Category: Fun Facts

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Fun Fact: brachialis

Anatomy def: Brachialis is a muscle of the upper arm; covering lower half of humerus (upper arm bone) and ending on ulna (forearm bone), it flexes (bends) the elbow joint.

Outlander def: Brachialis, part and parcel of the big, beautiful bulge on Jamie’s right arm. The Highland Hero’s eye scans the sky for stormy weather. It’s gonna be a bad one – best batten down the hatches!

Learn about brachialis muscle in Anatomy Lesson #20, Arms! Arms! Arms! – Redux!

Contrary to popular opinion, biceps is NOT the most powerful flexor of the elbow joint. This honor goes to – drum roll – brachialis! Believe it or not, brachialis generates roughly 50% more power than biceps during elbow flexion. Truth!

Puir brachialis, lying deep and over shadowed by the honking biceps, it doesn’t get its fair share of attention from muscle builders or Outlander lovers.  

Read about arm muscles in Voyager book. Couldn’t find a quote for Jamie, but there is a splendid one of Claire as she assess her assets, <G> before venturing through the stones once more. Just try to remember —brachialis, that step-sister deep to biceps, performs MOST of the work during elbow flexion!

Dropping the towel, I looked myself over. Flexed my arms, raised them overhead, checking for bagginess. None; biceps and triceps all nicely defined, deltoids neatly rounded and sloping into the high curve of the pectoralis major. I turned slightly to one side, tensing and relaxing my abdominals—obliques in decent tone, the rectus abdominis flattening almost to concavity.

See the impressive bulge created by Jamie’s biceps and brachialis in Starz, Episode 313, Eye of the Storm!

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo Credit: Sony/Starz

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Fun Fact: Scapula

Outlander episode 312, The Bakra

Anatomy def: Scapulae are paired, flat triangular bones, each forming the back part of the human shoulder – commonly known as the shoulder blades.

Outlander def: Twin blades, shadowed and drenched with goats’ blood, reveal themselves to a terrified young Ian. Puir lad!

Learn about scapulae in Anatomy Lesson #2, When Claire Meets Jamie or How to Fall in Love While Reducing a Dislocated Shoulder Joint! 

Scapulae are extremely important bones because together with each upper arm bone (humerus) they form the shoulder joints. Large, flat and triangular in shape, each scapula also creates the point of the shoulder (acromion) and provide important attachments for muscles such as trapezius, deltoid, and biceps brachii. Fractures of the scapula commonly take 6-8 weeks to heal and some types may require surgery to stabilize. Ergo, take good care of your scapulae!

Read about Jamie’s scapulae in Voyager book. Ahhhh….well, this passage contains a wee bit more anatomical detail than just shoulder blades! <G>

He made a small grunting sound of content as I moved his head into my lap and began to stroke it, rubbing his temples, smoothing back the thick wavy mass of his hair. The back of his neck was damp; I lifted the hair away and blew softly on it, seeing the smooth fair skin prickle into gooseflesh at the nape of his neck.

“Oh, that feels good,” he murmured. Despite my resolve not to touch him beyond the demands of caretaking until everything between us was resolved, I found my hands molding themselves to the clean, bold lines of his neck and shoulders, seeking the hard knobs of his vertebrae and the broad, flat planes of his shoulder blades.

See Geillis’ scapulae emerge from a film of goats’ blood in Outlander episode 312, The Bakra. What a vision!!!

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo Credit: Sony/Starz

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Fun Fact: Clavicle

 

Outlander episode 313, Eye of the Storm 

Anatomy def: Either of two slender bones of the upper limb, each clavicle extends horizontally from sternum (breastbone) to respective scapula (shoulder blade). Clavicles are commonly known as collarbones (one word) because of their proximity to the collar of a donned garment.

Outlander def: Clavicles are powerful bones Jamie joyfully shares with Claire aboard the Artemis! Put yer wee bonny fingers on them, dearest Auntie Claire! <G>

Learn about clavicles in Anatomy Lesson #3, Bad Day at Cocknammon Rock or Wee Bonny Fingers on my Collar Bone!

You might be interested in this anatomical tidbit: In humans, clavicles act as struts to position shoulder joints and arms at the sides of the body. Positioning our upper limbs to our sides allows for much greater ranges of motion. Without clavicles, our shoulders would drop in front of the chest, like those of a cat, dog or horse! Our upper limbs could move forwards and backwards, but no slow pitch or jumping jacks with those limitations!

Why, might you ask, is the clavicle named for a Latin word meaning, door bolt? Well, clavicles are the only horizontally-oriented long bones of the body and to early anatomists, they looked a bit like ye olde door bolts of by-gone eras.

Read about clavicles in Voyager book! Actually, keep your eye out, Herself often describes collarbones in all Outlander books.

“Perhaps it does. Shall I try sometime?” The hollow of his throat lay just by my face, sunburned and delicate, showing the faint white triangle of a scar just above the wide arch of his collarbone. I set my lips on the pulsebeat there, and he shivered, though neither of us was cold any longer.

and again:

“Do you want me now?” I whispered, and kissed the sunburned flesh in the hollow above his collarbone. His skin was faintly salty to the taste, and his hair smelled of woodsmoke and pungent maleness.

See Jamie’s clavicles drenched in sunbeams from windows of the Artemis. – a splendid temptation for canny, clever Claire!

The deeply grateful,

Outlander Anatomist

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Photo Credits: Sony/Starz, Pinterest