In life the sarcomere length in a resting muscle is about 2.2 mm. STOP! It is important that you realize that skeletal muscle in your body, when at resting length, is at its optimal length for development of force.Click to see full answer. Also question is, what is optimal length of muscle?The most critical parameter in the length–tension relationship is the optimum muscle length, defined as the muscle length at which the maximum muscle force can be generated.Beside above, what happens when muscle is stretched beyond optimal length? Muscle contraction causes actin filaments to slide over one another and the ends of myosin filaments. By increasing the muscle length beyond the optimum, the actin filaments become pulled away from the myosin filaments and from each other. Besides, what is the importance of the proper length of a sarcomere? By increasing the resting length of the sarcomere, we increase the distance that the filaments can slide over each other and, thus, develop tension or force development. However, if we stretch the sarcomere so there is no overlap between the filaments, the myosin cannot attach to the thin filament.What stretch is the optimal sarcomere length for generating more force?The Ideal Length of a Sarcomere: Sarcomeres produce maximal tension when thick and thin filaments overlap between about 80 percent to 120 percent, approximately 1.6 to 2.6 micrometers.