The goal of this Symposium on skeletal muscles is to promote a scientific exchange of ideas on the highest level in a small setting with ample time for discussion and informal interaction. Scientifically, skeletal muscle contraction and function will be addressed at all structural levels, varying from single actin-myosin interactions to the function and control of muscles during voluntary contractions in humans. This program will require some tolerance, as biophysicists working on the molecular level have a different view of muscles than physiologists working on the single fibre level, or biomechanists working in a clinical rehabilitation setting with human patients.