Skeletal muscle contraction in protecting joints and bones by absorbing mechanical impacts

Measuring complexity of muscle force control: Theoretical principles and clinical relevance in musculoskeletal research and practice

“…Skeletal muscle protects bone and cartilage by absorbing vibration and compression forces (Rudenko et al, 2016;Pain and Challis, 2006). Skeletal muscle also protects joint capsules and ligaments by resisting excessive tension forces (Olmstead et al, 1986;McQuade and Murthi, 2004).…”

“…In disease and injury, sensorimotor impairments include altered proprioceptor morphology (Ludwig et al, 2015), the destruction of proprioceptors (Bali et al, 2012), modified cortical processing (Valeriani et al, 1999;Parker et al, 2017), and altered descending tract function (Terada et al, 2016). Because skeletal muscle protects bone, cartilage, and capsuloligamentous structures from excessive forces (Clark and Lephart, 2015;Rudenko et al, 2016;Pain and Challis, 2006;Olmstead et al, 1986;McQuade and Murthi, 2004), sensorimotor impairments that result in altered inputs to LMNs and concurrently altered muscle activation patterns and force control could have clinically-important implications for peripheral joint tissue health and daily function (Pethick et al, 2022b). For example, the inability to "fine tune" muscle force control may contribute to excessive tissue loading (Pain and Challis, 2006;Wakeling et al, 2001) and impaired muscle force control may reduce the ability to resist unpredictable external mechanical perturbations (Peng et al, 2009).…”