50-Year-Old Assumptions About Muscle Strength Tossed Aside 57
vinces99 writes "The basics of how a muscle generates power remain the same: Filaments of myosin tugging on filaments of actin shorten, or contract, the muscle – but the power doesn't just come from what's happening straight up and down the length of the muscle, as has been assumed for 50 years. Instead, new research shows that as muscles bulge, the filaments are drawn apart from each other, the myosin tugs at sharper angles over greater distances, and it's that action that deserves credit for half the change in muscle force scientists have been measuring."
Rock anchors (Score:5, Interesting)
Some people are tougher than others (Score:4, Interesting)
Muscle power is purely a function of size or volume. Some people's muscle is inherently stronger than others, whether by nature or nurture.
I grew up working in the field, building houses with my dad, and otherwise getting the crap worked out of me from an early age. Went to grad school, and would regularly see the jocks working out at the gym who had much more muscle mass than me, but I could take their max weight, add 20%, and do more reps. I enjoyed watching them boggle at that.
On the flip side, there was a fellow grad student from Eritrea. Scrawny, wiry guy, maybe 140 lbs soaking wet. His bicep/tricep cross-section wasn't much bigger than my wrist. He challenged me to an arm-wrestling contest one day, and instantly and with little exertion pounded my knuckles into the table multiple times until I learned my lesson.
He reminded me somewhat of those stories you hear about Abraham Lincoln and how surprisingly strong he was.
http://www.lincolnportrait.com/physical_man.html [lincolnportrait.com]