Lower leg muscle\u2013tendon unit characteristics are related to marathon running performance

Bálint Kovács,Zsolt Gyimes,István Kóbor,József Tihanyi,Örs Sebestyén

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73742-5

Bálint Kovács, Zsolt Gyimes + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73742-5

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Abstract

The human ankle joint and plantar flexor muscle–tendon unit play an important role in endurance running. It has been assumed that muscle and tendon interactions and their biomechanical behaviours depend on their morphological and architectural characteristics. We aimed to study how plantar flexor muscle characteristics influence marathon running performance and to determine whether there is any difference in the role of the soleus and gastrocnemii. The right lower leg of ten male distance runners was scanned with magnetic resonance imagining. The cross-sectional areas of the Achilles tendon, soleus, and lateral and medial gastrocnemius were measured, and the muscle volumes were calculated. Additional ultrasound scanning was used to estimate the fascicle length of each muscle to calculate the physiological cross-sectional area. Correlations were found between marathon running performance and soleus volume (r = 0.55, p = 0.048), soleus cross-sectional area (r = 0.57, p = 0.04), soleus physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA-IAAF r = 0.77, p < 0.01, CI± 0.28 to 0.94), Achilles tendon thickness (r = 0.65, p < 0.01), and soleus muscle-to-tendon ratio (r = 0.68, p = 0.03). None of the gastrocnemius characteristics were associated with marathon performance. We concluded that a larger soleus muscle with a thicker Achilles tendon is associated with better marathon performance. Based on these results, it can be concluded the morphological characteristics of the lower leg muscle–tendon unit correlate with running performance.

Highlights

The human ankle joint and plantar flexor muscle–tendon unit play an important role in endurance running
No architectural or morphological parameters of lateral gastrocnemius (LG) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) correlated with marathon performance
The SOL physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA)/tendon cross-sectional area (tCSA) ratio correlated with marathon performance (r = 0.68, p = 0.029, CI± 0.09–0.92) (Fig. 5)

Summary

Introduction

The human ankle joint and plantar flexor muscle–tendon unit play an important role in endurance running. We concluded that a larger soleus muscle with a thicker Achilles tendon is associated with better marathon performance Based on these results, it can be concluded the morphological characteristics of the lower leg muscle– tendon unit correlate with running performance. We can assume that this force mainly produced by the soleus (SOL) because physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) of the SOL is significantly larger than that of the gastrocnemii (GAS)[22,23], and as a consequence, SOL produces three to four times greater positive work than GAS during r unning[12]. The purpose of this study was to test whether there is a link between morphological variables of triceps surae muscle tendon unit and marathon performance Taking this information together, we hypothesized that runners who have a greater SOL PCSA, shorter fascicle length, thicker tendon and greater PCSA/tCSA ratio can complete the marathon distance in a shorter time (greater IAAF score). We hypothesized that SOL morphological properties have a greater impact on running performance than GAS morphological properties

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