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5.5 Muscles of the Neck

Sternocleidomastoid

The Sternocleidomastoid
Image by OpenStax, CC BY 4.0 Modified text labels

Action: Forward & lateral neck flexion and rotation of the neck 

The sternocleidomastoid is named for its three bony attachments and can be broken down as follows:

  • Sterno: Due to its attachment at the sternum
  • Cleido: Due to its attachment at the clavicle
  • Mastoid: Due to its attachment at the mastoid process of the skull

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The Foundations of Human Movement and Physical Fitness Copyright © 2025 by A.J. Stephen; Sarah Fraser; and Connor Dalton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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