Been watching your videos and I love how you explain concepts. Hardly see anyone explain concepts like this ones. Any chance you could do a video on muscle architectural gear ratio?
Hi Dan, thanks for the feedback! This concept is used to understand the design of skeletal muscle and how that design influences its function. Besides giving us a better grasp of how muscles work, the concept of pennation angle can be applied when doing research and comparing the relative pennation angles from one muscle to another, or of the same muscle between individuals. By measuring the pennation angle of a muscle, along with the length and weight of the fibers, a researcher can estimate how many fibers are contained within a muscle, and therefore how much force it would be capable of producing. All research like I am describing is essentially conducted so we can learn more about the structure and function of various muscles. I hope that helps, and thanks for watching!
Would type 1 muscle fibers have more of a linear shape like the hamstrings and the vasti (quads) have type 2 muscle fibers shape being more pennate? Just trying to apply the concept 🙂
Great question, Matt! All muscles are a blend of fiber types, so there is no such thing as a muscle that is made up of 100% of one type of fiber. Different muscles will have different proportions of fiber types depending on the needs of that muscle, but all muscles have a blend. Although it might seem like a pennated muscle would have more type II fibers than a longitudinal muscle because the priority is force production, that isn't necessarily the case. Consider that a longitudinal muscle has more length to take up during contraction, so it needs to contract faster than a pennate muscle would to cover the same distance. The shorter the fibers, the slower they can contract because they don't have as much distance to cover within the same amount of time. Since type II fibers have a faster speed of contraction, that is an argument for why longitudinal muscles might benefit from more type II fibers. Really what I am trying to say is that we can't make an assumption about the proportions of fiber types in a muscle based strictly on the muscle's architecture, because there are so many different factors involved. I hope this answers your question, and thanks for watching!
Yes and thank you very much this helps a lot. I am studying kinesiology and the video helps my understanding of pennation angle. I will be watching your other videos as well thanks again.
this is one of the best explanations I've heard on this topic and in a really easy way to understand
Thanks so much, that means a lot to me!
Been watching your videos and I love how you explain concepts. Hardly see anyone explain concepts like this ones.
Any chance you could do a video on muscle architectural gear ratio?
Thanks so much for the topic idea! I'll add it to my list, and maybe I will make a video on the topic in the future. Thanks for the suggestion!
Great video Veronica, explained really well and I understood after watching first time. How would this information be useful in practice? Thanks
Hi Dan, thanks for the feedback! This concept is used to understand the design of skeletal muscle and how that design influences its function. Besides giving us a better grasp of how muscles work, the concept of pennation angle can be applied when doing research and comparing the relative pennation angles from one muscle to another, or of the same muscle between individuals. By measuring the pennation angle of a muscle, along with the length and weight of the fibers, a researcher can estimate how many fibers are contained within a muscle, and therefore how much force it would be capable of producing. All research like I am describing is essentially conducted so we can learn more about the structure and function of various muscles. I hope that helps, and thanks for watching!
Pennation angle something many coaches do not take into consideration.
Very important topic I say.
Thanks, Kenan!
Would type 1 muscle fibers have more of a linear shape like the hamstrings and the vasti (quads) have type 2 muscle fibers shape being more pennate? Just trying to apply the concept 🙂
Great question, Matt! All muscles are a blend of fiber types, so there is no such thing as a muscle that is made up of 100% of one type of fiber. Different muscles will have different proportions of fiber types depending on the needs of that muscle, but all muscles have a blend. Although it might seem like a pennated muscle would have more type II fibers than a longitudinal muscle because the priority is force production, that isn't necessarily the case. Consider that a longitudinal muscle has more length to take up during contraction, so it needs to contract faster than a pennate muscle would to cover the same distance. The shorter the fibers, the slower they can contract because they don't have as much distance to cover within the same amount of time. Since type II fibers have a faster speed of contraction, that is an argument for why longitudinal muscles might benefit from more type II fibers. Really what I am trying to say is that we can't make an assumption about the proportions of fiber types in a muscle based strictly on the muscle's architecture, because there are so many different factors involved. I hope this answers your question, and thanks for watching!
Yes and thank you very much this helps a lot. I am studying kinesiology and the video helps my understanding of pennation angle. I will be watching your other videos as well thanks again.
Sounds great, and happy studying!