Muscle mass and strength relationship

[PetrZampas]

Hello Rip,

This is my first post here, however I read the board from time to time and I own the last two editions of Practical Programming.

Apologies if this has been made clear here, but I am wondering what is your opinion regarding the muscle and strength relationship.

I remember in an interview with Marty Gallagher you mentioned "In fact muscle mass and strength control the sh*t !".

I have seen people that lift more than me but they look weaker or they don't have my muscle density and size or they don't even look that they lift at all BUT still I am weaker than them.

Why do you think this is happening ? Genetics ? Poor muscle activation ?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Your question is, why are some people stronger than other people? Genetics and training, I suppose.

[Bryan Dobson]

Hello Rip,

This is my first post here, however I read the board from time to time and I own the last two editions of Practical Programming.

Apologies if this has been made clear here, but I am wondering what is your opinion regarding the muscle and strength relationship.

I remember in an interview with Marty Gallagher you mentioned "In fact muscle mass and strength control the sh*t !".

I have seen people that lift more than me but they look weaker or they don't have my muscle density and size or they don't even look that they lift at all BUT still I am weaker than them.

Why do you think this is happening ? Genetics ? Poor muscle activation ?

Insertion points, distribution af muscle fiber types and neurologiocal efficiency. So GENETCS. You can improve the second two through training. You can also improve the amount of muslce mass, which will make you stronger when compared to the less muscular you.

[Giri Kotte]

Compared to weightlifters and powerlifters, bodybuilders do tend to have the least strength to weight ratio...

[Mark Rippetoe]

How do you know this?

[Aryah]

Hello Rip,

This is my first post here, however I read the board from time to time and I own the last two editions of Practical Programming.

Apologies if this has been made clear here, but I am wondering what is your opinion regarding the muscle and strength relationship.

I remember in an interview with Marty Gallagher you mentioned "In fact muscle mass and strength control the sh*t !".

I have seen people that lift more than me but they look weaker or they don't have my muscle density and size or they don't even look that they lift at all BUT still I am weaker than them.

Why do you think this is happening ? Genetics ? Poor muscle activation ?

This is a little hearsay I know, but I frequently see people with relatively more muscle mass than me who are weaker than me in the gym.

I put it down to steroids combined with poor training...

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yeah, not really data.

[tertius]

I could be remembering this entirely wrong, but:

Generally we talk about cross-sectional area of contractile units when talking the relationship of muscle size to strength, right?

But, there's also the varying length of muscle bellies, position of insertion/attachment points, and muscle fiber composition differences. And of course segment lengths.

So, assuming two people have similar segment lengths, similar cross sectional area of contractile tissue, how much do the other factors play a role?

I feel comfortable saying that the more explosive person (either due to differences in efficiency in recruitment, or fiber type) will be generally stronger.

But what about length of muscle belly vs. connective tissue, and insertion/attachment positions?
I cannot hazard a guess about that at all, and the only context I can recall people talking about this at all is in the calf morphology of sprinters. I'm guessing there is not a lot of data on this.

[Giri Kotte]

How do you know this?

I apologise, Rip. I do not have any research data on it. It's an opinion I formed over a period of time out of anectodal references, I now realise, probably of dubious veracity.
But I do remember Fred Hatfield beat Tom Platz for a squat 1RM. Both weighed pretty much the same and Hatfield was 12 years older.

[sbhikes]

I saw a young woman, 114lbs, squat 400lbs. Clearly it doesn't take a super-human amount of muscle mass to get strong. It does take a lot of work, though.