Study design
PAD
A single-group randomized-crossover design was used for this study, which was approved by the local ethics committee (ethics committee department 05, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, no.: 2021–17) and conducted in accordance with the ethical standards set by the declaration of Helsinki. Skeletal muscle contractility of the BF of the dominant leg was assessed using tensiomyography (TMG; TMG-BMC Ltd., Ljubljana, Slovenia). The participants lay in a prone position with their ankles placed on the TMG cushion for lower leg measurements, so that the measurement was performed with a knee flexion of about 5° [The second measurement site was 10 cm distal of BF-mid and was also marked (BF-distal). For BF-distal, the proximal electrode of BF-mid was placed 5 cm below the distal electrode from BF-mid. Hence, the distal BF-mid electrode turned into the proximal electrode for BF-distal, again allowing for an inter-electrode distance of 5 cm. The TMG measurements at both measurement sites (BF-mid and BF-distal) were performed under two conditions: in one condition, measurements were performed without fixation of the lower leg (non-fixed), while the second condition was performed with the participant’s lower leg strapped to the TMG pad using a 25 mm ✕ 2 m non-elastic adjustable strap, which was attached at the Achilles tendon (fixed). Each participant underwent each of the two conditions in a randomized order, as determined by 