Longitudinal muscle plasticity - the development of training methods on the basis of eccentric muscle contractions

The longitudinal adaptation of skeletal muscles is an additional mechanism of increasing maximal mechanical power output amongst radial hypertrophy. The aim of this project is to link eccentric training stimuli to the activation of intracellular signalling pathways and eventually to the adaptational response of the muscle, dependent on load magnitude and frequency as well as fiber working length. It is hypothesized that eccentric stimuli with higher load magnitude and frequency as well as stimuli at longer fiber working length cause greater longitudinal adaptational responses, because these kind of stimuli are supposed to induce greater microdamage in the muscle.