Muscle architecture and morphology as determinants of explosive strength.

PURPOSE: Neural drive and contractile properties are well-defined physiological determinants of explosive strength, the influence of muscle architecture and related morphology on explosive strength is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between Quadriceps muscle architecture (pennation angle [ΘP] and fascicle length [FL]) and size (e.g., volume; QVOL), as well as patellar tendon moment arm (PTMA) with voluntary and evoked explosive knee extension torque in 53 recreationally active young men. METHOD: Following familiarisation, explosive voluntary torque at 50 ms intervals from torque onset (T50, T100, T150), evoked octet at 50 ms (8 pulses at 300-Hz; evoked T50), as well as maximum voluntary torque, were assessed on two occasions with isometric dynamometry. B-mode ultrasound was used to assess ΘP and FL at ten sites throughout the quadriceps (2-3 sites) per constituent muscle. Muscle size (QVOL) and PTMA were quantified using 1.5 T MRI. RESULT: There were no relationships with absolute early phase explosive voluntary torque (≤ 50 ms), but θP (weak), QVOL (moderate to strong) and PTMA (weak) were related to late phase explosive voluntary torque (≥ 100 ms). Regression analysis revealed only QVOL was an independent variable contributing to the variance in T100 (34%) and T150 (54%). Evoked T50 was also related to QVOL and θP. When explosive strength was expressed relative to MVT there were no relationships observed. CONCLUSION: It is likely that the weak associations of θP and PTMA with late phase explosive voluntary torque was via their association with MVT/QVOL rather than as a direct determinant.

Tendinous tissue properties after short- and long-term functional overload: Differences between controls, 12 weeks and 4 years of resistance training.

AIM: The potential for tendinous tissues to adapt to functional overload, especially after several years of exposure to heavy-resistance training, is largely unexplored. This study compared the morphological and mechanical characteristics of the patellar tendon and knee extensor tendon-aponeurosis complex between young men exposed to long-term (4 years; n = 16), short-term (12 weeks; n = 15) and no (untrained controls; n = 39) functional overload in the form of heavy-resistance training. METHODS: Patellar tendon cross-sectional area, vastus lateralis aponeurosis area and quadriceps femoris volume, plus patellar tendon stiffness and Young's modulus, and tendon-aponeurosis complex stiffness, were quantified with MRI, dynamometry and ultrasonography. RESULTS: As expected, long-term trained had greater muscle strength and volume (+58% and +56% vs untrained, both P < .001), as well as a greater aponeurosis area (+17% vs untrained, P < .01), but tendon cross-sectional area (mean and regional) was not different between groups. Only long-term trained had reduced patellar tendon elongation/strain over the whole force/stress range, whilst both short-term and long-term overload groups had similarly greater stiffness/Young's modulus at high force/stress (short-term +25/22%, and long-term +17/23% vs untrained; all P < .05). Tendon-aponeurosis complex stiffness was not different between groups (ANOVA, P = .149). CONCLUSION: Despite large differences in muscle strength and size, years of resistance training did not induce tendon hypertrophy. Both short-term and long-term overload demonstrated similar increases in high-force mechanical and material stiffness, but reduced elongation/strain over the whole force/stress range occurred only after years of overload, indicating a force/strain specific time-course to these adaptations.

Reliability of quadriceps surface electromyography measurements is improved by two vs. single site recordings.

PURPOSE: The reliability of surface electromyography (sEMG) is typically modest even with rigorous methods, and therefore further improvements in sEMG reliability are desirable. This study compared the between-session reliability (both within participant absolute reliability and between-participant relative reliability) of sEMG amplitude from single vs. average of two distinct recording sites, for individual muscle (IM) and whole quadriceps (WQ) measures during voluntary and evoked contractions. METHODS: Healthy males (n = 20) performed unilateral isometric knee extension contractions: voluntary maximum and submaximum (60%), as well as evoked twitch contractions on two separate days. sEMG was recorded from two distinct sites on each superficial quadriceps muscle. RESULTS: Averaging two recording sites vs. using single site measures improved reliability for IM and WQ measurements during voluntary (16-26% reduction in within-participant coefficient of variation, CVW) and evoked contractions (40-56% reduction in CVW). CONCLUSIONS: For sEMG measurements from large muscles, averaging the recording of two distinct sites is recommended as it improves within-participant reliability. This improved sensitivity has application to clinical and research measurement of sEMG amplitude.

