What is the upper limit of the power output during a periodic movement of the lower limb?

Maximal (average) mechanical power output during cycling is constrained by many (bio-)mechanical factors. Here, we set out to find the maximal power that can be produced by the muscles of the lower limb during a fully constrained periodic movement. We used a musculoskeletal model capable of matching experimentally observed kinetics in sprint cycling to optimize joint angles and muscle activations that maximized power output. The predicted output increased from ~1250W for “normal” sprint cycling to a theoretical upper limit of ~2050W.