Anatomy 101: The Rotator Cuff

Jun 10,2018 / By The Hand Society / 1 Comment

The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles and tendons that surround the shoulder joint. These muscles and tendons provide stability in the shoulder, attaching around the head of the humerus bone, encircling it like a cuff. These four muscles include:

Infraspinatous: This muscle is positioned more behind the shoulder joint. It helps to externally rotate the arm, for example, when you are throwing a ball.
Supraspinatous: This muscle forms the upper border of the rotator cuff. It helps you bring your arm away from your body.
Subscapularis: This is the only rotator cuff muscle that is actually in front of the shoulder. It helps rotate the arm toward the body, such as when you touch your stomach.
Teres Minor: This muscle primarily helps externally rotate the shoulder, but it also helps pull the arm into the body.

What is a Flexor Tendon Injury?

May 21,2018 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

An injury to a flexor tendon is basically an injury to your muscle. The flexor muscles are the muscles that allow you to bend your fingers. These muscles are able to move your fingers through tendons, which are cord-like extensions that connect your muscle to your bone. The flexor muscles start at the elbow and forearm and turn into tendons just past the middle of the forearm. They then attach to the bones of the fingers.

These tendons can be injured, for example, by a deep cut. If you severely cut yourself, the cut could also damage surrounding structures such as nerves and vessels. Many times, an injury that looks simple on the outside, like a cut, can be very complicated on the inside. A severe cut that injures the tendons will mean that you won’t be able to bend your finger, as the flexor muscles allow this movement.

There are 5 different flexor muscles in the wrist and forearm, including:

Anatomy 101: The Distal Biceps

Apr 1,2018 / By The Hand Society / 1 Comment

The distal biceps muscle is located in the front of your arm (see image above). This muscle helps you to bend your elbow and twist your forearm. Unfortunately, the biceps is prone to injury, especially the biceps tendon, which connects the bicep muscle to the radius bone in your forearm. This tendon can weaken over time, which is called tendonosis. If you have tendonosis of the biceps tendon, you may feel a dull or sharp pain just past the elbow in the forearm. There’s also a chance that you will feel no pain.

Tendonosis can sometimes lead to a tear or rupture in the tendon. Tears or ruptures can happen when you are lifting something heavy such as furniture or weights.

Some signs that you may have torn or ruptured your biceps tendon include:

A popping feeling at the time of the rupture or tear
Pain in the elbow area
Weakness
Swelling
Bruising
Warmth in the elbow area
Muscle spasms

Anatomy Forearm Muscles Wrist

Anatomy 101: Wrist Muscles and Forearm Muscles

Jun 18,2017 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

The wrist muscles and forearm muscles do so much more than give you strength in your arm and wrist. These muscles also play a part in helping you move your hand and fingers. There are 18 different muscles!

Here’s a preview of these muscles:

Flexor pollicis longus: Helps you bend the tip of your thumb.
Flexor digitorum profundus: Helps you bend your index, middle, ring and small fingers.
Flexor digitorum superficialis: Helps you bend the middle joint of each finger, except for the thumb, which allows you to do things such as eating with chopsticks.
Flexor carpi ulnaris: Helps you move your wrist away from the thumb, which is helpful in playing darts.
Brachioradialis: Helps you twist your forearm so your palm is either facing up or down.
Flexor carpi radialis: Helps you bend the wrist and move it toward the thumb.
Palmaris longus: Helps you bend the wrist.
Extensor pollicis brevis: Helps you straighten the thumb.

To learn more about all 18 muscles, visit our wrist and forearm muscles page on www.HandCare.org.

Anatomy Elbow Hand Muscles

Anatomy 101: Elbow Muscles

Jun 6,2016 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

The muscles that control your elbow are actually located in the upper and lower arm. There are three muscles and one tendon that help your elbow move. They are:

Biceps Brachii: This is a muscle that is in the upper arm. It allows you to bend your elbow and rotate your forearm so that the palm faces up.
Brachialis: This is a muscle located in the lower arm. It also helps bending of the elbow.
Triceps Brachii: This is the third muscle. Located in the arm, it allows you to straighten your elbow.
Lacertus: This is a thick tendon that runs from the tendon of the biceps.

Learn more about elbow muscles and other muscles, bones, joints and tendons of the upper extremity at www.HandCare.org.

Anatomy Hand Muscles

Anatomy 101: Hand Muscles

Aug 4,2015 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

There are both intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the hand. The intrinsic muscles are in the hand itself, while the extrinsic muscles are in the forearm and control things such as your ability to grip an object. The intrinsic muscles include:

Interossei: Located between the bones of the hand
Hypothenar: Located in the palm
Lumbricals: Each of the four lumbrical muscles are associated with a finger.
Thenar: Located at the base of the thumb

Learn more about the hand muscles that allow you to perform daily activities with the anatomy tool at www.handcare.org.

Anatomy Muscles Shoulder

Anatomy 101: Shoulder Muscles

Apr 29,2015 / By The Hand Society / No Comment

What gives you the ability to throw a ball or reach for the top shelf? Shoulder muscles. Brush up on your anatomy knowledge with the interactive anatomy tool on www.handcare.org and learn about the muscles of the shoulder.

Category : Muscles

Anatomy 101: The Rotator Cuff

What is a Flexor Tendon Injury?

Anatomy 101: The Distal Biceps

Anatomy 101: Wrist Muscles and Forearm Muscles

Anatomy 101: Elbow Muscles

Anatomy 101: Hand Muscles

Anatomy 101: Shoulder Muscles