Fig. 1.

Schematic showing IFM recovery testing protocol. To test the ability of the IFM to recover, the opposite ends of each fascicle were removed, so that only 10 mm of intact IFM was left connecting the fascicles. Four lines were drawn across the two fascicles in the central test region to track local displacements; samples shown schematically and pictorially, where samples are pictured on a blue cutting board (a). A time-displacement graph pictorially represents the test protocol and times at which images were analysed. Four specific test points were identified; A: initial point, B: maximum displacement, C: immediately after removal of load and D: after a 10 second recovery period (b). Still frames of the sample were extracted from the video at each selected time point (c). Tracking algorithms were adopted to investigate the displacement of the lines, and thus fascicles, during each test (d).