Sartorius

The Sartorius muscle is the longest muscle in the human body. It is a long thin muscle that runs down the length of the thigh with the upper portion forming the lateral border of the femoral triangle.

Since the Sartorius is a two joint muscle, it is weak when the knee is flexed and the hip is flexed at the same time. It works best when performing single movements.

Anatomy of the Sartorius

The Sartorius muscle is innervated by the femoral nerve and supplied by the femoral artery.

The sartorius muscle arises by tendinous fibres from the anterior superior iliac spine, running obliquely across the upper and anterior part of the thigh in an inferomedial direction.

It descends as far as the medial side of the knee, passing behind the medial condyle of the femur to end in a tendon.

This tendon curves anteriorly to join the tendons of the gracilis and semitendinous muscles which together form the pes anserinus, finally inserting into the proximal part of the tibia on the medial surface of its body.

Functions of the Sartorius

The Sartorius muscle has four main functions:

• Flexion of the hip,
• Flexion of the knee,
• External rotation of the hip as it flexes the hip and knee, and
• Abducts the hip

You will use it daily when you sit in a cross-legged position.

Some of the best exercises to strengthen the sartorius include hip flexor stretch, laying quadricep stretch, standing quadricep stretch, sitting or standing hip flexion using a resistance band.

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