Skeletal muscle biomechanics

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Prof. Maarja Kruusmaa

Tallinna Tehnikaülikool

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Muscle types:
cardiac muscle: composes the heart
smooth muscle: lines hollow internal organs
skeletal (striated or voluntary) muscle: attached to skeleton
via tendon & movement

Skeletal muscle 40-45% of body weight

> 430 muscles

~ 80 pairs produce vigorous movement

Dynamic & static work

Dynamic: locomotion & positioning of segments

Static: maintains body posture

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Mammalian skeletal muscle fiber

myonucleus (turqouis)

mitochondria (blue)

sarcoplasmic rectilium (buff)

tubules (orange)

myofibrils (pinkish)

Gray's Anatomy 29th ed. Elsevier. 2008

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Muscle anatomy

Muscles are made of fibers

Fibers consist of parallel

myofibrils

Myofibril consists of serial

sarcomeres

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Structure of myofibril

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Molecular composition of myofibril

Myosin composed of individual

molecules each has a globular head and
tail

Cross-bridge: actin & myosin overlap (A

band)

Actin has double helix; two strands of

beads spiraling around each other

troponin & tropomysin regulate making

and breaking contact between actin &
myosin

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 7

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Motor unit

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ATP ADP cycle

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Feedback

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Isometric and isotonic contraction

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Isotonic twitch

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Viscoelastic properties of a passive muscle

Generalized maxwell model

Response to a step Response to a step

constant stress constant strain

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Tetanization

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Hill’s quick release experiment

F – tensile force after release

F0 - max tensile force

L0 – fixed length

L – length after release

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Hill 3-element muscle model

PE – parallel element

SE – series element

CE – contractile element

Hill’s equation for tetanized muscle

(v + b) (F + a) = b (F0 + a)

,where F – tension in the muscle

v – velocity of contraction

a, b, F0 – constants

F v = const

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Muscle force and power

Muscles that produce most

force don’t give the most power

Force and power hit peak

values under different
conditions

You cannot maximise both

simultaneously

Muscle produces greatest force

when it does not change length

Muscle produces greatest speed

under no load

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Force–velocity relationship (isotonic)
Hill’s equation for tetanized muscle

(v + b) (T + a) = b (T0 + a)

,where F – tension in the muscle

v – velocity of contraction

a, b, F0 – constants

F v = const

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Hill’s Three Element model

M - myosin filament length

C – actin filament length

Δ – overlap between active and

myosin filaments

H – width of the H-band

I – width of the I band

L – total length of sarcomere

L0 – Length of sarcomere at zero

stress

Η – extension of the series elastic

element in sarcomere

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Isometric relationship

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Lenght-tension curve

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Heart, skeletal and smooth muscles

http://www.nsbri.org/humanphysspace/focus5/earthphys-frame.html

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Heart Muscle

Striated muscle

Involuntary contractions

T-tubules

Significant resting tension

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Smooth muscle

Vascular and intestinal smooth

muscles

Usually stimulated and act as a

unit

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