Fascicle length of leg muscles is greater in sprinters than distance runners

Abstract

Greater fascicle length and lesser pennation angle observed in leg muscles of SPR, compared with DR, would appear to favor shortening velocity as required for greater running speed.

Critical determinants of combined sprint and endurance performance: an integrative analysis from muscle fiber to the human body

“…Arrangement of PCSA and L f differed between the track sprinters and other cyclists, revealing a much larger PCSA but similar L f in the track sprinters. A long fascicle length (i.e., high numbers of sarcomeres in series) has theoretically been associated with high maximal muscle-fiber contraction velocity (63) and has been shown to relate to better sprint performance (14,15). PCSA is increased by muscle-fiber hypertrophy and is thought to result in proportional increases in maximal muscle force (27,64), assuming that specific force (F/ PCSA) remains constant.…”

“…During the past decades, physiologic determinants of physical performance have been the subject of intensive investigation (e.g., in cycling, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Studies focused on determinants of either sprint (e.g., [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] or endurance performance (e.g., [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][19][20][21][22][23], even though physical performance is rarely a dichotomous function of only sprint or only endurance. Generally, a limited number of whole-body determinants of sprint or endurance performance have been studied, although there are many physical performance determinants at different levels (i.e., molecular, cellular, whole-muscle, organ, and whole ABBREVIATIONS: 3D, 3-dimensional; CAF, capillaries around the fiber; CD, capillary density; C/F, capillary-to-fiber ratio; FCSA, fiber cross-sectional area; fVȯ 2max , fiber maximal oxygen consumption; [Hb], hemoglobin concentration; Hct, hematocrit; [HHbMb], deoxygenated hemoglobin and myoglobin concentration; iSDH activity, spatially integrated SDH activity, SDH activity 3 FCSA; KE, knee-extension; LBM, lean body mass; L f , fascicle length; LT1/2, first/second lactate threshold; [Mb], myoglobin concentration; MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin; MCHC, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MHC, myosin heavy chain; [O 2 HbMb], oxygenated hemoglobin and myoglobin concentration; PCSA, m...…”

Effect of range of motion in heavy load squatting on muscle and tendon adaptations

“…2001;Alegre et al 2006), fibre-type transformation (Andersen and Aagaard 2000) and alterations in the length-force characteristics (Abe et al 2000). Furthermore, muscular adaptations appear to be dependent on loading parameters, volume of exercise, velocity of exercise, and movement intent of the exercises used in training (Hakkinen et al 1985;ThepautMathieu et al 1988;Weir et al 1994;Rimmer 2000;Blazevich et al 2003;Lockie et al 2003;Markovic et al 2007).…”

Influence of the muscle-tendon unit's mechanical and morphological properties on running economy

“…Recent in vivo studies investigating the mechanical and morphological properties of the MTU have demonstrated differences between athletes pertaining to different disciplines (Kawakami et al, 1993;Kawakami et al, 1995;Abe et al, 2000). Abe et al, for example, compared sprinters with long-distance runners, and found that the sprinters had longer fascicles and lower pennation angles in the mm.…”