3.3.

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Anterior abdominal muscles 3: external oblique
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Now that weve looked at the internal oblique, its time to add the external oblique muscle to the picture.
Heres the external oblique muscle, the outermost of the three flat muscles. The fibers of the external
oblique spiral downwards and forwards at the side, downwards and medially in front.

The external oblique arises from a broad area on the outside of the rib cage, all the way from here on the
twelfth rib, to here on the fifth rib. The zig-zag line of origin of the external oblique fits in with the line of
origin of serratus anterior. Though its all one continuous muscle, well look at the external oblique in two
parts, a posterior part that arises from the twelfth to the tenth ribs, and an anterior part that arises from the
ninth to the sixth rib.

The anterior part of the external oblique ends in this external oblique aponeurosis. This fuses with the
combined aponeuroses of the other two flat muscles, to form the anterior rectus sheath.

The external oblique aponeurosis has a long free lower border between the anterior superior iliac spine,
and the pubic tubercle. As weve seen already, this free lower border is the inguinal ligament, which we'll
see in detail shortly.

The part of the external oblique that arises from the tenth to the twelfth ribs remains fleshy from its origin
to its insertion. It inserts along the outer edge of the anterior half of the iliac crest. Here at the back, the
external oblique has a short free border, between the twelfth rib and the iliac crest.

Now that weve looked at all three of the flat muscles, well look at their actions. When the three flat
muscles on both sides contract together, as they usually do, they raise the pressure inside the abdominal
cavity.

When our airway is open the rise in intra-abdominal pressure pushes the diaphragm upwards, causing air
to leave the lungs, as we saw in the last section. When we hold our breath by closing our larynx, the flat
muscles provide the pressure thats needed to expel the contents of either the rectum, the bladder, or the
uterus, through their respective openings.

When the oblique muscles contract individually, they also play a part in producing lateral flexion of the
lumbar spine, and rotation of the thoracic spine.