Associations between muscle strength, spirometric pulmonary function and mobility in healthy older adults.

Pathological obstruction in lungs leads to severe decreases in muscle strength and mobility in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interdependency between muscle strength, spirometric pulmonary functions and mobility outcomes in healthy older men and women, where skeletal muscle and pulmonary function decline without interference of overt disease. A total of 135 69- to 81-year-old participants were recruited into the cross-sectional study, which was performed as a part of European study MyoAge. Full, partial and no mediation models were constructed to assess the interdependency between muscle strength (handgrip strength, knee extension torque, lower extremity muscle power), spirometric pulmonary function (FVC, FEV1 and FEF50) and mobility (6-min walk and Timed Up and Go tests). The models were adjusted for age, sex, total fat mass, body height and site of enrolment. Partial mediation models, indicating both direct and pulmonary function mediated associations between muscle strength and mobility, fitted best to the data. Greater handgrip strength was significantly associated with higher FVC, FEV1 and FEF50 (p < 0.05). Greater muscle power was significantly associated with better performance in mobility tests. Results suggest that decline in mobility with aging may be caused by decreases in both muscle strength and power but also mediated through decreases in spirometric pulmonary function. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to better understand how loss of function and mass of the respiratory muscles will affect pulmonary function among older people and how these changes are linked to mobility decline.

Thigh muscle volume in relation to age, sex and femur volume.

Secular changes and intra-individual differences in body shape and size can confound cross-sectional studies of muscle ageing. Normalising muscle mass to height squared is often suggested as a solution for this. We hypothesised that normalisation of muscle volume to femur volume may be a better way of determining the extent of muscle lost with ageing (sarcopenia). Thigh and femur muscle volumes were measured from serial magnetic resonance imaging sections in 20 recreationally active young men (mean age 22.4 years), 25 older men (72.3 years), 18 young women (22.1 years) and 28 older women (72.0 years). There were no age-related differences in femur volume. The relationship between thigh muscle volume and femur volume (R (2) = 0.76; exponent of 1.12; P < 0.01) was stronger than that with height (R (2) = 0.49; exponent of 3.86; P < 0.01) in young participants. For young subjects, the mean muscle/bone ratios were 16.0 and 14.6 for men and women, respectively. For older men and women, the mean ratios were 11.6 and 11.5, respectively. The Z score for the thigh muscle/bone volume ratio relative to young subjects was -2.2 ± 0.7 for older men and -1.4 ± 0.8 for older women. The extent of sarcopenia judged by the muscle/bone ratio was approximately twice that determined when normalising to height squared. These data suggest that the muscle/bone ratio captures the intra-individual loss of muscle mass during ageing, and that the age-related loss of muscle mass may be underestimated when normalised to height squared. The quadriceps seems relatively more affected by ageing than other thigh muscles.

Comparison of MRI and DXA to measure muscle size and age-related atrophy in thigh muscles.

OBJECTIVES: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) were used to examine the thigh lean mass in young and old men and women. METHODS: A whole-body DXA scan was used to estimate thigh lean mass in young (20 men; 22.4±3.1y; 18 women; 22.1±2.0y) and older adults (25 men; 72.3±4.9y; 28 women; 72.0±4.5y). Thigh lean mass determined with a thigh scan on the DXA or full thigh MRI scans were compared. RESULTS: Although the thigh lean mass quantified by DXA and MRI in young and older participants were correlated (R(2)=0.88; p<0.001) the magnitude of the differences in thigh lean mass between young and old was smaller with DXA than MRI (old vs. young men 79.5±13.1% and 73.4±11.2%; old vs. young women 88.6±11.8% and 79.4±12.3%, respectively). Detailed analysis of MRI revealed 30% smaller quadriceps muscles in the older than young individuals, while the other thigh muscles were only 18% smaller. CONCLUSIONS: DXA underestimates the age-related loss of thigh muscle mass in comparison to MRI. The quadriceps muscles were more susceptible to age-related atrophy compared with other thigh muscles.