In our last newsletter, we examined the physiology of the human muscle system from an alternative health perspective. In this newsletter, we continue with that theme by exploring both the physics of muscle movement and the code that underpins muscle anatomy. And no, the goal is not to teach you the names of all 799 skeletal muscles in the body, but rather to show you “how” the muscles are named. Muscle names are not just a bunch of random Latin words, but rather, are named according to a set of informal rules; and once you understand those rules, you can pretty much tell where any muscle is located and what it does.

By itself, though, this is not important; but once armed with the information, we will then be able to talk about exercise — and exactly how to exercise our muscles to accomplish specific goals and achieve optimum health.

The Physics of Muscles

Before we can discuss the naming system for muscles, we need to understand the principle of levers that make the whole musculoskeletal system work since many muscle names are derived from that principle. The reason for this is simple: all skeletal muscles provide stability and produce movement in the body by acting as the force or effort applied to the levers of our bones — and by using opposing forces to achieve mechanical advantage. Or to put it another way, muscles move bones around joints. Read the rest of this entry →