Michael Wright

Muscle System Lab Report

Anatomy
Skeletal muscles consists of connective tissue, nerve tissue, and vascular tissue. Skeletal muscles
are also made up of fibers. Each fiber has many smaller fibers within it. They are ordered as skeletal
muscle the largest, fascicle, myofiber, and filaments the smallest.

http://training.seer.cancer.gov/
anatomy/muscular/structure.html

The skeletal muscle consists of these parts: tendon, fascia, epimysium, perimysium, sarcomere,
endomysium, nuclei, myofiber, mitochondria, sarcolemma, sarcoplasmic reticulum which consists of
transverse tubule and cisternae, myosin and actin which are filaments. Stanford School of Medicine is
researching how cells in bones are regenerated by skeletal muscles every 7 years.

http://stemcell.stanford.edu/research/

The University of Utah College of Health are researching

adaption in skeletal muscles after injury, disease or
sport
.
http://www.health.utah.edu/physical-therapy/research/smerf/index.php

The American College of

Cardiology is currently doing research on the effects of Simvastatin on skeletal muscle.

http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1555209

Muscle fiber drawing

Intracellular Ca^2+ concentration increases when it enters cell and is released from
sarcoplasmic reticulum. Ca^2+ binds to calmodulin. Ca2+-calmodulin activates myosin light chain
kinase. MLCK phosphorylate light chains in myosin heads and increases myosin ATPase activity.
Active myosin crossbridges slide along actin and create muscle tension which contracts the muscle.

http://www.austincc.edu/apreview/PhysText/Muscle.html

Calcium regulates the amount of myosin

used for muscle contraction.

.
Before ATP solution

After ATP solution

trial

length of myofiber length of myofiber Initial length

before ATP
after ATP

percent
contraction

22mm

18

23.07%

13mm

10

23.07%

23mm

17

26.08%

20mm

12

40%

13mm

10

23.07%

Length of myofiber before and after ATP solution

MYOFIBER DIAMETER
trial

diameter before
ATP

diameter after
ATP

initial diameter

percent change

5mm

11

-6

45.45%

3mm

-4

42.91%

4mm

-2

66.7%

7mm

14

-7

50%

6mm

11

-5

54.64%

Diameter of myofiber before and after ATP solution

What variations were observed during the rabbit muscle lab? The length of the fiber shrink
and diameter increase after the adding of ATP. How did those variations impact the observations and
data? After taking the initial diameter and length of the fiber, when ATP solution is added to a fiber the
length shortened by about 25% and the diameter increased by about 50%. Why are we using %
change data to compare our results? We use percents to give a visual of how much the length has
decreased and the diameter increased.
Humans have basically two different types of muscle fibers. They are slow twitch muscle fibers,
and fast twitch muscle fibers. Slow twitch fibers have a slow contraction time and a high resistance to
fatigue. They have a small fiber diameter, a high myoglobin content, and a high mitochondrial and
capillary density. Energetically, they have a low glycogen content, a low supply of creatine phosphate,
and a wealthy store of triglycerides. Slow twitch fibers are used for aerobic activities requiring low-level
force production, such as walking and maintaining posture. Most activities of daily living use slow twitch
fibers. Sprinters have slow twitch muscle fibers because they run for short distances and have a low
resistance to fatigue. Fast twitch fibers are identified by a quick contraction time and a low resistance to
fatigue. The differences in the speeds of contraction that gives the fibers their names can be explained, in
part, by the rates of release of calcium by the sarcoplasmic reticulum which is the storage site for
calcium and by the activity of the enzyme that breaks down ATP inside the myosin head of the
contractile proteins. Both of these characteristics are faster and greater in the fast twitch fibers. Cross
country runners have fast twitch muscle fibers because they have a high resistance to fatigue that allows
them to run long distances.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SKELETAL MUSCLE FIBER TYPES

SLOW OXIDATIVE

FAST OXIDATIVEGLYCOLYTIC

FAST GLYCOLYTIC

FIBER DIAMETER

SMALLEST

INTERMEDIATE

LARGEST

FORCE

LOWEST

INTERMEDIATE

GREATEST

MYOSIN ATPase

SLOWEST

FASTEST

FASTEST

CONTRACTION
VELOCITY

SLOW

FAST

FAST

METHODS OF ATP
GENERATION

AEROBIC
CELLULAR
RESPIRATION

BOTH

GLYCOLYSIS

GLYCOGEN
STORES

HIGH

INTERMEDIATE

LOW

CAPILLARIES

MANY

FEW

FEW

MYOGLOBIN
CONTENT

LOW

HIGH

HIGH

COLOR

WHITE

RED-PINK

RED-BROWN

Continuous Grip
Time interval

Maximum force (N)

Maximum force (N)

010 s

384.1

2030 s

327.9

-56.2

4050 s

300.5

-27.4

6070 s

258.7

-41.8

8090 s

390.7

+132

This table shows the results of continuous grip over a period of 90 seconds.

Repetitive Grip
Time interval

Maximum force (N)

Maximum force (N)

010 s

379.1

2030 s

367.3

-11.8

4050 s

319.8

-47.5

6070 s

301.4

-18.4

8090 s

514.4

+213

This table shows the results of gripping repetitively every second over a period of 90 seconds.

Table 3
Slope
Part IContinuous gripping

.17

Part IIRepetitive gripping

3.38

This table shows the slope of both continuous grip and repetitive grip trials.
Do athletes have stronger grips than nonathletes? The Mayo Clinic is currently researching the
muscle strength in female college athletes. Statistical analyses showed significantly higher Vo2max in the
two athletic study groups than in the control subjects. The muscle mass were significantly higher in the
study group that performed weight-bearing exercises than in control subjects. The grip strength of
athletes are greater than nonathletes shown by the data table below. The average grip strength of the
athletes was 219.57 and the average grip strength of the nonathletes was 167.44. Although the overall
maximum grip strength was a non athlete with a grip of 390.7 the average grip of athletes were far
greater than nonathletes.
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org

ATHLETE VS. NON-ATHLETE

ATHLETE

MAXIMUM

NON-ATHLETE

MAXIMUM

328.7

99

229

70.3

262.9

118.7

213

390.7

135.2

99.8

183.3

209.8

184.9

183.8

Difference in the maximum athlete and non-athlete grip strength

Do athletes have stronger grips than non-athletes? Athletes have stronger grips than
non-athletes. In the data collected the force of grip by athletes were 52.13 N greater than non-athletes
with the exception of one non-athlete with a maximum grip of 390.7. When testing grip strength there
was low resistance to fatigue in most athletes and nonathletes. This reflects on the sprinters vs. cross
country runners. Sprinters have slow twitch muscle fibers and they have low resistance to fatigue like
with many non athletes that have lower grip strengths. Cross country runners have fast twitch muscle
fibers and they have a high resistance to fatigue which reflects on the athletes grip strength average that
was far greater than the non-athletes. Athletes are similar to the cross country runners with high
resistance to fatigue and non-athletes are similar to sprinters which made the grip strength lower caused
by the low resistance to fatigue.