Do more muscles mean more strength?

The idea that the more muscles you have, the stronger you are is wrong, because well-developed muscles do not mean strong, but larger muscle fibers mean smaller muscle strength. The larger the muscle cells, the smaller the strength. Therefore, many fitness enthusiasts have well-developed muscles, but they cannot use their muscles. This is mainly related to the muscle contraction speed and muscle cells. You can learn about the content introduced in this article.

The study found that despite having larger muscle fibers, the muscles were less powerful, indicating low muscle mass. Bodybuilders, action movie stars, and other fitness enthusiasts work hard to build muscle and look like anime superheroes.

We often think of big muscles as meaning strength and power. But studies have found that, at the cellular level, the large muscles of bodybuilders are not as strong as those of power athletes (such as weightlifters or sprinters) or those who do not exercise. Muscular strength is the guarantee of speed for power athletes.

The study was based on muscle cells from a group of volunteers. The experimental subjects included 12 fitness enthusiasts, 6 strength athletes and 14 control group subjects (ordinary people who exercise regularly but have undergone weight training). Hans Degen, a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, stimulated experimental cells and then assessed the relationship between the speed of the cells' isometric contractions, force and muscle size. Contraction causes movement of the muscle, but not of the bulk of the muscle, and the muscle length remains constant.

By measuring muscle cell size, force production in specific areas or individual muscles can be calculated. The greater the strength, the better the muscle mass. The researchers found that the muscle cells of the bodybuilders were larger but less powerful than those of the control subjects. This suggests that the bodybuilders had poorer muscle mass than the control group.

Strength athletes, after resistance training, can lift lighter objects faster. They had the same muscle mass as the control group, but they produced force faster, meaning their muscles were stronger.