Unipennate

We applied this method to the proximal aponeurosis of the unipennate medial gastrocnemius muscle (MG) of the cat during active force production at fixed muscle length.

The most distal region of the muscle was again unipennate, with fibers oriented between the posterior aponeurosis and the anterior surface of the muscle (Fig. 1D,E).

Although only one component of the muscle fiber force is used effectively to move the tendon, the advantage of the unipennate muscle system is that an increased number of sarcomeres can be placed in parallel to increase the effective force of the muscle (figure 2.19).