eli5 how does more muscle make you able to lift heavier stuff

Question

eli5 how does more muscle make you able to lift heavier stuff

In: 3

Answer 1

The strength of a muscle is determined by its cross sectional area because the muscle fibers thicken up and they’re all pulling in the same direction in any given muscle.

Essentially what skeletal muscles do is bend joints. If you cannot generate enough torque (because the muscle pulls a little past the fulcrum of the joint, this it is measured with torque) with your muscle to overcome the opposite torque of the heavy object then you won’t be able to move it. If you have bigger muscles you have bigger muscle fibers which can generate more torque.