What do flexor muscles do

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Connect with us. Term of the Day. Best of WorkplaceTesting weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. When the wrist extensors act together, they extend the wrist. When the radial extensors, or the ulnar extensor contract separately, they help to produce radial or ulnar abduction of the wrist. They do this in conjunction with the corresponding wrist flexor muscle, either radial or ulnar. Avatar icon Avatar icon Sign In. Already a Subscriber? Required Required. Forgot Password?

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Subscribe Now. We are unable to redeem your access code. Please try again another time. Please take a moment to tell us about your experience with AclandAnatomy! Now, drop and give me 20! Taking it one step further, it's important to realize that even when you are not moving you have muscles constantly working at your service to maintain posture.

Yes, even when you are slouching in your La-Z-Boy your brain is commanding muscles to contract! So the key point is that when you think to make any movement or even just to stand still, our brain specifically the motor cortex is sending action potentials spikes!

Now let's put that 2-Channel Muscle SpikerBox to use by investigating our favorite antagonistic pair. Alternatively, you can connect the second audio jack to your smartphone with the green cable and open the Backyard Brains app. Free for download for: Android or iPhone. Note that both signals will be displayed together with the current app. A Let's start with waving. Can you get someone to wave back at you? Which muscles do you think you are using to perform this action?

To investigate your hypothesis, create an experiment by changing the placement of your sticker electrodes until you observe an EMG full of action potentials. Remember be a good scientist by documenting your method and collecting data! Can you use your two EMGs to verify which muscle is the agonist when you flex your arm?

How about when you extend your arm? B The antagonist muscle might show spiking as well, why do you think? Try to explore your arm motions until you can completely relax the antagonist no spikes.

The biceps look like the relaxed antagonist and those triceps are definitely firing more spikes! The screen capture above shows the two EMGs during the lowering phase of a push-up. We can see that even though the direction of motion has reversed, the triceps are still bearing the load and playing the role of the agonist.

Further experimentation suggestions: Can you think of other antagonistic pairs in your body? Test out your hypothesis by recording EMGs from those two muscles to see if you are right.

Remember, one should show lots of spikes agonist while the other shows few or none at all antagonist and vis versa. Another fun exploration would be to try and find two muscles that display action potentials in their EMGs even when you are standing or sitting still. The 2-Channel Muscle SpikerBox can also let you compare your muscles to your friends'.

Observe your EMGs while arm wrestling! Or try a hands-free arm wrestling match. Winner goes to whoever can keep their spikes up longer!