ArticleRoyal Society open science2024
Rethinking the physiological cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle reveals the mechanical advantage of pennation.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Associations between ankle strength and physical performance in healthy individuals: a systematic review.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Blood Flow Restriction Resistance Exercise Versus Traditional Resistance Exercise in Voluntary Exhaustion on Quadriceps Muscle Adaptations in Untrained Young Males: A Randomized Trial.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Trial
- Functional Differences in Muscle Architecture Across the Pelvis and Hind Limb of Primates.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Physiological Cross-Sectional Surfaces: A Method for Estimating Muscle Functional Capacity from 3D Digital Models of Fiber Architecture.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Effects of Training with Hybrid Assistive Device on Motor Unit Behavior After Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Looking Under the Hood of Elite Rowers: Skeletal Muscle Determinants of Rowing Performance.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2026Article
- Cortical mapping of real-time ultrasound-imaging visual feedback for ankle dorsiflexion in patients after stroke: a fNIRS study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Layer-Specific Architecture and Nerve Innervation of the Popliteus Muscle: Neuroanatomical Basis for Precision-Guided Interventions for the Knee Joint.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- "Muscle quality": rethinking an imprecise term.European geriatric medicine · 2026Review
- Hidden Adaptations: Ultrasound Evidence of Intrinsic Foot and Tendon Changes in Basketball Players with Hallux Limitus.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- A (Bite) Force to Be Reckoned With.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Review
- Relative Contributions of Motor Unit Firing Pattern, Muscle Quantity, and Muscle Quality to Maximum Muscle Strength in Female Patients with Early and Severe Knee Osteoarthritis.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Quantifying structural properties of forearm flexor muscles in individuals with hemiparetic cerebral palsy using diffusion tensor imaging.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Muscular Ultrasonography for Assessing Inflammation and Muscle Mass in Patients at Risk of Malnutrition.Nutrients · 2025Observational
- Jaw-Muscle Structure and Function in Primates: Insights Into Muscle Performance and Feeding-System Behaviors.Evolutionary anthropology · 2025Review
- Rethinking the physiological cross-sectional area of skeletal muscle reveals the mechanical advantage of pennation.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The shape of skeletal muscle varies remarkably-with important implications for locomotor performance. In many muscles, the fibres are arranged at an angle relative to the tendons' line of action, termed the pennation angle. These pennate muscles allow more sarcomeres to be packed side by side, enabling the muscle to generate higher maximum forces for a given muscle size. Historically, the physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) has been used to capture both the size and arrangement of muscle fibres, and is one of the best predictors of a muscles capacity to produce force. However, the anatomical and mechanical implications of PCSA remain ambiguous as misinterpretations have limited our ability to understand the mechanical advantage of pennate muscle designs. We developed geometric models to resolve the mechanistic and functional impacts of pennation angle across a range of muscle shapes and sizes. Comparisons among model predictions and empirical data on human lower limb muscles demonstrated how a pennate arrangement of fibres allows muscles to produce up to six times more isometric force when compared with non-pennate muscles of the same volume. We show that in muscles much longer than thick, an optimal pennation angle exists at which isometric force is maximized. Using empirically informed geometric models we demonstrate the functional significance of a pennate muscle design and provide a new parameter, pennation mechanical advantage, which quantifies this performance improvement.
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