Abstract Summary
Our musculoskeletal system contains several muscle groups in which different muscles share a tendon. Most well-known are the quadriceps muscles, sharing the patellar tendon, and the triceps surae muscles, sharing the Achilles tendon (AT). The structure and mechanical properties of these tendons have been studied extensively, considering them as one unit. However, these shared tendons consist of multiple subtendons that can be separated for at least part of their length. Recently, non-uniform behavior within the AT has gained substantial interest. For a variety of muscle conditions, differential displacements of the anterior and posterior parts of the human AT have been reported. Also during locomotion in rats, differential lengthening of the subtendons of soleus (SO) and gastrocnemius (GAS) muscles has been indicated. But what are the mechanical con-sequences of such structural organization and inter-subtendon behavior? This paper describes recent studies aimed at answering this question.
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