It's Tuesday again...you didn't think I forgot did you?

I'm a little behind schedule in my studying. I should already be finished with all the nasty atamony and kinesiology stuff. I'm finishing it up tonight and will move on to exercise prescription where I'll get a bit more detailed.

For now though, I've been reading about bones, ligaments, joints, and muscles of the elbow, wrist, hand, fingers, pelvis, hip, knee, ankle, foot, and spine. I really don't know the best way to talk about it though because it feels very chaotic to tell you about what I'm reading. I guess I'll just pick different points to share since that's what I'm studying.

Here we go...

The elbow is commonly injured and is the second most injured joint from overuse or repetitive motion. It's because of its use in most upper extremity daily living activities, exercise, and most sports activities. Muscles of the elbow include biceps brachii, brachialis, brachioradialis, pronator teres, flexor carpi radialis, palmaris longus, and the posterior muscles include triceps brachii and anconeus.

The wrist, hand, and fingers are required for most daily living, work, and sports activities, including tasks such as gripping, lifting, writing, typing, eating, and throwing. Carpal tunnel syndrome which is one of the most common injury usually results from repeated microtrauma to the carpal tunnel and flexor retinaculum due to prolonged manual work with the wrist in a flexed position (eg, in individuals who work with computer keyboards, assembly line workers, cycles).

The pelvic girlde is the link between the axial skeleton (trunk) and lower extremities and consist of the sacrum, innominate and two femurs. Butt muscles: gluteus medius is just under the iliac crest then there's the gluteus minimus, piriformis, superior gemellus, obturator internus, inferior gemellus, quadratus femoris all of which is pretty much covered by the gluteus maximus. The upper posterior thigh muscles include gracillis, iliotibial tract, adductor magnus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris. Anterior (front of the body) thigh muscles include tensor fascia lata, iliopsoas, pectineus, adductor longus, gracillis, sartorius, rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, and iliotibial tract. The quadriceps consist of vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis. Calf muscles are soleus and gastrocnemius.

Because the knee joint bears the load of the upper body and trunk and is crucial for locomotion, it is frequently subject to overuse and traumatic injuries. The menisci are fibrocartilage discs which improve congruency of the joint surfaces, add stability, aid in shock absorption, provide joint lubrication, aid in load bearing, add anterior-posterior stability, and protect articular cartilage.

Proper function and mechanics of angles and feet are essential for most sports activities and performance of activities of daily living. There are 26 articulating bones and about 100 ligaments in the foot and ankle. The ankle is one of the few body parts that can move in multiple planes. Numerous acute muscular strains and cramps occur in the lower leg and foot, and many ligament sprains occur in this region as well.

The spine provides the link between the upper and lower extremities, protects the spinal cord, and enables trunk motion in three planes. True ribs are those that connect directly to the sternum, false ribs are those that indirectly connect to the sternum by cartilage, and floating ribs are those that do not connect. The most dangerous injuries to the cervical region are traumatic fractures and dislocations that result in instability of the column. Lower back pain is one of the leading causes of disability and consistently ranks as one of the top reasons for visits to physicians.

Okay! There you have it. My brain is now mush so that's all you get. Happy Tuesday and thanks for being here.