Your spine (aka - vertebral column) : is home to your spinal cord and consists of a debatable number of bones (vertebrae) stacked atop one another. Your spine is divided into three main sections :
Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar
Cervical Spine aka 'C spine'
-your skull sits on top of C1 & C2
-and C7 is that biggest bony bump on the base of your neck aka
"the last cervical vertebrae"
Thoracic Spine aka 'T-Spine'
-right after the bump of C7 comes T1
- t-spine consists of 12 vertebrae (T1-12)
-the ribs (1-12 of course!) attached the the t-spine
Lumbar Spine aka 'L-spine'
- consists of five vertebrae (L1-L5)
-underneath L5 is your sacrum- tiny vertebrae (S1-S5) fused together that looks like
an upside-down triangle.
-the nerves that innervate your legs and feet come from the area of your L-spine and sacrum.
-and at the very bottom of the sacrum is your tailbone ! aka: coccyx
(which is three more lil' bones fused together)
(which is three more lil' bones fused together)
*L4/L5 or L5/S1 is the most common area to get a herniated disk.
As you can see above, the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae all differ slightly in shape and size.
I found this great lil' video that shows the difference between each vertebrae and the major features like the spinous process and tranverse process (aka TVP) -where many muscles attach!
The more we can visualize and understand the vertebral column (spine) as well as the rest of the skeleton - the more muscle attachment points will make sense :)
The more we can visualize and understand the vertebral column (spine) as well as the rest of the skeleton - the more muscle attachment points will make sense :)
