Anatomy and Physiology - Q for medical people?

This is really a question for anyone that has any ideas to retain large amounts of information! But if there is anyone that can specificly help me with muscles that would be great...

How do you remember the names of all the muscles :dunno:

I don't know what to do, I just cannot get them to stick in my head! There are so many and I know once I am working and actively talking about them i'll remember them but this is doing my head in!!!

I'm fine with the bones, it's just the muscles i'm struggling with. And why do they have to be such long, hard to spell words??? I mean sternocleidomastoid...really??? For that tiny muscle??? Who named that and what kind of day were they having???

If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it! TIA!

What methods have you tried? As a nurse, I didn't have to learn the name of every muscle (thank GOD!) but there was a lot to remember. For anatomy stuff, there is a program called anatomica which strips the body layer by layer - this could be a useful visual guide to assist you in remembering what goes where.

Also, songs and rhymes are very useful in getting the old brain matter to recall the info you need. Try something catchy though like the mississipi tune (M I SS I SS I PP I) or whatever songs you have trouble getting out of your head.

Some names remind me of objects or people so I try and link the two to remember them.

One of my fav things though was to have a skeleton (I had a big one I got off Ebay) and would stand naming all the bits and pieces. I also had posters (I got them from a medical book store in Adelaide when they were selling them off to get rid of them. Got them for $5 a pop instead of $30!) and would put them on the back of the toilet door so I had no choice but to stare and remember it. I rotated them frequently to get all the stuff into my thick head.

But perhaps the biggest tip is to take it one day at a time. Each day add 3 more muscles to your list. Start at the top and work your way down. List everything from the top down in order and anything else you need to know (like what it does). The repition will help get it to stick. Perhaps one at breakfast, one at lunch, and one at dinner time. Repeat the list to yourself whenever your doing something mudane like driving or cleaning or cooking. Start by reciting what the new one is and then reciting your list from top down.

Hopefully that all makes sense. Good luck - and try not to stress yourself out too much. Noone (including doctors) can remember EVERYTHING about the human body... that's why we keep our resources ;)

MG

Ooooo, I love this sort of thing!

I studied anatomy years ago and asked exactly the same question: How on earth do you remember all the names of all of those muscles!!! I left the study behind as I wasn't really interested... and then took it up again 10 years later. This time I really loved it got through the course with ease and ended up teaching in the course!

The good thing is that if you get the bones.. you are half way there, most muscles use their bony attachments in their names.

The technique I used was to get a general understanding of what the latin names mean... then the names all made sense:
eg:

• Rectus pretty much means straight...

Femoris relates to the leg - the thigh bone. Hence, Rectus Femoris is the straight muscle in the thigh.

Abdominus relates to the Abdomen. Hence, Rectus Abdominus is the straight muscle in the belly

Capitus relates to head, hence Rectus Capitus is the straight muscle in the suboccipital muscle group at the base of the skull

• Sternocleidomastoid:

Sterno-sternum
Cleido-clavicle
Mastoid-relating to the Mastoid process on the base of the skull
Hence, a muscle attaching to the sternum, the clavicle and the mastoid process

• Flexor Carpi Ulnaris

A muscle that performs a 'flexion' action, at the 'carple bones' (the wrist) and is attached on the 'Ulnar' side of the forearm (compared with flexor carpi radialis on the radial side or extensor carpi ulnaris, an extensor rather than a flexor)

and so on....

Another thing I found really helpful was a colouring in book for muscles. Colouring in can be quite meditative and a much nicer way to study than reading notes etc. I will try to find a link to the book if you are interested. It is excellent.

The good news is that the more you use the language the more second nature it becomes. I remember a point at the 6 month mark of study (second time around) where it all of a sudden began to fall into place and just click! Hang in there, as I said, if you have the bones under control, you will get the muscles soon enough! HTH

i want to thank you for the reply's for this i'm 3 weeks out from my final exam for this subject and i have to say i am freaking out so any more tips bring them on

I'm with Jackrose - love your work! ;)

I am a freak who loves this stuff too - I have a photographic memory - and I can retain lots of meaningless pieces of information,,, :redface:

My tip would be to use the lingo in every day life - your leg is no longer your leg - if you gt my drift! :rolleyes:

Yep - what Jackrose said. Most of the muscles are easier to remember if you can break the words into bits (there is a method to the madness of naming them ........... most of the time :rolleyes:) and it sticks in your head a little better.

Good luck :)

I'm having enough troubles with the BONES!!!!!! I'm going back to do my anatomy subject next year (fingers crossed - depends on work) and I'm starting to work through the stuff I'm going to cover (got the external subject notes from uni) so I can get ahead!

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This is really a question for anyone that has any ideas to retain large amounts of information! But if there is anyone that can specificly help me with muscles that would be great...

