In vivo specific tension of the human quadriceps femoris muscle

It is not known to what extent the inter-individual variation in human muscle strength is explicable by differences in specific tension. To investigate this, a comprehensive approach was used to determine in vivo specific tension of the quadriceps femoris (QF) muscle (Method 1). Since this is a prot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of applied physiology 2009-08, Vol.106 (6), p.827-838
Main Authors: Erskine, Robert M., Jones, David A., Maganaris, Constantinos N., Degens, Hans
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Computer Simulation
Electromyography - methods
Force
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Geometry
Human Physiology
Humans
Isometric Contraction - physiology
Knee Joint - physiology
Magnetic resonance imaging
Male
Models, Biological
Muscle strength
Muscle Strength - physiology
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Occupational Medicine/Industrial Medicine
Original Article
Physiology
Sports Medicine
Stress, Mechanical
Vertebrates: body movement. Posture. Locomotion. Flight. Swimming. Physical exercise. Rest. Sports
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Summary:It is not known to what extent the inter-individual variation in human muscle strength is explicable by differences in specific tension. To investigate this, a comprehensive approach was used to determine in vivo specific tension of the quadriceps femoris (QF) muscle (Method 1). Since this is a protracted technique, a simpler procedure was also developed to accurately estimate QF specific tension (Method 2). Method 1 comprised calculating patellar tendon force ( F t ) in 27 young, untrained males, by correcting maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) for antagonist co-activation, voluntary activation and moment arm length. For each component muscle, the physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) was calculated as volume divided by fascicle length during MVC. Dividing F t by the sum of the four PCSAs (each multiplied by the cosine of its pennation angle during MVC) provided QF specific tension. Method 2 was a simplification of Method 1, where QF specific tension was estimated from a single anatomical CSA and vastus lateralis muscle geometry. Using Method 1, the variability in MVC (18%) and specific tension (16%) was similar. Specific tension from Method 1 (30 ± 5 N cm −2 ) was similar to and correlated with that of Method 2 (29 ± 5 N cm −2 ; R 2  = 0.67; P  
ISSN:1439-6319
1439-6327
DOI:10.1007/s00421-009-1085-7