The lateral compartment are the muscles here, which lie laterally, and these evert the foot. They extend the digits, and they invert the foot also.Īs well as plantarflexion, flexion of the digits and inversion, there are two muscles in the posterior compartment which actually can flex at the knee because of their attachment on the femur, and these are the gastrocnemius and the plantaris muscle, which I'll come on to talk about. The muscles of the anterior compartment, here, do the opposite really, so they dorsiflex the foot, so bring the toes upwards. The muscles of the posterior compartment plantar flex at the ankle joint, they flex the digits, and they invert the foot. If you imagine lying down on your back and bringing your toes up towards your head - that's dorsiflexion and plantarflexion is the opposite. You open this angle further, so you, so it's getting up on your tip toes essentially, and dorsiflexion is bringing your toes towards your head. Plantar flexion is when you, get up on your tip toes basically, so if you, so if you can see this angle between the foot and the shin, it.you extend this angle. The muscles of the posterior compartment here, mainly act to plantar flex the foot, flex the digits, and invert the foot. And these compartments are separated by intermuscular septa, and the interosseus membrane between the tibia and the fibula.
Just like my tutorials on the thigh and the upper limb, the muscles of the leg can be broken down into compartments. I'm going to break this tutorial into two parts, so I'm going to do the first part on the posterior compartment, and then the second part will be on the muscles of the anterior and lateral compartments. The leg is the region of the lower limb, which lies between the knee joint and the ankle joint.
Okay so this tutorial is on the muscles of the leg.