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Rectus abdominis: anatomy, location and function

Rectus abdominis is the long, vertical strap muscle on each side of the midline of the front of the abdomen. It flexes the trunk, as in a sit-up, compresses the abdomen and helps to stabilise the pelvis.

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Highlighted in the model: Rectus abdominis. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. Use Male / Female to switch bodies. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science; knee ligaments, menisci, tonsils, palate and parotid glands from the Human Reference Atlas Visible Human Male model and female parts from its Visible Human Female model (HuBMAP / NIH); lung lobes built from the BodyParts3D chest; all CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The default body is an adult male.

Rectus abdominis at a glance

Also called
Abs, six-pack muscle
What it is
Rectus abdominis is the long, vertical strap muscle on each side of the midline of the front of the abdomen.
Location
It runs from the pubic crest up to the xiphoid process and the costal cartilages of ribs 5 to 7, beside the linea alba, enclosed in the rectus sheath formed by the aponeuroses of the three flat abdominal muscles.
Function
It flexes the trunk, as in a sit-up, compresses the abdomen and helps to stabilise the pelvis.
Body system
Muscular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA13378 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • TeachMeAnatomy: it 'originates from the crest of the pubis bone' and 'inserts onto the xiphoid process of the sternum and the costal cartilage of ribs 5-7'.
  • Three tendinous intersections cross it, giving the 'six-pack' appearance in lean people.
  • In the 3D model it is built from these attachments and laid under the external oblique; BodyParts3D has no rectus abdominis.

Structures next to the rectus abdominis

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Rectus abdominis (FMA13378). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. Jones O. The Anterolateral Abdominal Wall. TeachMeAnatomy.
  3. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
  4. 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.