Gastrocnemius Essay

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During the acceleration phase of stance (the mid-late stance), the greatest contributors to both forward acceleration and support of the center of the body mass are the the soleus and gastrocnemius. However, during the late stance the ankle plantar flexors are the primary contributors to both acceleration and support of the body mass center. The gastrocnemius was required to produce a plantarflexor moment of the ankle at this time during the stance phase. Also, during this part of the stance cycle the gastrocnemius and the rectus femoris were simultaneously activated. In one study, the peak force elicited the by gastrocnemius increased as speed increased from 3.5 to 7.0 m s–1, but showed no significant speed effects after this threshold. The peak force developed by soleus also increased …show more content…

On the other hand, the rectus femoris exhibited a biphasic force pattern. This means in the first half of swing, rectus femoris force increased with running speed in response to larger moments required in hip flexion and knee extension. Whereas during stance, it produced a knee-extensor moment to complement the action of the combined Vastus medialis, intermedius, and lateralis. Also during acceleration, iliopsoas , gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, hamstrings, and rectus femoris all developed significantly larger peak forces throughout the stride cycle. Specifically, the peak forces of gluteus maximus and hamstring because they doubled during the terminal swing. During deceleration phase of stance, the largest contributor to both braking and support of the body mass center is the quadriceps muscle group. The quadriceps muscle group (i.e., vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis, and rectus femoris) is considered the largest contributor to deceleration of the body mass center during early stance. The soleus is not the largest

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