To investigate the effect of viscoelastic behavior on instantaneous muscle mechanics, the passive mechanical properties for the range of physiologically relevant rates should be clarified. Therefore, a series of uniaxial extension tests were conducted at various stretching rates using the muscle fiber bundles, which contained extracellular matrix (ECM) and interfibrillar microstructural components. We revealed that the tensile strength is strain rate-sensitive over the examined range, i.e., the muscle fiber bundle failed at 109[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]34, 122[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]44, and 179[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]61[Formula: see text]kPa (mean[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]SD) for strain rates of 0.02, 0.1, and 0.5[Formula: see text]s[Formula: see text], respectively. Moreover, we found that the applied stretch was not distributed uniformly even in relaxed conditions; the ratio between maximum and minimum local strains within a specimen was 2–3 on average during stretching and increased up to approximately four just before failure, indicating local mechanical heterogeneity along a fiber bundle and its exaggeration by stretching. Macroscopically, however, the tensile strain at failure was almost constant, [Formula: see text]50%. The local heterogeneity of muscle strain distribution can lead to unstable oscillation in a computational model. Thus, in addition to the intrinsic viscous effects of the muscle fiber itself, those of ECM and interfibrillar microstructural components should be considered in mathematical modeling of skeletal muscle.