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It is thanks to our arm muscles that we can produce movements of the forearm like flexion and extension. In other words, they play a rather important role in several of our daily movements like brushing our teeth, getting dressed, lifting at the gym and hugging our friends and family.
But most importantly, they’re a topic you simply can’t escape from in your anatomy exam! That’s why, in the following article, we’ll be helping you to learn the five muscles of the arm as quickly and effectively as possible. We'll also be covering the muscles of the shoulder, which are closely related.
Fill in the blank diagram of the muscles of the arm and shoulder, available to download belowWhen we speak about the arm, we refer to the portion between the elbow and shoulder joints. Here we find five muscles known as the biceps brachii, brachialis, coracobrachialis, triceps brachii and anconeus.
The former three occupy the anterior compartment of the arm, and are involved in forearm flexion. Conversely the triceps brachii, located in the posterior compartment of the arm, is primarily involved in forearm extension. The tiny but mighty anconeus, although not physically situated on the arm proper, performs a similar function to the triceps.
As the intrinsic muscles of the shoulder attach on the humerus (the only bone of the arm), they are often learned alongside the arm muscles. There are six of them in total - the deltoid and teres major, plus the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis and teres minor which belong to a group called the rotator cuff.
So now you know the anatomy of the shoulder and arm muscles, right? Wrong! There’s still a lot to learn, including their functions and surrounding structures like blood vessels and nerves. Watching our comprehensive video below is a good place to get started.
In the next section we’ll start the revision process with a handy arm muscle diagram.
As you’ll know if you’re a fan of our quiz revision series, we always recommend starting revision with a practice test to gauge how much you’ve understood from the video. In today’s case, our tool of choice is a diagram with the arm muscles clearly labeled.
Seeing all of the muscles together in one diagram is a great way to train your brain to differentiate between all of the different structures so you don’t get them jumbled up later down the line. Not to mention, it helps you memorize their long and complicated names!
Take some time to study the arm and shoulder muscles diagram above and connect the different structures with what you’ve learned about their functions in the video.
Once you’re feeling confident, you can try labeling the structures yourself by filling in the blanks! For this you can simply download the free unlabeled arm and shoulder diagram PDF below.
We’d love to say that you’re done learning, but we’re guessing you probably need a bit more practice before you can answer exam questions on the arm and shoulder muscles with confidence. Well, why not find out? Our interactive arm and shoulder anatomy quizzes will help you to quickly identify gaps in your knowledge so you can avoid any nasty surprises later on!
Ue our specialized muscle attachment, innervation and function quizzes to nail the basics, practice for your cadaver exam using our basic and advanced quizzes, and get ahead for your clinical exams using our expert written muscles of the arm question banks.
Didn’t do the practice worksheets above? No problem! Our quizzes can be used to learn a topic from scratch, or to revise what you already know. They’re the best all in one anatomy study tool.
What are you waiting for? Take an arm muscles quiz now.
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Or click on one of the following links to quiz yourself on related topics.
If you enjoy learning with labeling activities and anatomy quizzes, don’t forget to check out our free anatomy quiz guides on several more topics!
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