Kontakt 2010, 12(4):464-471 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2010.060

Muscle pattern of jointsBiomedicine

Miroslav Tichý^*, Eva Macková, Marek Jelínek, František Ťupa

Univerzita J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem, Ústav zdravotnických studií

The literature search presented here is supposed to offer an outline of the literature concerning the function of skeletal muscles during natural movements. The clinical experience shows that different skeletal muscles of a certain joint do not exert the same functional behaviour. Some of them obviously play a larger role in the locomotion, some others being more important for the joint stability. The results of the search for the literature demonstrate that: a) every skeletal muscle performs a combination of movements simultaneously about all the axes available for the joint; b) every joint of the human body exerts its typical physiological movement pattern based on natural movements as e.g. the gait. This pattern consists of a characteristic combination of movements about all the joint axes simultaneously. It is possible to recognize flexion and extension physiological patterns. Thus, it is obvious that the human body does not take advantage of all the combinations of movements about all the axes during natural movements, but it prefers some of them. Based on results of an analysis of the literature, it is possible to divide skeletal muscles surrounding the same joint into pattern and non-pattern ones. The pattern muscles particularly participate in natural movements. They perform either flexion or extension patterns of the joint movement and can be considered as prevalently locomotion muscles. Non-pattern muscles perform some of the flexion pattern movements and some other movement from the extension pattern. Thus, they prevent, joint deflections in all the movement directions. Their main function is the joint stabilization. The results of the study presented here will serve as a starting point for experimental scientific studies, which should corroborate or refuse the hypothesis presented concerning pattern and non-pattern muscles.

Keywords: skeletal muscle; locomotion; joint stabilization; pattern muscles

Received: November 5, 2010; Accepted: November 24, 2010; Published: December 22, 2010  Show citation