Chapter 11:

The Muscular System

The Motors of the Body

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Muscle

The distinguishing characteristic of

muscle is its ability to actively
shorten and produce tension.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

The characteristic behavioral

properties of muscle are:
extensibility,
elasticity,
irritability,
and

the ability to develop tension.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

Extensibility - the ability to be

stretched or to increase in length.

Elasticity - the ability to return to

normal length after extension or
contraction.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

Parallel elastic component - muscle

membranes that provide resistive
tension when a muscle is passively
stretched.

Series elastic component - tendons that

act as a spring to store elastic energy
when an active muscle is stretched.

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Series and parallel elastic elements in muscle.

A.Resting muscle contains elastic elements in series with the contractile
elements (sarcomeres) and in parallel with them.
B.During an isometric contraction, the muscle does not change length,
but sarcomeres shorten, stretching the series elastic elements.
C.During isotonic contraction, the contractile elements shorten,
stretching the series elastic elements, before they develop tension to lift
the load.
D.Muscle begins to shorten when contractile elements shorten further.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

Both the PEC and SEC have a

viscous property that enables
muscle to stretch and recoil in a
time-dependent fashion.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

When a static stretch of a muscle

group such as the hamstrings is
maintained over a period of time,
the muscle progressively
lengthens, increasing joint range of
motion.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

Likewise, after a muscle group has

been stretched, it does not recoil to
resting length immediately, but
shortens gradually over a period of
time.

This viscoelastic response of muscle

is independent of gender.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

Irritability - the ability to respond

to a stimulus.
Stimuli

affecting muscles are either

electrochemical, such as an action
potential from the attaching nerve, or
mechanical, such as an external blow
to a portion of a muscle.

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Behavioral Properties of
the Musculotendinous Unit

If the stimulus is of sufficient

magnitude, muscle responds by
developing tension.

Contractility - the ability of a

muscle to shorten in length.

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Muscle Contraction

When a muscle contracts, it pulls

with equal force on each
attachment.

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Muscle Contraction

A muscles line of pull refers to the

direction of the resultant force
produced at an attachment.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

The magnitude of the torque

generated is the product of the
force developed by the muscle and
the perpendicular distance of the
line of action of that force from the
center of rotation at the joint.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

In keeping with the laws of vector

addition, the net torque present at
that joint determines the direction
of any resulting movement.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

The weight of the attached body

segment, external forces acting on
the body, and tension in any
muscle crossing a joint can all
generate torques at that joint.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

Concentric muscle action - when a
muscle shortens under tension.
Eccentric muscle action - when a
muscle lengthens under tension.
Isometric muscle action - when a
muscle produces tension, but there
is not movement.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

Agonist - a muscle that causes
movement. The prime mover.
Antagonist - a muscle that resists
movement.
Synergist - a muscle that assists
the agonist in performing a
movement.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

Stabilizer, Neutralizer, Fixator - role
played by a muscle acting to
stabilize a body part against some
other force or eliminate an
unwanted action produced by an
agonist.
Two joint muscles - muscles which
cross two joints.

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Skeletal Muscle Function

They can fail to produce force

when slack (active insufficiency)
and can restrict range of motion
when fully stretched (passive
insufficiency).

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Functional Organization of
Skeletal Muscle:

Muscle fibers - skeletal muscle

fibers grow in length and diameter
from birth to adulthood, with a
fivefold increase in fiber diameter
during this period.

Fiber diameter can also be

increased by resistance training.

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Functional Organization of
Skeletal Muscle:

The number of muscle fibers

present is genetically determined
and varies from person to person.

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Functional Organization of
Skeletal Muscle:

Summation - progressively additive

effect of repeated stimuli.

Tetanus - state of muscle

producing sustained maximal
tension resulting from repetitive
stimulation.

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Functional Organization of
Skeletal Muscle:

Motor units - a single motor neuron

and all fibers it innervates.
Fiber

types.

Recruitment of motor units - slow

twitch motor units always produce
tension first,
whether the final
movement is slow or fast.

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Fiber architecture:

Parallel fiber arrangement - fibers are

alongside each other.

Pennate fiber arrangement - arrow.

