Summer is coming, in previous years, everyone was anxious that the legs were thick and the legs were not good-looking, and with the spread of Internet information, they have begun to be anxious that the feet and necks are not good-looking, and there are "foot and neck contouring Dafa" circulating in the rivers and lakes.
There are no cosmetics advertisements
However, no feet and necks are indeed a problem for many people, like a radish pestle into the ground, no matter how thin the legs are, they are almost meaningless in terms of line beauty.
Isn't it cute to have legs like Cai Wenji
In fact, what affects whether you have feet and neck is not the size of the skeleton, and a tendon called "Achilles tendon", then let's scientifically analyze it, without feet and neck, what is there to be anxious about, and whether there is a solution that you are most concerned about.
What is important about the Achilles tendon?
The English name for the Achilles tendon comes from the familiar Greek hero Achilles. In one legend, he was prophesied to die on the battlefield after his birth, and his mother, Thetis, learned about it and asked him to bathe in the River Styx in order to make him invulnerable. However, he was caught by Thetis in the bath and did not soak in the River Styx, so he eventually died when his ankle was shot by Apollo's arrow during the Trojan War. Nowadays, people often use Achilles' ankle as a metaphor for the very fragile part of something.
In order to avoid the pain of the feet, you can't help but soak the child's feet and neck
In reality, the Achilles tendon, as the thickest tendon in the body, plays a very important role. It connects the calf muscles to the calcaneal bone, allowing people to walk, run, jump, and carry weights up to 10 times their body weight during these exercises.
If you can walk, you have an Achilles tendon
The muscle that bulges out of the calf is the gastrocnemius muscle, and the "tendon" under the gastrocnemius muscle is the Achilles tendon.
As a result of this amount of stress, the Achilles tendon is also prone to lesions, such as Achilles tendonitis in athletes who often need to run and jump, and in severe cases, it can lead to tears or even rupture of the Achilles tendon. And once the latter situation occurs, because the blood supply here is not very abundant, it is very difficult to recover from the injury, and it is basically goodbye to the sports career.
The moment the Achilles tendon ruptures
Flyer Liu Xiang said goodbye to hurdles because of a ruptured Achilles tendon
At the same time, due to the special physiological function of the Achilles tendon, its structure is quite rich in protein fibers, and with age, these fibers will gradually lose their elasticity, so in the middle-aged and elderly population, the Achilles tendon will gradually stiffen and be more prone to injury. So the name Achilles is still very much in line with the characteristics of the Achilles tendon: a lot of responsibility but very fragile.
Can thick feet and necks and thick calves still be saved?
When it comes to whether the calves are thicker or thinner, it seems that no one can achieve the effect they want. Some people want a pair of toned calves, but they are very slender no matter how they exercise, while others put aside and look at their "radish legs" with envy, and can only silently open a stretching video for another ten minutes.
The only thing that can be changed by the human eye is the gastrocnemius muscle, which is the calf, which, together with the other muscles in the back of the calf, contracts with the Achilles tendon when we lift the heel and toe, so as to complete the action of walking or running.
Walking is an action that mobilizes the muscles of the entire lower body, but it is actually very complicated
图源：musculoskeletalkey.
Obviously, we all know that if you use a muscle regularly, then it will continue to grow stronger to complete your requirements, and it has been mentioned before that the calf has to bear the weight of the whole body when walking, who does not have a hundred pounds, lifting a dozen pounds of oil is too heavy.
Although Marilyn Monroe said that all women should be grateful to the person who invented high heels, they often wear high heels, because the gastrocnemius muscles are likely to be hypertrophied due to continuous contractions, and sometimes even pain. In addition, because the gluteal muscles also assist in the swing of the lower limbs during walking, the weakness in this area may also cause the calf muscles to become thicker due to excessive force when stepping the legs.
The solution is naturally to wear more flat heels, you can wait until the formal occasion to dress up, you can also exercise your gluteal muscles, and you can slim your legs and have a pair of buttocks.
It is said that although Audrey Hepburn is elegant in high heels, she likes to wear flat heels in private
Source: glowphysio.com.au
As for some people who want to make their calves thicker, it is not recommended to walk on tiptoe every day, or according to the correct fitness method, but because the calves are usually stressed, even if they are given strength, it will take a while to see the effect.
Although the Achilles tendon can also be thickened by exercise, it is not easy to observe with the naked eye, so if you are born with a long Achilles tendon, it is unlikely that you will have that kind of thick and toned calf in this life, not this track.
Does running fast have anything to do with the Achilles tendon?
In addition to the importance of the Achilles tendon in terms of styling, there is a saying that black friends run so fast because they have longer Achilles tendons. This statement is still only half true.
It's going to be Olympics again, do you have a favorite flyer?
Japanese scientists have found that Kenyan athletes have longer thighs, calves and Achilles tendons than Japanese counterparts, and their gastrocnemius muscles are more developed. This conclusion holds equally true among the French, Japanese and Kenyans.
Can legs like deer not run fast?
This difference is due to the fact that most of Africa is in the tropics, the climate is very hot, and in the process of evolution, the ratio of body volume to surface area must increase to increase the heat dissipation area of the body, so they are usually slender, slender limbs, and all of them are supermodels.
But is there a relationship between long legs and running fast or not? They also studied long-distance runners and found that the length of the Achilles tendon, especially the junction between the calcaneal Achilles tendon and the medial gastrocnemius muscle, was positively correlated with long-distance running performance, so the length of the Achilles tendon did affect long-distance running, but the cross-sectional area (which can also be understood as roughness) did not affect long-distance running.
However, not all events that need to be run are related to Achilles tendon length, and studies of Achilles tendon length and performance of 100-meter sprinters have found that there is no correlation between Achilles tendon length and cross-sectional area and their athletic performance, so there are other reasons that determine whether sprinters perform well or badly.
Yellow people can also be 100-meter flyers!
In fact, people have long noticed the wonderful biological characteristics of the Achilles tendon, in fact, the efficiency of body functions is more efficient when running than walking, because the Achilles tendon is quite rich in elastic fibers like springs, which can store a part of the energy used to do work and reduce consumption.
Therefore, in sports related to running and jumping, measuring the length of the Achilles tendon has also become a part of the material selection. However, there are many factors that affect the performance of these sports, such as leg bone length, bone density, and self-metabolism, which may affect the final performance.
On the left is the NBA star with the longest Achilles tendon, measuring 34.3 cm
The picture on the right is Qiu Qiyuan, the leading figure in women's gymnastics in mainland China at the Paris Olympics
Have you ever been selected by a PE teacher to practice PE because of your talent in the Achilles tendon?
Interestingly, a study of 30 Chinese men and women found that although the length of the male Achilles tendon was more developed than that of the female and provided greater force, this did not make the male Achilles tendon better able to store energy or increase the efficiency of the body's work during exercise, and there was little difference between male and female Achilles tendon in this regard, and the main factor affecting this performance was regular training.
As for you, every time you pass the test, it's not your Achilles tendon or short legs, it's too lazy.
bibliography
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Written by | Xiao Xu
Part of the picture | Picture worm creativity
WeChat edit | Zhao Zhiyu