How do you remember the names of all the muscles :dunno:

I don't know what to do, I just cannot get them to stick in my head! There are so many and I know once I am working and actively talking about them i'll remember them but this is doing my head in!!!

I'm fine with the bones, it's just the muscles i'm struggling with. And why do they have to be such long, hard to spell words??? I mean sternocleidomastoid...really??? For that tiny muscle??? Who named that and what kind of day were they having???

If anyone has any tips I would really appreciate it! TIA!

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when you remember all the muscles (as, indeed many medical terms) are in Latin, it makes it easier to remember.

in the back of my anatomy text it has a glossary of prefaces and suffixes, and once you see the pattern of the words it gets easier, too !

familiarity. get one of your kids or a friend to be your "dummy" and point to the muscles on their body while reading the names. in remedial massage we had life-size muscle charts to reference to while working on each other in the prac class :)

Oh I loved the colouring book! Just looked it up - by Wynn Kapit and Lawrence Elson. Also valuable was the Learning Guide for Tortora and Grabowski.

I found also learning the nomenclature of plants ( I was doing Botany too) helped alot because its all relative. When you understand what it does and what its for you at least have a start! Yay Jackrose - thats what I mean...I didn't put it as well.

Another thing I did was use my friends to help and incorporate it into everyday life. I remembered an AWFUL lot for exams purely because I would give my friends my notes (when we were having a cuppa or a drinkypoo on Friday night) and they would fire off questions at me. There were things that stuck in my mind, sometimes only because they would pronounce things wrong, or would make some funny comment about it.

I will never forget sartorius because I went out for dinner and this yummy guy sat next to me, and I pointed out all the muscles it took for him to sit down starting with that. I married him about 10 months later......

Oh wow thanks so much guys!!!

Must check out the colouring in book - i'm a very visual learner (hence the reason i'm struggling so much learning by correspondence).

Ok so for the major muscle groups that i'll be using a lot I have the shoulders, quads and calves down - for the basics I really only need the Hammys and the back - the back I am really stuggling with...but i'll get there! Then I need to start on all the funny little ones that you don't really think baout.

Shaz - I found the bones easier because the words were easier to remember. And I could think of more ways to relate them to other things like the Ulna, when in the supine position is next to "U". And the Fibula is on the outside and if you fib to a friend you'd be on the "outer" lol! Its dumb how you remember it isn't it! Also the humerus is easy as it's near you funny bone! Clavicle and scapula I used to get confuse about til I though you clap infront of your body so the clavicle must be infront!

And as for the spellings of all the words well...when i'm saying them no one knows how it's spelt!

If anyone has anymore little anecdotes for remembering the muscles i'd love to hear them!

OMG today is the last day of my course then I jsut need to do my work experience and get my first aid cert and i'm a Gym Instructor :dance:

Oh and when you come across those people that talk you down remember they are obviously overusing their buccinator, platysma, mentalis and risorious.....or talking out their glutes.

When you are working out yourself, concentrate on the muscles you are using and what they are doing, and also how they relate to each other as you feel them move. Instead of counting reps (or whatever it is you sick puppies at the gym do) repeat to yourself the muscles you are using. HTH

Congrats on nearly finishing your course!
I agree, I don't think there's an easy way to remember them except for just using the anatomical names as often as you can.
DD has a wiggles DVD that has 'Dem Bones' on it and I always try to sing along with the correct anatomical names for the bones LOL!
I agree with jackrose too - once you've got the bones down, the muscle names are HEAPS easier to remember.
Good luck with the remainder of your study!

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buccinator, platysma, mentalis and risorious.....or talking out their glutes.

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Huh...where the heck are those???

Phewf, well i've finished! I am going to get that colouring in book and I told everyone in my course about it too so sales are going to be going up. Now just have to keep the kids away from it...

The first lot are the muscles used for talking/tensing your mouth. I didn't know if you would have come across those ones since people don't often need a face workout! But if you don't know what Glutes are we need to have a serious talk.....!

ETA: oh and don't think I recited those off the top of my head, I looked them up in my trusty Tortora & Grabowski !

Glutes???

Haha only joking! "Cept I now only refer to them as Gluteus maximus, medius and minimus (wish mine was minimus!)

Good for you CombatQueen,

Gluteus maximus, medius and minimus seem to have stuck!

just thought it might help to tell you my little trick with the colouring book, I ended up photocopying any pages I coloured in rather than use the book and this meant that I could re-do a page at anytime if I needed more help or there was something on the page I learned at a later date. It also meant that I can resell the book if I want to later.

You could also consider getting together with a few classmates to purchase it to make it more affordable, cos we all know how damn expensive text books can be! Especially for poor students who are sacrificing a wage to study!

Great idea thanks JR - and thanks for the PM, i'll check that out now :thumbsup:

just out of curiosity, what are you studying?

I'm studying Fitness. Just started my Cert 4. At the moment i'm a gym instructor and when I finish i'll be a Personal Trainer :)