Skeletal muscle Skeletal muscle Skeletal muscle is one of three major muscle types, the others being cardiac muscle and smooth muscle. It is a form of striated muscle tissue, which is under the voluntary control of the somatic nervous system. Most skeletal muscles are attached to bones by bundles of collagen fibers known as tendons. A skeletal muscle refers to multiple bundles (fascicles) of cells joined together called muscle fibers. The fibres and muscles are surrounded by connective tissue layers called fasciae. Muscle fibres, or muscle cells, are formed from the fusion of developmental myoblasts in a process known as myogenesis. Muscle
Biarticular muscle By contracting isometrically (without changing length), they put the joint into a four-bar linkage, allowing the contraction of muscles at one joint to move the other by a fixed amount. Unlike four-bar linkages in which all elements are bone and angle relationships are fixed by the relative bone lengths, the biarticular muscle can hold the joint at many different lengths, creating a range of four-bar properties as needed. Biarticular muscles can also transfer mechanical power between distal and proximal joints, though the direction and magnitude of this transfer varies with anatomy, muscle activity level, and joint angles. This is a