Abstract
Purpose
Muscle fascicles–tendon interactions are the main determinant in production of high joint velocity. Currently, no study has investigated the muscle fascicles behaviour of knee extensor muscles until the highest reachable velocity (e.g., unloaded knee extension). We aimed to track the changes in vastus lateralis fascicles length during knee extensions to quantify muscle fascicles and tendinous tissues contributions to muscle–tendon unit shortening and to determine maximal muscle fascicles shortening velocity.
Methods
Fifteen participants performed isokinetic and isoinertial knee extensions, and ultrafast ultrasound imaging was used to observe the vastus lateralis fascicles from low to very high joint velocity.
Results
The muscle fascicles shortening velocity increased linearly with the increase in knee joint velocity up to the maximal joint velocity (mean R 2 = 0.93 ± 0.08). Muscle fascicles contribution to muscle–tendon unit shortening velocity was almost constant regardless of the condition (83 ± 23%). Using Hill’s equation, the maximal velocity of knee joint and muscle fascicles was determined at 1000 ± 489°s−1 and 5.1 ± 2.0 L0 s−1 (47.4 ± 18.7 cm s−1), respectively.
Conclusions
Contribution of muscle fascicles to the muscle–tendon unit shortening velocity was much higher for the vastus lateralis in this study compared to the gastrocnemius medialis in two previous studies. Moreover, this contribution of muscle fascicles shortening velocity was constant whatever the velocity condition, even at the highest reachable velocity. Thus, the vastus lateralis fascicles shortening velocity increases linearly with the knee joint velocity until high velocities and its behaviour strongly accorded with the classical Hill’s force–velocity relationship.
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Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- L 0 :
-
Optimal length
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Acknowledgements
H Hauraix was supported by a scholarship funded by the French Ministry of Research. The authors thank all the participants for their involvement in the experiment and wish to extend their sincere appreciation to the French Institute of Sport (INSEP) for material assistance.
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Communicated by Toshio Moritani.
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Hauraix, H., Dorel, S., Rabita, G. et al. Muscle fascicle shortening behaviour of vastus lateralis during a maximal force–velocity test. Eur J Appl Physiol 117, 289–299 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3518-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3518-4