Muscles
The origin of a muscle is a point at which it attaches to a bone.
The structure that the origin is attached to always tends to be the more stable bone in the contraction.The site of the origin tends to be more proximal and have greater mass than what the other end attaches to.
The opposite end of the muscle is called the insertion. The point of insertion tends to be more distal, and have less mass than the site of origin. It is the end that tends to move while the body part of the origin is stabilized.
These definitions means that there are functional aspects to the definition of a muscle's origin and insertion. Both origin and insertion are important for understanding the physiological function of the muscle.
Read more about this topic: Origin (anatomy)
Famous quotes containing the word muscles:
“Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.”
—Betty Rollin (b. 1936)
“As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“Light
Flashed from his matted head and marble feet,
He grappled at the net
With the coiled, hurdling muscles of his thighs:
The corpse was bloodless, a botch of reds and whites,”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)