Muscle Mechanics

Muscle Mechanics and Patho-mechanics in lower back pain

Muscle Mechanics and Pathomechanics

The muscles are the active part of the human motor system. Skeletal muscles are characterized by transverse striations. Their action is dependent on the will of man. Muscles (mainly skeletal) represent about 40% of body weight. There are gender differences in the share of muscle mass in men and women; they possess 36% of body weight in women (Oatis, 2010). Working muscles convert chemical energy into mechanical and heat because of the ability to produce mechanical energy, and the fact that the muscles constitute a kind of drives in relation to skeletal they are of particular interest in biomechanics. The properties and elastic properties of muscle are essential for the movement to happen correctly and have great importance in regard to manual skills and sports.

The elasticity allows to preserve the potential energy accumulated in the process of elongation or stretching, caused by the antagonistic muscle contraction, the force of gravity, moment of force of the movement resistance of other body parts, traction exerted by one or other persons or mechanical devices or rehabilitation training, etc., which is expressed as mechanical energy when conditions permit, to stop pulling on the corresponding muscle (Moffat, 2006). The functional unit of muscle from the standpoint of biomechanics is ACTIN muscular. It is part of the whole or a muscle group with the same or very close to the fibers which in turn gives the opportunity to exercise same function with respect to the axis of the pond, over which it runs. You can also reverse situation, when one muscle has many heads of performing multiple functions, which gives strain in a single muscle.

Properties of Muscles

The muscles consist of a fleshy body and endowed her tendons. The main properties of muscles are:

Excitability: A structure is excitable when responding to stimulation specifically adapted. In the case of muscle, the electrical stimulus determining a response called mechanical response. It can be external, paid to the muscle or through its motor nerve. 'IDIOMUSCULAR' or reflex response is obtained by a mechanical stimulus respectively on the body or the tendon. Voluntary contraction results the involvement of the motor path from the cortex. This is generally a stimulus of chemical that induces an action potential that propagates along the 'sarcolemma'.

Elasticity: The elasticity is a property of the muscle at rest. Elasticity is the property of a body, a structure to deform under the influence of force Exterior and then resume its original shape when constraint cease. A properly stretched muscle, sees arise between its two ends a voltage (due to the resistance being the structure of the myofilaments, the sarcolemma of fibers and their connective tissue septa as well as the tendons). Inserted on the skeleton, the muscles are slightly stretched (bone growth) regardless of the position of joint they animate, and the section or rupture of a tendon causes a shortening of the fleshy muscle.

Tone: an ability to keep some state of contraction even at ...