Back at a church I used to go to, I remember part of the sermon the pastor was giving was talking about conspiracy theories. This was all when covid started to kick off and I was still a somewhat bright-eyed/bushy-tailed/new civilian straight outta the Corps. His main message was that going down all these conspiracy rabbit holes will never lead one to the truth and the yearning for trying to make things make sense will leave one feeling empty.
I was skeptical of this at the time and am more opposed to this line of thought although there is some truth in there. There is a baseline somewhere, a narrow path. But going about trying to make things make sense in the wrong way can lead to falling off the path. I’m not all the way there myself, but I don’t have the emptiness that my former pastor said would occur, I feel somewhat full.
Because of all this questioning, this has led to paradigms that have improved my health. The knowledge we were given about the human body is fractured and comes from a dirty lens. A scientist by the name of Harold Hillman in a paper of his talked about our methods for understanding the world and how flawed they are. However, like most folks going against the grain he was ostracized.
His main target was electron microscopy which resulted in altered forms of the elements humans were trying to research. One of the elements he believed that electron microscopy altered was human muscle tissue. This alteration he believes influenced how scientists determined how muscle contracts.
What so much exercise science is based on could be the result of looking at dehydrated artifacts that don’t resemble anything within a living human body.
I’ve only been on this planet a little over three decades, but when I look at certain aspects of history I begin to question things.
No powders
No pills
No special weight machines
No conflicting research studies to overanalyze
Just strength, muscle, and health. There were definitely posers back then nothing new under the sun. But I contemplate how much of our, “Knowledge” today is making things more complicated.
What if the human body is more capable than we believe it to be?
What if our experience of, “success” was by accident?
I’ve always looked at the sliding filament theory with some skepticism. Harold Hillman set off a light bulb in my head and his beliefs on what muscle is and how it contracts might explain some things better now that more information is coming out about our fascia.
The Sliding Filament Theory
Sliding Into History
Harold Hillman’s Points
Other Anomalies
Making It Make Sense (element repulsion, electricity, & hertz)
What This Means For Training (Getting to the root)
What This Means For Health (Capacitance vs nnEMF)
Wrap Up
The Sliding Filament Theory
When we contract our muscles we’re told around 1954, that two elements, actin, and myosin slide into each other so the muscle can produce force. These elements are along the muscle fibers from insertion point to insertion point.
So for the bicep(shoulder to elbow), you’ll have a conga line with actin and myosin separated by Z-lines, the outward barriers, and M-Lines, their center-line.
There are problems with this though.
For example, it would be difficult to explain how these Z-lines move when in a series from one side of the muscle to another you’ll have multiple actin and myosin pulling in the opposite direction. Various links in a chain pulling in opposite directions should mean no movement right?
Here’s a short( 1 min) video representation I found. You can think of each of their elbows as Z-lines.
I don’t mean to throw shade on these people but observe how uncoordinated this looks. To have this work you would have to have molecular signaling on a massive level up and down the muscle so that the contraction is more uniform like in the demonstration above. Keep in mind those folks represent just one muscle fiber.
In addition to this, it would be appropriate to have two people each touching opposite sides of the room with their elbows, and try the same thing. The fixed structure of the room will represent our bone structure/connecting tendons. It would be difficult for anyone to move as they did in the demonstration above.
Some of these sliding filaments might make sense when the muscle is in its most shortened position but when it’s lengthened this theory falls apart. If a full sliding/connection between the actin and myosin produces muscular force, it would be difficult to explain how one can produce force in the lengthened position?
In addition to this, why is the lengthened position so advantageous for muscle growth as well as strength through the entire range of motion in terms of overcoming isometrics?
To deal with this lengthening issue they discovered a third filament known as, “Titin.”1 It was discovered in 1977 using “Atomic Force Microscopy.” Sounds cool.
“Electrophoretic analyses of protein components of striated muscle myofibril purified from various vertebrate and invertebrate species revealed that proteins much larger than myosin heavy chain are present in significant amounts. To define possible roles of these heretofore unidentified proteins, we purified a combination of two uncommonly large proteins, designated as titin, from chicken breast myofibrils. Chemical and immunological studies indicated that titin is distinct from myosin, actin, and filamin. Specific titin anti body crossreacts with similar protein in both skeletal and cardiac myofibrils of many vertebrate and invertebrate species. Immunofluorescent staining of glycerinated chicken breast myofibrils indicated that titin is present in M lines, Z lines, the junctions of A and I bands, and perhaps throughout the entire A bands.”2
Google told me that the preparation process isn’t as destructive as with standard electron microscopy. It doesn’t seem like it. In addition to this if dead, dehydrated, muscle tissue is being observed scientists will be looking at a picture vastly different from what occurs in a living organism.
Another issue with this is how the muscle becomes bigger when one contracts. If our filaments are sliding like a telescope the muscle should get smaller.
Or as Mr. Hillman states…
“When the muscle has contracted maximally, the force exerted by the transverse component should have reached its maximum, and, therefore, the muscle fibres should narrow their waists. A contracted muscle should look thinner not fatter. The usual explanation given for this is that muscles are isovolaemic, so that a longitudinal contraction must cause a transverse expansion. Unfortunately, this failure of the muscle to contract in its middle is seen not only in the whole muscle, but also when single muscle fibres are dissected out. It must be concluded that the myoplasm in life is a viscous fluid, which, when dehydrated, forms thick and thin filaments. A new alternative theory to the sliding filament hypothesis requires to be formulated.” (Harold 153)
A “Viscous fluid”… sounds interesting. I’ll show you some stuff later on that might make sense. Even in the lengthened position when you flex your muscles they grow in size momentarily as this MRI shows…
Sliding Into History
The work of this sliding theory began with several people two of them Huxleys, with one of them Andrew Huxley, being related to Aldous Huxley the author of “Brave New World.
Based on the work of Aldous’ Brother, Julian, and a few other things, some would say that, “Brave New World” was more of an apologetic than a prediction…
Just kidding it’s not like the standard theory of muscle contraction is some conspiracy keeping us from becoming stronger/healthier people and less Epsilonish…
The others involved in this sliding filament research were Jean Hanson and Rolf Niedergerke. When during a 1960s symposium and receiving resistance to their theories Jean responded,
"I know I cannot explain the mechanism yet, but the sliding is a fact.4"
Solid Jean…solid.
It’s great that all these people performed a decent amount of work. However, there is one important question…
Do they even lift?
Well….neither do I in a sense. But I workout though.
All this theory is based on looking at dead tissue in an electron microscope. Due to this framing our understanding of muscle contraction has holes in it.
Let’s see what other mental muscle Mr Hillman can apply to this theory to flex on the work of the Huxleys, Hanson, and Niedergerke.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Nerve & Muscle to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.