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Differential muscle function between muscle synergists: long and lateral heads of the triceps in jumping and landing goats (Capra hircus)

¹Concord Field Station, Harvard University, Bedford, Massachusetts; ²School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada

Submitted 12 December 2007 ; accepted in final form 23 July 2008

We investigate how the biarticular long head and monoarticular lateral head of the triceps brachii function in goats (Capra hircus) during jumping and landing. Elbow moment and work were measured from high-speed video and ground reaction force (GRF) recordings. Muscle activation and strain were measured via electromyography and sonomicrometry, and muscle stress was estimated from elbow moment and by partitioning stress based on its relative strain rate. Elbow joint and muscle function were compared among three types of limb usage: jump take-off (lead limb), the step prior to jump take-off (lag limb), and landing. We predicted that the strain and work patterns in the monoarticular lateral head would follow the kinematics and work of the elbow more closely than would those of the biarticular long head. In general this prediction was supported. For instance, the lateral head stretched (5 ± 2%; mean ± SE) in the lead and lag limbs to absorb work during elbow flexion and joint work absorption, while the long head shortened (–7 ± 1%) to produce work. During elbow extension, both muscles shortened by similar amounts (–10 ± 2% long; –13 ± 4% lateral) in the lead limb to produce work. Both triceps heads functioned similarly in landing, stretching (13 ± 3% in the long head and 19 ± 5% in the lateral) to absorb energy. In general, the long head functioned to produce power at the shoulder and elbow, while the lateral head functioned to resist elbow flexion and absorb work, demonstrating that functional diversification can arise between mono- and biarticular muscle agonists operating at the same joint.

biarticular; fascicle strain; muscle work

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