Muscular System

Abstract

Skeletal muscle is attached to the skeleton, is voluntarily controlled and has cells that are very long “fibres” that are multinucleate and striated. Each skeletal muscle is an organ and is named. The names may seem strange, but they contain information about the muscle. The name may indicate the location of the muscle in the body (femoris, brachii), the shape of the muscle (deltoid, trapezius), its action (adductor, pronator) or its relative size (maximus, longus) of the muscle. The names may indicate the origin and insertion points (sternocleidomastoid) of the muscle, or the number of origins (biceps, quadriceps), or the direction (rectus, transversus) in which the muscle fibres lie. Or they may be named whimsically (sartorius).