ArticleeLife2021
Muscle-specific economy of force generation and efficiency of work production during human running.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Acute and Chronic Effects of Stretching on Running Economy: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2025Pooled it
- Mechanical, Material and Morphological Adaptations of Healthy Lower Limb Tendons to Mechanical Loading: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- Effect of the temporal coordination and volume of cyclic mechanical loading on human Achilles tendon adaptation in men.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Classifying Endurance Runners by Kinematics Strengthens Relationships of Muscle-Tendon Unit Function with Running Economy and Performance.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2026Article
- Clinical Sensitivity of Sub-millimetre-resolution Definite Versus Thin Inter-/Intramuscular Fat Streaks from Calf and Thigh MRI.Calcified tissue international · 2026Article
- Quantitative Analysis of Quadriceps Muscle Forces When Adolescent Females Perform Typical Motions in Soccer or Basketball.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Soleus Muscle Stiffness is Regulated by Scaled Activation to Manage Unpredictable and Predictable Walking Perturbations.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Neuromuscular Fatigue Profile of Prepubertal and Adult Female Handball Players.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mechanical properties of the gastrocnemius muscle-tendon unit in male athletic high jumpers.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Effects of infrapatellar straps on lower limb muscle synergies during running.Medical & biological engineering & computing · 2025Article
- A Personalized Muscle-Tendon Assessment and Exercise Prescription Concept Reduces Muscle-Tendon Imbalances in Female Adolescent Athletes.Sports medicine - open · 2025Article
- Quantifying Quadriceps Forces during Running Performed with and without Infrapatellar Straps.Journal of human kinetics · 2025Article
- Decoupling of muscle-tendon unit and fascicle velocity contributes to the in vivo stretch-shortening cycle effect in the male human triceps surae muscle.Physiological reports · 2024Article
- Quantitative Analysis of Quadriceps Forces in Adolescent Females during Running with Infrapatellar Straps.Journal of sports science & medicine · 2024Article
- Addressing muscle-tendon imbalances in adult male athletes with personalized exercise prescription based on tendon strain.European journal of applied physiology · 2024Article
- Characterization of the vastus lateralis torque-length, and knee extensors torque-velocity and power-velocity relationships in people with Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- Human in vivo medial gastrocnemius gear during active and passive muscle lengthening: effect of inconsistent methods and nomenclature on data interpretation.Biology open · 2023Article
- Biarticular mechanisms of the gastrocnemii muscles enhance ankle mechanical power and work during running.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Article
- Muscle-tendon unit design and tuning for power enhancement, power attenuation, and reduction of metabolic cost.Journal of biomechanics · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Human running features a spring-like interaction of body and ground, enabled by elastic tendons that store mechanical energy and facilitate muscle operating conditions to minimize the metabolic cost. By experimentally assessing the operating conditions of two important muscles for running, the soleus and vastus lateralis, we investigated physiological mechanisms of muscle work production and muscle force generation. We found that the soleus continuously shortened throughout the stance phase, operating as work generator under conditions that are considered optimal for work production: high force-length potential and high enthalpy efficiency. The vastus lateralis promoted tendon energy storage and contracted nearly isometrically close to optimal length, resulting in a high force-length-velocity potential beneficial for economical force generation. The favorable operating conditions of both muscles were a result of an effective length and velocity-decoupling of fascicles and muscle-tendon unit, mostly due to tendon compliance and, in the soleus, marginally by fascicle rotation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.