Gastrocnemius muscle insertion via the Achilles tendon. The plantaris muscle and a portion of its tendon run between the two muscles, which is involved in "locking" the knee from the standing position. Since the anterior compartment of the leg is lateral to the tibia, the bulge of muscle medial to the tibia on the anterior side is actually the posterior compartment. The soleus is superficial to the mid-shaft of the tibia. 10% to 30% of individuals have a sesamoid bone called the "fabella" in the lateral (outer) head of gastrocnemius muscle. Along with the soleus muscle, the gastrocnemius forms half of the
Anatomical terms of muscle need antagonistic pairs located in opposite sides of a joint or bone, including abductor-adductor pairs and flexor-extensor pairs. These consist of an extensor muscle, which "opens" the joint (by increasing the angle between the two bones) and a flexor muscle, which does the opposite by decreasing the angle between two bones. However muscles don't always work this way - sometimes agonists and antagonists contract at the same time to produce force, as per Lombard's paradox. Also, sometimes during a joint action controlled by an agonist muscle (see above definition of agonist), the antagonist will be slightly activated, naturally. This occurs