how can muscles be big but not strong, like body builders vs rock climbers?
In: Biology
They can’t. Big muscles are strong. It necessarily stronger than all muscles that are smaller. But if they’re big, they’re strong, barring some weird anomalies.
I think it’s a misconception that bodybuilders aren’t strong. A guy who can bench 315 lbs / 140 kg for one rep might see a bodybuilder using the same weight and think that they’re not strong, but the bodybuilder can do 20 reps with that. On your average gym moves like squats, bench, curls etc the bodybuilders are so strong that they have to do longer sets to keep their injury risk low.
This phenomena is related to the [square-cube law](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%25E2%2580%2593cube_law%23:~:text%3DThe%2520square%25E2%2580%2593cube%2520law%2520can,the%2520cube%2520of%2520the%2520multiplier.&ved=2ahUKEwiOlo3wpK-EAxVvnGoFHVr1B4kQFnoECBEQBQ&usg=AOvVaw2mk90KFru6H523NHVGGd0k) which talks about how as the surface area of something squares, its volume increases by its cube. It’s a scaling issue and is the same reason babies and even kids can display such incredible displays of strength like dead hanging from their hands for such long periods of time because their strength in relation to their size is better. Or put another way, their strength to weight ratio is far more beneficial
Body builders are incredibly strong, they can move figurative mountains and are among the strongest people on the planet. But their muscle volume is so much larger and thus so much heavier that doing body weight type work is more difficult.
I saw that seated row video today too, pretty insane.
It was very cool to see them acknowledge how well he did, and the inate skill the climber had for form.
Bodybuilders are strong though. That’s a misconception. And more muscle mass means more strength potential. Rock climbers have specific strength and more importantly, muscular endurance. They are also strong, relative to their body weight
Im a rock climber. I have incredible tendon strength. I think that helps more than the actual big looking muscle you see people have in gyms. Tendon strength is incredibly hard to lose, and equally hard and slow to strengthen. I could do pull ups all day but I don’t look like I could.
body builders = big trucks (very strong, huge, no agility and slow)
rock climbers = dirt bike (stamina+strong, small, peak agility and fast)
Bodybuilders’ muscles ARE strong in many cases. A good bodybuilder is not highly specialized in one or a few activities, however. The effort is spread out over the body to achieve a (hopefully) balanced physique. And the bigger you get… very specific activities like the example of Rock Climbing you gave become disproportionately harder.
Bodybuilding puts you into the mindset of “every recovery cycle that you don’t train is wasted gains”, along with “training for mass gives more mass gains, training for strength gives more strength.” And since mass gains are the goal, its not that common for a bodybuilder to focus on strength for a few months, although in a good program this can be included.
I’m just an amateur gym-goer, but with many years of experience. Also a swimmer and runner, two sports that become harder the more mass I create in the gym.
Weightlifters tend to fall into two camps of bodybuilders and powerlifters. Bodybuilders try to go for something called hypertrophy that builds the size of a muscle for show, but isn’t as strong as it could be. Powerlifters on the other hand are more focused on strength than size.
Bodybuilders can transition to being powerlifters without too big of a deal.
>how can muscles be big but not strong, like body builders vs rock climbers?
Do you mean strong but not big? Body builders and rock climbers are both very strong, but body builders are big, whereas rock climbers are lighter.
Latest Answers