What muscles are contracting while walking And what kind of

What muscles are contracting while walking? And what kind of contractions (isometric, concentric, eccentric)

Solution

Quadriceps (knee extensors) contract during walking. This type of muscle contractions is called as Eccentric contractions. Eccentric contraction causes a muscle to lengthen under tension.

During walking, the quadriceps (knee extensors) are active just after heel strike while the knee flexes, or setting an object down gently. As the load on the muscle increases, it finally reaches a point where the external force on the muscle is greater than the force that the muscle can generate. Thus even though the muscle may be fully activated, it is forced to lengthen due to the high external load. This is referred to as an eccentric contraction