Muscles of the leg

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The muscles of the leg are divided into three compartments based on their location and primary functions:

• The anterior (dorsiflexor) compartment, which consists of the tibialis anterior, extensor digitorum longus, fibularis tertius and extensor hallucis longus muscles. Crossing the ankle from the anterior aspect, these muscles primarily cause dorsiflexion of the foot.
• The lateral (fibular) compartment, which houses the fibularis longus and fibularis brevis muscles. The major function of this compartment is to evert the foot.
• The posterior (plantar flexor) compartment, which is divided into the superficial and deep parts. The former contains the triceps surae (gastrocnemius + soleus), and plantaris muscles, while the latter consists of the popliteus, tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus and flexor hallucis longus muscles. The main function of this compartment is plantarflexion of the foot at the ankle joint.

The video below will provide you with an overview of the muscles of the leg.

For a more detailed look at the groups of muscles of the leg, take a look at the videos below.

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Now that you learned all you need to know about the muscles of the leg, check your knowledge by taking a quiz.

To finetune which aspects of the lower limb you want to focus on, try out the customizable quiz below. 

Download the following PDF worksheets and learn the muscles of the leg.

BLANK WORKSHEET (PDF)LABELED WORKSHEET (PDF)

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Summary