Negligible epimuscular myofascial force transmission between the human rectus femoris and vastus lateralis muscles in passive conditions

Martin E. Héroux*, Rachelle M. Whitaker, Huub Maas, Robert D. Herbert

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Purpose: There have been contradictory reports of the effects of epimuscular myofascial force transmission in humans. This study investigated the transmission of myofascial force to the human vastus lateralis muscle by determining whether vastus lateralis slack angle changed with hip angle. Since the distance between the origin and insertion of the vastus lateralis muscle does not change when hip angle changes, any change in vastus lateralis slack angle with hip position can be attributed to epimuscular myofascial force transmission. Methods: Nineteen young adults were tested in hip flexed (80 ) and neutral (0 ) positions. Ultrasound images of the vastus lateralis muscle were obtained as the knee was passively flexed at 5 /s. The knee angle at which vastus lateralis muscle fascicles began to lengthen was used to identify muscle slack angle. Results: Overall, there was a negligible effect of hip position on vastus lateralis slack angle (0. 6 [- 0.7 to 1.9]; mean [95% confidence interval]). However, a small and variable effect was noted in 3/19 participants. Conclusion: This result indicates that, over the range of joint angles tested here, there is little or no epimuscular myofascial force transmission between the vastus lateralis muscle and neighbouring bi-articular structures under passive conditions. More broadly, this result provides additional evidence that epimuscular myofascial force transmission tends to be small and variable under passive conditions in healthy human muscle.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3369-3377
Number of pages9
JournalEuropean Journal of Applied Physiology
Volume121
Issue number12
Early online date1 Sept 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, APP1055084.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, APP1055084.

Keywords

  • Epimuscular myofascial force transmission
  • M. rectus femoris
  • M. vastus lateralis
  • Muscle fascicle
  • Muscle tendon unit

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