nerve and should note it innervates both the long and short head of Biceps fem.)

What does my Biceps Femoris do? 

Great question. The long head acts on hip extension using it's attachment to the ischial tuberosity. Both heads act on knee flexion aka bending your knee. Because this hamstring is positioned laterally, it supports lateral rotation of the flexed knee or extended hip. 

Semitendinosus

Semitendinosus originates at the ischial tuberosity or sitz bones too, sharing a tendinous attachment with the Biceps Femoris.  Then it travels medially, or towards center line, and inserts on the inside front corner of the shaft of the tibia. 

What does it do?

With it's shared origin to Biceps Fem. comes shared function. Semitendinosus extends the hip and flexes the knee. However, due to its medial insertion it contributes to medial rotation of the knee or inward rotation. 

Semimembranosus

Semimembranosus originates at the ischial tuberosity. (Those ischia are a busy attachment site!) It continues down and inserts on the inside back corner of the shaft of the tibia. This is the most medial of your hamstrings meaning it sits closest to your midline.  Semimembranosus is deeper than Semitendinosus as well as  a bit wider 

What does it do?

Are you picking up the pattern ? :) Again Semimembranosus shares function where it shares attachment with it's hamstring neighbors. It acts on hip extension, knee flexion and medal rotation of the knee. 

When you think about the insertions of these three muscles on the inside and outside of your knee you can easily put together how balance, strength, stability and ROM for these #hammies plays into knee heath and stability. We will get further into healthy hamstring functions in another post!

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Disc Issues and Nerve Pain

Everyone's spine is very different. Everyone experiences pain very differently. A large number of people have either bulging or herniated discs with no symptoms. HOWEVER, those of us who have had or do have symptoms know how painful nerve pain can be!

In our Vertebra Break Down we talk about discs in a more technical manner. Intervertebral discs are circular cushions that live in the spaces in between vertebral bodies, helping receive and distribute pressure down through the spine. Discs are kind of shaped like jelly donuts (flatish, circular and filled with gooey liquid).  In a healthy spine, there is equal pressure running through the discs--no one part (front, sides or back of the circular disc) is receiving more force. When your spine becomes imbalanced, the vertebrae can shift in a way that weights one part of the disc more than another, causing the jelly to move over to the opposite side causing a bulge on that side, and in some cases, the jelly shoots out and your disc herniates. This bulge of viscous liquid or expulsion of liquid can put pressure on the nerves that exit vertebral segments and enervate particular parts of your body. When this happens, you may experience weakness, tingling or pain in the referred area.

Image credit: cedars-sinai.com

Image credit: Hopkins Medical

Certain parts of your spine correlate to certain parts of your body. Your spinal cord comes from your brain and continues down your spine like a long horse tail. Nerves exit different parts of your spine and continue out into your body and limbs. For instance the nerves that enervate your arms and upper body leave your spine at the cervical (neck) level. The nerves that enervate your lower body leave your spine from your lower back. The place where the nerve leave the spine is called the "nerve root". When a nerve root is compressed or aggravated by a change in the shape of your disc, the pain will shoot to the place in your body that particular nerve travels. This is called "referred pain". This pain can be felt as weakness, tingling, burning or numbness.

Hopefully this post can help explain why, when you are feeling pain or experiencing weakness somewhere else in your body, it is possible that the problem originates from your back. We always look for a healthy, elongated, supported, strong and balanced spine so that we can avoid the types of imbalances that cause disc bulges and herniations!

If you think you are having nerve pain, it is best to consult an orthopedic doctor and not self diagnose.

Vertebra Break Down

Last time Shorty Introduced you to the parts of your #spine. But what about the individual vertebrae that link together to make up your spine? We should understand their structure too! Knowing a little bit about how individual vertebrae are shaped will help you move them well and understand what's going on if you or someone you love has back problems. 

We will cover just a few elements of the basic structure of a typical vertebrae. You should know there is variation in the structure of the vertebrae based on what segment of the spine they are located. Cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral vertebrae all have different shapes and sizes based on the function of the portion of the spine they are in and what demands for movement or stability they require. When we talk about vertebrae, we name them with the first letter of the portion of the spine they live in and their number. We number vertebrae from top to bottom or head towards tail. For example the vertebra closest to your head in your thoracic spine is called T-1. Your lowest lumbar vertebra is called L-5. (See more here.) 

Vertebral Body

Image from Wikipedia

This is the largest part of the vertebrae and is shaped like a cylinder. Your intervertebral discs are cartilaginous cushions that live between each vertebral body, joining them together. These discs help allow the vertebrae to move  and provide shock absorption. Each disc is made of connective tissue and has a softer central portion, know as the nucleus pulposus, and tougher surrounding tissue called the annulus fibrosis. The vertebral body is the anterior portion of the vertebrae. Anterior means closer to the front of your body.  In other words the vertebral bodies and discs are the front side of your spine. 

Spinous Process

Lumbar vertebra image from Wikipedia 

This is the part of your spine you can see when you round your back or feel when you run your hand down your spine. Each spinous process is connected to the the vertebra above and below it by ligaments and muscles. The spinous processes also serve as an attachment point for a number of muscles like your Latissimus Dorsi (T6-T12), Trapezius (C7 to T12) and Multifidus (All vertebrae). The spinous process is the part of the vertebral arch or posterior portion of the vertebrae. Posterior means towards the back of the body. Check out this dinosaur, the Spinosaurus, that had crazy big spinous processes !

Transverse Process

The transverse process are boney points that stick out to the sides on each vertebra and  also serve as an attachment point for muscles and ligaments. Examples of a few muscles with attachments on your transverse processes are Levator Scapula (C1-C4) and Quadratus Lumborum (L1-L4). Each vertebra has two transverse process on the right and left side. You could imagine these like arms or wings. 

Vertebral Foramen

The spinal cord passes through each vertebrae's vertebral foramen. The vertebral foramen is the hole between the body and the vertebral arch. All of your vertebrae stack on top of each other and together form the spinal or vertebral canal. This is a passageway for your spinal cord. 

These are just the first few land marks to get to know your vertebra! Keep your eyes peeled for more #spine posts to deepen your knowledge.