Muscle Anatomy Simplified Part 1.0

A Skeletal Muscle

It's been awhile. Nonetheless, I'll try to make that grey matter of yours a little more knowledgeable today. We'll be having a look at the most basic/gross version of the anatomy of a skeletal muscle. 

As you probably know, there are muscles all over your body. There's a distinction between :

• Smooth muscle (found in & around the internal organs)
• Cardiac muscle (your heart)  
• Skeletal muscle (the muscles that attach to bones and cause movement around joints)

For reference, i'll be talking about the anatomy of skeletal muscles today. Remember that this is a simplified version.

It all starts with your bones. You see, your bones are the perfect sturdy location for tendons to attach. If we follow the tendons we see that they slowly intertwine with the muscle itself. Around this big muscle belly lays something called a deep fascia, a sheet of connective tissue made up from collagen. At this level, the fascia is called the epimysium.

Bone --> Tendon --> Epimyisium --> Muscle Belly.

That one big muscle belly consists of multiple bundles of muscle fibers called "Fasciculus", around these bundles lays another layer of fascia, named perimysium.

Muscle Belly --> Perimysium --> Fascicle 

A fascicle consists of a large number of muscle fibers and, this is getting repetitive, are surrounded by a fascia called the endomysium. 

Fascicle --> Endomysium --> Muscle Fiber

This is the simplest way to describe a skeletal's muscle anatomy, from origin to muscle fiber. 

To recap : 

Bone --> Tendon --> Epimysium --> Muscle Belly --> Perimysium --> Fascicle (bundle of muscle fibers) --> Endomysium --> Muscle Fiber

As always, thanks for reading 

Thomas