Muscle‐tendon morphology and function following long‐term exposure to repeated and strenuous mechanical loading
Bissas, A., Havenetidis, K., Walker, J., Hanley, B., Nicholson, G., Metaxas, T., Christoulas, K., & Cronin, N. J. (2020). Muscle‐tendon morphology and function following long‐term exposure to repeated and strenuous mechanical loading. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 30(7), 1151-1162. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13669
Authors
Date
2020Copyright
© 2020 Wiley-Blackwell
We mapped structural and functional characteristics of muscle‐tendon units in a population exposed to very long‐term routine overloading. Twenty‐eight military academy cadets (age: 21.00 ± 1.1 yrs; height: 176.1 ± 4.8 cm; mass: 73.8 ± 7.0 kg) exposed for over 24 months to repetitive overloading were profiled via ultrasonography with a senior subgroup of them (n = 11; age = 21.4 ± 1.0 yrs; height = 176.5 ± 4.8 cm; mass = 71.4 ± 6.6 kg) also tested while walking and marching on a treadmill. A group of eleven ethnicity‐ and aged‐matched civilians (age = 21.6 ± 0.7 yrs; height = 176.8 ± 4.3 cm; mass = 74.6 ± 5.6 kg) was also profiled and tested. Cadets and civilians exhibited similar morphology (muscle and tendon thickness and cross‐sectional area, pennation angle, fascicle length) in 26 out of 29 sites including the Achilles tendon. However, patellar tendon thickness along the entire tendon was greater (p<0.05) by a mean of 16% for the senior cadets compared with civilians. Dynamically, cadets showed significantly smaller ranges of fascicle length change and lower shortening velocity in medial gastrocnemius during walking (44.0% and 47.6%, p<0.05 ‐ 0.01) and marching (27.5% and 34.3%, p<0.05 ‐ 0.01) than civilians. Furthermore, cadets showed lower normalised soleus electrical activity during walking (22.7%, p<0.05) and marching (27.0%, p<0.05). Therefore, 24‐36 months of continuous overloading, primarily occurring under aerobic conditions, leads to more efficient neural and mechanical behaviour in the triceps surae complex, without any major macroscopic alterations in key anatomical structures.
...
Publisher
Wiley-BlackwellISSN Search the Publication Forum
0905-7188Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/35175959
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Liikuntatieteiden tiedekunta [3120]
Additional information about funding
The study was supported by research development and infrastructure grants from Carnegie Faculty—Leeds Beckett University, while training and skills exchange were supported by an Erasmus + Staff Mobility agreement between Leeds Beckett University and University of Jyväskylä.License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
The reliability of measuring medial gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit lengths during gait
Cenni, Francesco; Schless, Simon-Henri; Adams, Heleen; Bar-On, Lynn; Desloovere, Kaat (Elsevier BV, 2021)Background Ultrasound imaging combined with 3D motion analysis allows for in-vivo assessment of muscle-tendon unit lengths during gait. The clinical relevance of analysing the medial gastrocnemius (MG) and Achilles ... -
Repeatability and sensitivity of passive mechanical stiffness measurements in the triceps surae muscle‐tendon complex
Walker, Josh; Bissas, Athanassios; Wainwright, Barney; Hanley, Brian; Cronin, Neil J. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022)Measurements of muscle-tendon unit passive mechanical properties are often used to illustrate acute and chronic responses to a training stimulus. The purpose of this study was to quantify the inter-session repeatability ... -
Medial gastrocnemius muscle fascicle function during heel-rise after non-operative repair of Achilles tendon rupture
van Dijk, Koen; Khair, Raad M.; Sukanen, Maria; Cronin, Neil J.; Finni, Taija (Elsevier BV, 2023)Background To better understand muscle remodelling in dynamic conditions after an Achilles tendon rupture, this study examined the length of medial gastrocnemius muscle fascicles during a heel-rise at 6- and 12-months ... -
Functional muscle architecture in aging
Hoffrén-Mikkola, Merja (University of Jyväskylä, 2014) -
Medial Gastrocnemius Muscle Architecture Is Altered After Exhaustive Stretch-Shortening Cycle Exercise
Kositsky, Adam; Kidgell, Dawson J.; Avela, Janne (Frontiers Media, 2019)Muscle architecture is an important component of muscle function, and recent studies have shown changes in muscle architecture with fatigue. The stretch-shortening cycle is a natural way to study human locomotion, but ...