Stay Connected. Manage Your Care.
Access your health information anytime and anywhere, at home or on the go, with MyHealth.
- Message your clinic
- View your lab results
- Schedule your next appointment
- Pay your bill
The MyHealth mobile app from Stanford Health Care puts all your health information at your fingertips and makes managing your health care simple and quick.
Guest Services
24/7
We are available to assist you
whenever you need it. Give us a call at
650-498-3333 or
PHYSICIAN HELPLINE
Have a question? We're here to help! Call 1-866-742-4811
Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
REFER A PATIENT
Fax 650-320-9443
Track your patients' progress and communicate with Stanford providers conveniently and securely.
Abstract
This study is an attempt to provide biomechanical support for the athletic practice of warming up prior to an exercise task to reduce the incidence of injury. Tears in isometrically preconditioned (stimulated before stretching) muscle were compared to tears in control (nonstimulated) muscle by examining four parameters: 1) force and 2) change of length required to tear the muscle, 3) site of failure, and 4) length-tension deformation. The tibialis anterior (TA), the extensor digitorum longus (EDL), and flexor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles from both hindlimbs of rabbits comprised our experimental model. Isometrically preconditioned TA (P less than 0.001), EDL (P less than 0.005), and FDL (P less than 0.01) muscles required more force to fail than their contralateral controls. Preconditioned TA (P less than 0.05), EDL (P less than 0.001), and FDL (P less than 0.01) muscles also stretched to a greater length from rest before failing than their nonpreconditioned controls. The site of failure in all of the muscles was the musculotendinous junction; thus, the site of failure was not altered by condition. The length-tension deformation curves for all three muscle types showed that in every case the preconditioned muscles attained a lesser force at each given increase in length before failure, showing a relative increase in elasticity, although only the EDL showed a statistically significant difference. From our data, it may be inferred that physiologic warming (isometric preconditioning) is of benefit in preventing muscular injury by increasing the and length to failure and elasticity of the muscle-tendon unit.
View details for Web of Science ID A1988T693500006
View details for PubMedID 3377095