eli5 how does more muscle make you able to lift heavier stuff
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Muscles are composed of fibers, which in turn are bundles of specialized cells, vascular tissue, nerves and connective tissue. The part that makes the muscle move is a sort of biological machine, fibers of a protein called actin which interact with an other protein called myosin. When the signal to contract comes through nerves, the myosin motor proteins “walk” along the actin filaments, and this causes a muscle to contract.
These structures act in concert, some muscle groups relaxing and others contracting, to allow us to do… anything, including lifting weight. It’s amazing, but it’s still basically a very sophisticated machine, a given amount of muscle can exert only so much force! Up to limits set by the other tissues involved, such as tendons, ligaments, and the bones they anchor to, more muscle and denser muscle tissue allows you to exert more force with a contraction of that tissue.
More force = more lift.
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