Muscle testing chambers have been present in biological experimentation for decades [1], often used to measure the force-length relationship of small tissue samples.

Chambers like this are distributed by a handful of manufacturers at high prices, leaving a demand for affordable and versatile muscle testing chambers for use in classrooms or research laboratory settings.

The UCSD course BENG 170 (Bioengineering Laboratory) has a lab involving dissection of a bullfrog to extract the semitendinosis muscle, which is then placed in the muscle testing chamber to be electrically stimulate and induce twitching. Results include finding peak tension during the muscle twitch and plotting passive and active length tension curves.

The BENG 170 lab set up consists of the muscle sample resting on the chamber electrodes connected at the ends by a suture attached to an isometric force transducer on one end, and a stable rod on the other. A stimulator provides artificial pulse stimulation and an oscilloscope for data acquisition.