For example huge bodybuilders lifting a lot less than significantly smaller powerlifters
In: Biology
Simplest answer is that the body wants the minimal amount of “tissue (by this I mean anything that needs calories to keep functioning)” to achieve the demands placed on it. Those who do Mr. Olympia contest, etc. will tell you that to gain muscle size “hypertrophy” you have to over stuff your daily caloric load and work out like a man possessed. This doesn’t correlate to strength bc of a loss of function/range of motion. A pitcher can throw the ball 100mph due to his mechanics and wont throw the ball 1mph faster if he bulks up bc his mechanics will suffer. Yet, put the same increased muscle mass on a 9′ tall person and teach them the proper mechanics and they might throw the ball 130mph. Once you put all that muscle on a frame not meant to support it (from steroids, etc.) you lose a lot of “function.” It’s not to say you lose all of it. Ronnie Colman was squatting something like 800+lbs in his prime. If you put his muscle mass on a 10′ tall person he’d prob have squatted like 1,200lbs (pure guess).
tl;dr If you put in the work the body will respond but past a certain point the additional muscle takes away function (mobility). This is why to build size body builders cannot just keep increasing the amount they lift and continue to do 5 reps w 5min breaks in between, they have to keep the weight “lower” and do more reps w less rest in between bc they cannot maintain proper form to mitigate injury w the heavier weight due to not having the proper frame for the large muscles they are building.
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