Skeletal Muscle Lab Report

Introduction
The human body is made up of three different muscle types cardiac, smooth, and skeletal muscle. For this particular experiment the primary focus was skeletal muscle, which accounts for about 36% to 45% of total body weight and involves the integration of more than 600 different muscles (WordPress, 2006). Skeletal muscle contains many unique properties such as; elasticity and extensibility which allows a muscle to be stretched and return to its original state when not in use. Additionally skeletal muscles also contain a property known as contractility, which allows muscles to shorten, producing tension at their endpoints or doing both at the same time, this is useful for movement (WordPress, 2006). When two movements are combined
Each group member measured the calf, for a total of three calf measurements on the same person, then the average of theses three measurements were taken. Next a caliper was used to account for the fat to muscle ratio and again each group member measured with the caliper on the medal side of the calf for a total of three measurements, then the average was taken. The average of the calf circumference minus the average of the caliper measurements, became the adjusted mean for the leg circumference (BIOPAC systems , 2010). Then group members were asked to individually weigh themselves on a scale that reported weight in kilograms to avoid any conversion issues and report their final weight in kilograms. Finally jump height was assessed with a meter stick and piece of chalk. To assess jumping height a standing height first needed to be established, this was established by having students extend their dominate hand straight up with feet flat on the group and someone standing on a latter with a piece of chalk recording their standing height in cm. Then the student was asked to place the chalk in their finger tips and jump while having their torso remain up right, the person on the latter then reported the height jumped in cm and the difference of the initial standing height and jump height became the vertical jump
Leg circumference doesn’t affect vertical jumping heights; however males do have higher jump heights than females. The reasoning for the two hypothesis was that because males and females are sexually dimorphic that males would have a competitive advantage because they are known to have more muscle mass than females (Janssen, 2000), additionally females typically have lower masses which correlates to their skeletal muscle mass body ratio. From this, it was hypothesized that the greater the size of muscle the greater the force of work, so in this case ; the bigger the calf muscle the higher the jump, however this is wrong. When a study involving male and female ballet dancers was conducted it was discovered jump height had no relation to calf circumference there was no difference in gender (Wyon, 2006). However it was noted that male dancers did jump higher than females (Wyon, 2006). Another study conducted on how males and females vertical jump heights compared was performed on martial arts athletes, a group comprised of 29 males and 25 females. The groups ages ranged from 18-24 and participants were asked to jump from stationary position with their knees bent using their calf’s as the main muscle working. Before jumping participants had their body measurements taken in a similar manner as our own experiment. Their weight was measured by a digital scale; however their experiment differed in that body fat % was