Fig. 4. (A) Length/force relationship based on data for rat muscle (Woledge et al., 1985). The bold line shows the relative length range over which a muscle should operate to maximise work and power output for a strain of 0.23. (B) Optimum relative length (L_m/L₀) about which a muscle should operate to maximise work and power for a range of strains. An optimum L_m/L₀ of 0.95 should be used for a strain of 0.23. Note that the divergence of the line at strains shorter than 0.06 represents the range of relative optimum lengths (L_m; see text) over which the muscle can still operate on the plateau of the length/force relationship.