Originally appeared on the NOVA Web site Cut to the Heart . Day and night, the muscles of your heart contract and relax to pump blood throughout your body. When blood returns to the heart, it follows a complicated pathway. If you were in the bloodstream, you would follow the steps below one by one.
Blood flows through the right atrium into the right ventricle.
The right ventricle pumps the blood to the lungs, where the blood releases waste gases and picks up oxygen. Blood flows through the left atrium into the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body. That's because you're looking at an illustration of somebody else's heart. To think about how your own heart works, imagine wearing this illustration on your chest.