A&P Muscles - Origin, Insertion, and Function

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I took A&P last fall, but I am re-taking this fall as my credits won't transfer. I did very well last time (99%), but I do think A&P will be more difficult and will be reviewed more in depth at my new school. The way my former program was set up, I think there was a lot of rush to get through everything, so I feel like A&P was very watered down.

I plan on reviewing the main topics covered in A&P I over the remainder of the summer as a refresher and to work on some areas that I was weak in last time. I really need to be on top of my game as I will have many challenges during the semester. I'm counting on my previous knowledge helping, but I won't rely on it.

My biggest weakness was origin, insertion, and functions of the muscles. We only had about 42 to learn, and I couldn't find a good way to learn them, so that's one area I'm really lacking knowledge in. I'm assuming I'll be needing to learn more in my up coming course, but I want to get a head start and try and find a way that works for me in learning these.

How did everyone else earn the muscles?

I normally do very well with flashcards, but flashcards did not work for me when it came to this. When it came to the anatomy portion, I did well with labeling pictures.

I'm curious to hear how others effectively learned this as maybe I can give other methods a try and see if they work better for me.

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I'm normally a flash card person as well, but flashcards didn't work for Anatomy for me. What helped me most with OIAs was lots of open lab time and labeling using Netter's. When you can visualize where the muscles origin is, insertion and action make a lot more sense + vice versa. Just memorizing the information won't help or serve you well in your future. Lots and lots of repetition. There are websites online where they have "games" to test your knowledge of OIA's and there are also lots of Youtube videos for the days you can't make it to open lab. Good luck.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

A & P coloring books are very effective for many students. If you mark each muscle with an arrow.... Origin is the base of the arrow, & Insertion is the Pointy end..... this can serve as a visual reminder for you. Make sure you also have a visual of the various tendons that serve as the 'bone grabbers' for their particular muscle. Don't forget the 'tricky' muscles, such as the papillary muscles in the heart itself.

You've got this!! Wishing you the best of luck in A & P.

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something that helped me was imagining the muscle, insertion, and origin on my body. Like, when I was learning the extensor muscles in the forearm, I'd alway extend my wrist and look at, on my body, where those muscles are attached. You can even see the general vicinity of the attachment just be contracting the muscles.

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Thank you so much for the suggestions! I will definitely be giving all of them a try.

I ordered a couple of coloring books. The reviews on the coloring books really make me feel like that will be such a good resource.

I think being able to visualize, either in a game, coloring book, or on myself will really help. The books should actually be in tomorrow, so I'm excited to start looking through them. This is one of the reasons I'm grateful for choosing the wrong school before. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to see my weak areas and areas I need to improve before the semester starts.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
something that helped me was imagining the muscle, insertion, and origin on my body. Like, when I was learning the extensor muscles in the forearm, I'd alway extend my wrist and look at, on my body, where those muscles are attached. You can even see the general vicinity of the attachment just be contracting the muscles.

This!!^^ anatomy is awesome because it makes sense. The same is true for physiology!

I named the muscles in my body and my friends body. One of my instructors told me she would name her cats muscles as she held her. I also picked the brain of one of my lab partners who had a great understanding of muscles because of his background as a personal trainer and kinesiology major!!

I recall also using flash cards with pics. Because my instructor stated he'd only use pics from our book and of our dissected cats in class, I used these pics to create flash cards that I used to study.

You can do it!!

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Great information! Can you please tell me where I can purchase the A&P coloring books? I have to retake A&P 1&2 as well.

Best of luck!!

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I named the muscles in my body and my friends body. One of my instructors told me she would name her cats muscles as she held her. I also picked the brain of one of my lab partners who had a great understanding of muscles because of his background as a personal trainer and kinesiology major!!

I'll have to try that (on a human body)! It was really the lecture portion that I struggled with. I just got lucky in that the exams had the information I knew :facepalm:

I did really well with the anatomy portion with the cat. We were allowed to take pictures of the cat, so I did that and put blank labels on them and would test myself. I guess I never really connected the two!

It's funny that you mentioned the cat. If I came across one of our cats just laying around, I'd go up to them and "tickle" them saying that I'm "tickling your *insert muscle here*". :laugh: I got some really strange looks from my husband (and the cat), but I think that helped me make the connection (on the cat).

Great information! Can you please tell me where I can purchase the A&P coloring books? I have to retake A&P 1&2 as well.

Best of luck!!

I just got mine on Amazon. They were pretty cheap. I just did a search for Anatomy & Physiology. There wasn't a whole lot to choose from, but they seemed to have really good reviews, and many people said that they really helped. I got one for anatomy and one for physiology. The one for anatomy had far better reviews that the one for physiology, but the one for physiology still had good reviews.

I've only glanced through them so far as I've not had a chance to sit down and really look at it, but it looks like they'll be very helpful as supplemental material!

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Great information! Can you please tell me where I can purchase the A&P coloring books? I have to retake A&P 1&2 as well.

Best of luck!!

Your favorite mega online bookseller has the Anatomy Coloring Book AND the Physiology Coloring Book. Excellent resources. get the hard copies, not the online versions, because the extra pathways in your brain you'll create by doing the actual coloring will make you learn and retain it better.

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Your favorite mega online bookseller has the Anatomy Coloring Book AND the Physiology Coloring Book. Excellent resources. get the hard copies, not the online versions, because the extra pathways in your brain you'll create by doing the actual coloring will make you learn and retain it better.

Thank you so much for the information! I have ordered both books :)

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Specializes in pediatric ER, adult ER.

For flashcards, a trick that I learned is to keep them in a particular order (e.g., have all of the facial muscles together, all of the abdominal muscles together) and flip them in that order. Don't shuffle your flash cards until you can guess, before flipping it, what muscle will come next. The brain works on patterns and associations. This method helps establish some kind of order/structure.

Wynn Kapit's Anatomy Coloring Book is ultimately what helped me learn my muscles. I also created a chart with four columns: the muscle, origin, insertion, and function-- helpful if you're a visual/diagram learner.

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