Anatomy & Physiology › Section I · Muscle tissue › Topic I.3
Nervous control of muscle tension
The same biceps can lift a feather or a full suitcase. A single fibre's twitch is all or nothing, so the nervous system grades force another way: by choosing how many motor units to use and how fast to fire them.
In this topic
- Tension, load and three kinds of contraction
- What happens inside an isometric contraction
- Motor units
- Recruitment and the size principle
- The length-tension relationship
- Worked example: is this sarcomere in range?
- The muscle twitch
- Summation and tetanus
- Worked example: reading stimulus rates
- Treppe and muscle tone
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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