Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Ooooo! Love that Anatomy!

Time for another anatomy post! There are four muscles that flex the hand as a whole at the wrist. One of them, palmaris longus, is actually missing in about 14% of the population. It can be present on one hand, but not the other, or absent in both. Want to know if you're muscularly deficient, missing a palmaris longus tendon? Here's how: the tendon is quite superficial to the skin at the wrist (looking at your hand with your palm facing you). It lies at the center of your forearm in a line that points toward your 3rd finger (not your 2nd or 4th - there are other tendons in line with those). Resist bending/flexing your wrist with your other hand and, voila, your palmaris longus tendon becomes visible as a short, taut band lying amongst the veins at your wrist. That's if you own one! Oh, and don't worry if you don't. There's no evidence to suggest it actually makes a difference to your grip strength. So your downward dogs and arm balance poses will not suffer because of it!

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