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Skeletal Muscle
Contractions
Taft College
Human Physiology
Types Of Skeletal Muscle
Contractions
• Isotonic Contractions: Tension produced and overall shortening of the
muscle as a load is moved through the range of motion of the joint .
– Isotonic contractions serve to bring about movement or change in body
position. Example = flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, etc.
• Isometric Contractions: Tension but no shortening of the muscle
occurs. Energy is still used!
– Example:contractions that serve to keep the body fixed in position as in 1.
maintaining posture, 2. maintaining balance, 3. fixing a proximal joint so a
distal joint may move, 4. maintaining muscle tone.
• Most body activities involve both isotonic and isometric contractions.
• Twitch: A single isotonic response as a result of a single threshold (liminal)
stimulus. (This is not the type of twitch you feel in your body due to being
tired or a chemical imbalance).
• The muscle contracts quickly and then relaxes.
• A twitch can be demonstrated with an instrument that produces a
myogram= a tracing of a muscle contraction or activity.
Types Of Skeletal Muscle Contractions
Isotonic Contraction = Isometric Contraction =
Tension + Shortening of muscle Tension, no Shortening of muscle
A Myogram of 3 Phases (Periods) of a Muscle Twitch
1. Latent Period – the time from stimulation of the muscle until shortening of the muscle
begins.
The latent period is a “lag time”.
Duration = about 2 ms.
During this period of time the following events of muscle contraction are occurring:
a. Depolarization
b. Diffusion of Ca+2
c. Establishment of actin/myosin bonding
2. Contraction Period – Tension and shortening of the muscle occurs.
The upward tracing represents this phase.
Duration = 10-100 ms.
3. Relaxation Period – Muscle goes back to it resting state.
The Ca++ is actively transported back into the SR which results in relaxation.
The downward tracing represents this phase.
Duration = 10-100 ms.
incomplete tetanus?
Tension Increasing
Stimulus constant
Types of Skeletal Muscle (cont.)
• Treppe can be explained as follows: