Frontalis – frontal bone
Lateralis – lateral or on the side
Tibialis anterior – front of tibia fibularis
Longus – near fibula
Supra – above
Infra – below
Sub - underneath
lmaximus – largest
lminimis – smallest
lvastus - huge
llongus – longest
lbrevis – short
lmajor – large
lminor – small
4 – Direction/Orientation of the muscle
fibers/cells
Annotations:
lrectus (straight) - parallel
to the muscle’s long axis
ex: rectus abdominis
l
ltransversus (transverse) – at right
angles to the muscle’s long axis
l
oblique – diagonal
5 – Number of Origins
6 – Location of the Attachments
7 – Action of the muscle
Muscle Function
Sliding Filament Theory
Skeletal Muscles During Movement
Annotations:
1. Agonist: The agonist in a movement is the muscle(s) that provides the major force to complete the movement. Because of this agonists are known as the ‘prime movers’. In the bicep curl which produces flexion at the elbow, the biceps muscle is the agonist, as seen in the image below.
The agonist is not always the muscle that is shortening (contracting concentrically). In a bicep curl the bicep is the agonist on the way up when it contracts concentrically, and on the way down when it contracts eccentrically. This is because it is the prime mover in both cases.
2. Antagonist: The antagonist in a movement refers to the muscles that oppose the agonist. During elbow flexion where the bicep is the agonist, the tricep muscle is the antagonist. While the agonist contracts causing the movement to occur, the antagonist typically relaxes so as not to impede the agonist, as seen in the image above.
The antagonist doesn’t always relax though, another function of antagonist muscles can be to slow down or stop a movement. We would see this if the weight involved in the bicep curl was very heavy, when the weight was being lowered from the top position the antagonist tricep muscle would produce a sufficient amount of tension to help control the movement as the weight lowers.