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Human skeletal muscle size and architecture: Variability and interdependence
Author(s) -
Kawakami Y.,
Abe T.,
Kanehisa H.,
Fukunaga T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.20561
Subject(s) - hum , muscle architecture , anatomy , skeletal muscle , vastus lateralis muscle , biology , medicine , art , performance art , art history
Seven hundred and eleven women and men (aged 3–94 years, including normal individuals and highly trained bodybuilders) were tested for the thickness and pennation angles of their triceps brachii (TB), vastus lateralis (VL), and gastrocnemius medialis (GM) muscles. The variations of muscle thickness and pennation angles were largest in TB (6–66 mm and 5–55°), followed by VL (8–45 mm and 7–33°) and GM (11–36mm and 12–33°), and women showed smaller variations than men. These results suggest the existence of muscle‐ and gender‐specificity in the variability of muscle dimensions. Significant positive correlations were observed between muscle thickness and pennation angles (r = 0.81, 0.61, and 0.56, for TB, VL, and GM, respectively), indicating that the size‐dependence of the pennation angle is a general feature of pennate muscles. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:845–848, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.