OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of fetal undernutrition on the passive mechanical properties of skeletal muscle of weaned and young adult rats. INTRODUCTION A poor nutrition supply during fetal development affects physiological functions of the fetus. From a mechanical point of view, skeletal muscle can be also characterized by its resistance to passive stretch. ...

To test the hypothesis that a muscle mechanosensitive reflex is suppressed in the conscious condition, we examined the effect of anesthesia on the cardiovascular responses to passive mechanical stretch of the hindlimb triceps surae muscle in six conscious cats. The triceps surae muscle was manually stretched for 30 s by extending the hip and knee joints and subsequently by dorsiflexing the ankl...

Herzog W. Mechanisms of enhanced force production in lengthening (eccentric) muscle contractions. J Appl Physiol 116: 1407–1417, 2014. First published February 21, 2013; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00069.2013.—In contrast to isometric and shortening contractions, many observations made on actively lengthening muscles cannot be readily explained with the sliding filament and cross-bridge theory. Sp...

PURPOSE Passive length-tension of the extraocular muscle was measured after injection of botulinum neurotoxin type C (BoNT-C) to evaluate its chemo-denervation effect. METHODS BoNT-C was injected unilaterally at 5.0 or 2.5 units in the superior rectus muscle of the albino rabbit. The muscle was separated several times at its original insertion between 3 days to 8 weeks after injection, and th...

Experiments were carried out to examine interaction between mechanical changes of the muscle-tendon unit and reduced reflex sensitivity after repeated and prolonged passive muscle stretching (RPS). There is some evidence that this interaction might be relevant also during active stretch-shortening cycle type of fatigue tasks. The results demonstrated a clear deterioration of voluntarily and ele...

The purpose of this study was to compare the acute effects of general, specific and combined warm-up (WU) on explosive performance. Healthy male (n = 10) subjects participated in six WU protocols in a crossover randomized study design. Protocols were: passive rest (PR; 15 min of passive rest), running (Run; 5 min of running at 70% of maximum heart rate), stretching (STR; 5 min of static stretch...

There is a lack of numeric data for the mechanical characterization of spine muscles, especially in vivo data. The multifidus muscle is a major muscle for the stabilization of the spine and may be involved in the pathogenesis of chronic low back pain (LBP). Supersonic shear wave elastography (SWE) has not yet been used on back muscles. The purpose of this prospective study is to assess the feas...

In humans, enhanced joint range of motion is observed after static stretch training and results either from an increased stretch tolerance or from a change in the biomechanical properties of the muscle-tendon unit. We investigated the effects of an intermittent stretch training on muscle biomechanical and structural variables. The left plantarflexors muscles of seven anesthetized New Zealand (N...