FOR THE purposes of this review, it will be helpful to consider the simple block diagram of a striated muscle system shown in Figure 1. The system has been generalized, in order to be applicable to heart muscle, by including an inotropic state mechanism. The parallel elastic component is necessary to account for resting tension. However, neither of these elements will be discussed further. According to the classical model for muscle contraction proposed by Hill, 1 a contracting muscle can be represented by a contractile component (CC) in series with a series elastic component (SEC). In the resting state, the CC is freely extensible, whereas in the active state it is supposed to resist strongly any attempt to suddenly change its length. The properties of the active CC are such that its force-velocity behavior can be described by the following equation:where Pis the force, V is the velocity of shortening and a and b are constants. The use of P 0J , where / is time, can be explained as follows. During a steady state isometric contraction, as in a tetanus, successive stimuli serve to keep the active state at its maximum level, indicated by the tetanic P o -In this case there is no need for the subscript t in Equation 1, because P o is time-invariant. However, in a twitch the peak developed isometric force does not attain the tetanic level. Hill 2 knew from his thermal measurements that heat production starts off at its maximum rate very soon after a stimulus and before any mechanical response is detectable. He therefore reasoned that the transition in the CC from rest to a fully "active state" following a single stimulus was very rapid, so that the active state was completely developed. Relaxation was produced by a slower decline of the active state to its resting level. Hill 2 defined the intensity of the active state at any instant in time to be equal to the magnitude of the developed force when the velocity of shortening of the CC was zero; that is, in Equation 1, P o> , = P when V = 0. Using this definition, and expressing the force of the CC, P, relative to the tetanic P o , it can be seen that the active state level varies between 0 and 1.In view of the fact that Levin and Wyman 3 showed that