Myology

This web site by Chris Thu of Stanford University covers basic muscle structure and physiology, including types of muscle, organization of muscle, sarcomere structure and function, and ATP-myosin head interaction. A muscle frame animation (viewable only with Netscape 3.0 or greater) shows agonist-antagonist actions. A brief quiz of "What does a muscle need to contract?" is also available.

This fairly complete tutorial on superficial muscle identification comes from J. Crimando of Gateway College. It is a must-visit site for entry-level massage students who need to get a clear idea of what muscles are lying just underneath the skin. Excellent illustrations and organization.

Graphic from University of Wisconsin Department of Anatomy, www.anatomy.wisc.edu. Used with persmission.

Murray Jensen's page gives links to muscle anatomy quizzes. These are also a must-visit site for beginning massage school students.

Innerbody.com's muscle identification page is fun and just right for first-level massage school students.

This is the home page of the master muscle list of Loyola University-Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine.

Clicking on any muscle name brings up its origin, insertion, action, and nerve supply, and a simple schematic drawing of its location and attachments. While the muscle list appears comprehensive, the muscle action descriptions may not be complete and the diagrams are often too simple. For clear illustrations of individual muscle anatomy go to the following URL.

The University of Washington's musculoskeletal atlas has nice, clear images of most of the musculoskeletal structures which interest massage therapists.

This address for the muscle tables at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences offers probably the tidiest and most comprehensive of the muscle tables on the internet. Origin, insertion, action, innervation, artery, and notes appear in a neat tabular framework.

The Hosford Muscle Tables at PT Central offer complete myology information without illustrations or photos of muscles.

This web site is the comprehensive source for information about precise muscular and cardiovascular anatomy and anatomical variants, courtesy of Ronald Bergman and Adel Affi of University of Iowa at the Virtual Hospital. While probably not a good site for students, instructors can view it to better understand a particular muscle.

This site by massage therapist James Clay has a fairly comprehensive set of trigger- point charts with lots of description of how trigger points may have developed in each muscle.

There is some variation in the referral patterns as described by Clay and how they are described by Janet Travell. For accuracy of referral patterns, therapists ought to refer to Travel. However, Clay's palpation and treatment photos are good and precise. As well, he describes each muscle in layman's terms that most clients understand.