Lateral head of gastrocnemius at a glance
- What it is
- The lateral head of the superficial calf muscle.
- Location
- Origin: lateral surface of the lateral femoral condyle. Insertion: posterior calcaneus via the calcaneal tendon.
- Function
- Plantarflexes the ankle and flexes the knee.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA45960 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: tibial nerve (S1–S2)
- Blood supply: sural arteries
- The two gastrocnemius heads form the lower borders of the popliteal fossa.
- A small sesamoid bone (fabella) is often present in its tendon of origin.
Structures next to the lateral head of gastrocnemius
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Medial head of gastrocnemius · muscular
- Popliteus · muscular
- Anterior tibial vein · cardiovascular
- Inferior medial genicular artery · cardiovascular
- Plantaris · muscular
- Soleus · muscular
- Inferior lateral genicular artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior tibial recurrent artery · cardiovascular
- Small saphenous vein · cardiovascular
- Tibia · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lateral head of gastrocnemius (FMA45960). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.