From muscle fibres to gears: How fibre rotation and shape change impact muscle function

Skeletal muscle architectural design strongly affects force-generating capacity and excursion range, and its functional importance to animal and human movement is well-founded. Traditionally, this ‘structure−function relation’ has been inferred when assessing a muscle’s architecture at rest, often using muscle images or geometrical measurements obtained from anatomical dissections or medical imaging techniques such as ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging. However, a more contemporary view recognises that muscles display a remarkable capacity to dynamically change shape−and therefore architecture−during contraction, quite literally allowing them to change gears as contractile conditions change. Muscle gearing refers to the velocity and force advantages obtained through the effects of fibre rotation and shape changes on muscle and fibre velocities, which significantly influence the length and velocity operations of both the fibres and whole muscle during contraction. This phenomenon can be characterised by the ratio of the velocities or displacement of the muscle to the fascicle. Given its function importance, muscle gearing should be considered an integral part of a comprehensive framework for understanding dynamic muscle function, as both fibre length and architecture, along with muscle shape changes, respond to varying mechanical demands and influence functionality in both normal and pathological conditions. The present review aims to (i) present a historical overview of our understanding of the muscle structure−function relation from measurements obtained in resting muscle as well as during dynamic, active contractions and (ii) define ‘muscle gear’, explain how muscle gear impacts muscle function under various movement conditions, describe intrinsic and extrinsic factors that determine or influence gearing, and overview the literature reporting gearing in animal and human studies while raising hypotheses in an attempt to explain the gearing differences identified across the literature. Given the current challenges in experimentally quantifying the unique influence of each identified factor, we employ a computational modelling approach using a previously validated three-dimensional finite element muscle model to gain a better understanding of the mechanical phenomena underlying muscle gearing. Finally, we briefly discuss the potential role of gearing in the observed changes in muscle function with ageing, injury, and exercise training. Overall, muscle gearing is a distinctive feature of skeletal muscles, with the modelling demonstrating that it is an emergent property of the physics of muscle contraction. A greater understanding of this phenomenon may provide significant insight into human muscle function and movement performance that cannot be predicted from examination of the architectural features of resting (non-contracting) muscles.