Long head of biceps femoris at a glance
- What it is
- The long, superficial head of biceps femoris, the lateral hamstring.
- Location
- Origin: ischial tuberosity. Insertion: head of the fibula (common tendon with the short head).
- Function
- Extends the thigh and flexes the knee; laterally rotates the flexed leg.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA45888 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: tibial division of the sciatic nerve (L5–S2)
- Blood supply: perforating branches of the profunda femoris and the inferior gluteal artery
Clinical relevance
A frequent site of hamstring strain.
Structures next to the long head of biceps femoris
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Semitendinosus · muscular
- Semimembranosus · muscular
- Adductor magnus · muscular
- Vastus lateralis · muscular
- Vastus intermedius · muscular
- Short head of biceps femoris · muscular
- Femur · skeletal
- Gracilis · muscular
- Vastus medialis · muscular
- Descending branch of lateral circumflex femoral artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Long head of biceps femoris (FMA45888). 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.