Physical principles demonstrate that the biceps femoris muscle relative to the other hamstring muscles exerts the most force: implications for hamstring muscle strain injuries

Abstract

Of the hamstring muscle group the biceps femoris muscle is the most commonly injured muscle in sports requiring interval sprinting. The reason for this observation is unknown. The objective of this study was to calculate the forces of all three hamstring muscles, relative to each other, during a lengthening contraction to assess for any differences that may help explain the biceps femoris predilection for injury during interval sprinting. To calculate the displacement of each individual hamstring muscle previously performed studies on cadaveric anatomical data and hamstring kinematics during sprinting were used. From these displacement calculations for each individual hamstring muscle physical principles were then used to deduce the proportion of force exerted by each individual hamstring muscle during a lengthening muscle contraction. These deductions demonstrate that the biceps femoris muscle is required to exert proportionally more force in a lengthening muscle contraction relative to the semimembranosus and semitendinosus muscles primarily as a consequence of having to lengthen over a greater distance within the same time frame. It is hypothesized that this property maybe a factor in the known observation of the increased susceptibility of the biceps femoris muscle to injury during repeated sprints where recurrent higher force is required.

Keywords: biceps femoris; force; hamstring; injury; muscle; physics.

Figure 1.

Length and displacement of hamstring muscles during a lengthening contraction. At rest (Left of Figure) and at full displacement (Right of Figure). Scaled to actual length of each muscle and subsequent displacement during a lengthening contraction. Red Semimembranosus, Blue Semi-tendinosus, Yellow Biceps. Straight lines represent tendon, Bent line represents muscles, Blocks represent bone.