tendon relative strengths

. With the FCR muscle as the reference it is well known that the relative strengths of the FCU, flexor pollicis longus, each of the digital flexors, extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis, extensor carpi ulnaris, and each of the digital extensors are 2, 1, 0.5, 1, 1, 1, and 0.5, respectively.⁸ When one takes the ratio of all the flexors to all the extensors the flexion/extension ratio is essentially 8 divided by 6 and is approximately 1.33 based on the cross-sectional area of the muscle bellies, suggesting that the total flexion force generated will be greater than the extension force.