Figure 6.

Schematic disposition of the myosin head before (left column) and after the ramp stretch at rupture tension (right column): (A and A′) before a conditioning step release, (B and B′) immediately after the step release, and (C and C′) 2 ms after the step release, at the end of the quick force recovery. The spring indicates the half-sarcomere compliance (for clarity, the half-sarcomere compliance is assumed to be located entirely outside the myosin head); l₀, l₁, and l₂ are the half-sarcomere extensions before the stretch, after the quick release, and at end of the quick recovery, respectively (the values shown on the right column are taken from the left column); L_c, L_c1, and L_c2 are the corresponding sarcomere elongations needed to detach the cross-bridges.