Lecture Part Three: Front Arm Line

So to put all of that into action, we have to meet Shiva and Shakti. Let’s start with Shakti, the front arm line. Before we get into the anatomy, go ahead and move your arms around in front of you— just look at your range of motion! If every angle was a color, the front arm line would allow you to cover the entire spectrum. Now move your arms around behind you, a much more limited palette! But what you do feel when you move your arms back is the strength of the back muscles— that’s the canvas of support known as your back arm line.

  1. Let’s look through the crayon box of the front arm line:

  2. Primary Muscles and Bones

    1. Palm and Thumb

    2. Flexors of hand and forearm

    3. Biceps Brachii

      1. Feel it: Grip your water bottle and feel palm, forearm and biceps engage

      2. Radial Tuberosity

        1. Trace bicep to its insertion points on radius, turn your arm side to side to see the bicep lengthen and shorten with the rotation of the radius.

      3. Medial aspect of Humerus

      4. Anterior aspect of the Scapula

        1. THis shows why front body work can begin to round the shoulders forward, as the bicep uses the shoulder as its origin, and the pec minor uses it as its insertion.

        2. Coracoid Process (Long Head of Bicep)

        3. Supraglenoid Tubercle of scapula (the top of the shoulder socket)

    4. Pec Minor and Major

      1. Minor: Inserts at coracoid proces as well (like biceps), origin at ribs 3/4/5

        1. Pec minor would normally assist us in lifting the ribs for creating space for the lungs in extreme cases of respiration— but all too often, people breathe from the top 1/3 of their lungs, relying on pec minor as their primary muscle of respiration. This effectively pulls the shoulders forward and up, which begins the process of head forward and shoulders lifted, the beginning of recruitment that disrupts the freedom of the arm line.

      2. Major: Humerus insertion, Clavicle and sternum origin

        1. Over work here can also round the shoulders forward

    5. Latissimus Dorsi

      1. Lower back

      2. Pretty much your armpit

      3. Bottom of half of back of ribs, all of lumbar, crest of sacrum and ilium, thoracic lumbar fascia

    6. Take away: “Between the pectoralis major and the latissimus, the SFAL has nearly an entire circle of attachments, reflecting the wide degree of control the SFAL exerts on movement of the arm in front of and to the side of the body (Fig. 7.13).”


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