The tibialis posterior, rectus femoris,
and deltoid muscles are pennate.

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Parallel Muscle Fibers

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Pennate Fibers

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Fiber architecture:

When tension is developed in a

parallel-fiber muscle, any
shortening of the muscle is
primarily the result of the
shortening of the fibers.

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Fiber architecture:

When the fibers of a pennate

muscle shorten, the rotate about
their tendon attachments,
progressively increasing the angle
of pennation.

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Fiber architecture:

Pennate fiber arrangements

promote muscle force production
and parallel fiber arrangements
facilitate muscle shortening.

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Fiber architecture:

Although pennation reduces the

effective force generated at a
given level of fiber tension, this
arrangement allows the packing of
more fibers than the amount that
can be packed into a longitudinal
muscle occupying equal space.

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Fiber architecture:

Because pennate muscles contain

more fibers per unit of muscle
volume, they can generate more
force than parallel fibered muscles
of the same size.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

The magnitude of the force

generated by muscle is also
related to:
the

velocity of muscle shortening,

the length of the muscle when it is
stimulated,
and the period of time since the
muscle received a stimulus.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

The relationship between the

concentric force exerted by a
muscle and the velocity at which
the muscle is capable of
shortening is inverse.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

When a muscle develops

concentric tension against a high
load, the velocity of muscle
shortening must be relatively slow.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

When resistance is low, the

velocity of shortening can be
relatively fast.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

The stronger a muscle, the greater

the magnitude of its isometric
maximum on the force-velocity
curve.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

Eccentric strength training involves

the use of resistance that is
greater than the athlete's
maximum isometric force
generating capabilities.

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Mechanical Factors
Affecting Muscular Force

Eccentric training is also

associated with increased muscle
soreness.

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Force-Length Relationship:

In single muscle fibers and isolated

muscle preparations, force
generation is at its peak when the
muscle is at normal resting length
(neither stretched nor contracted).

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Force-Length relationship:

When the length of the muscle

increases or decreases beyond
resting length, the maximum force
the muscle can produce decreases
following the form of a bell-shaped
curve.

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Length-Tension Relationship
(sarcomere only)

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Length-Tension Relationship
(sarcomere & elastic
component)
Rapid
stretch of
muscle
increases
force
during
ensuing
concentric
phase

SSC
Elastic component
Stretch reflex
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Force-Length relationship:

Within the human body, however,

force generation capability
increases when the muscle is
slightly stretched.

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Force-Length relationship:

Parallel-fiber muscles produce

maximum tensions at just over
resting length, and pennate fiber
muscles generate maximum
tensions at between 120% and
130% of resting length.

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Force-Length relationship:

This phenomenon is due to the

contribution of the elastic
components of muscle (primarily
the SEC), which add to the tension
present in the muscle when the
muscle is stretched.

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Force-Length relationship:

When a muscle is actively

stretched, the SEC causes an
elastic recoil effect, and the stretch
reflex simultaneously initiates the
development of tension in the
muscle.
Thus,

a stretch promotes subsequent

forceful shortening of the muscle.

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Force-Length relationship:

This pattern of eccentric

contraction, followed immediately
by concentric contraction, is known
as the stretch-shortening cycle.

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Force-Time relationship:

When a muscle is stimulated, a

brief period of time elapses before
the muscle begins to develop
tension.
Referred

delay.

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to as electromechanical

Force-Time relationship:

Muscular strength is most

commonly measured as the
amount of torque a muscle group
can generate at a joint.

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Force-Time relationship:

The tension-generating capability

of a muscle is related to its crosssectional area and training state.

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Force-Time relationship:

With both concentric and eccentric

strength training, gains in strength
over at least the first 12 weeks
appear to be related to factors
such as improved innervation of
the trained muscle rather than to
the increase in its cross-sectional
area.

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Force-Time relationship:

Muscular power - the product of

force and velocity.

Maximum power occurs at

approximately one-third of
maximum velocity and at
approximately one-third of
maximum concentric force.

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Force-Time relationship:

Muscular endurance - the ability of

the muscle to exert tension over a
period of time.

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Muscle Force

Effect of muscle temperature - as

body temperature elevates, the
speeds of nerve and muscle
functions increase.

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