As the title says. Why does hypertrophy (growing muscle tissue in size) does not correlate with the strength of the individuals training for strength (as in heavy weight lifting, without growing muscle tissue)?
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Strength is a skill, so it requires your brain and other cells in your spinal cord to ACTIVATE muscle fibers in a coordinated way. With training (exercise), the central nervous system gets better at creating powerful contractions, activating more fibers than in those who are untrained. *Yes*, muscle fiber size is related to maximum force output, but the **advanced motor coordination** that stems from years of training explain why it’s possible to have smaller muscles yet still have very high force production.
**PS for those who strength train:** How you lift matter for size, with muscle-lengthening activity (eccentric activation of a muscle) leading to more size gains than the muscle-shortening movements (concentric). So if you don’t want to gain muscle but want to get as powerful as possible, you may drop the weights (olympic lifting for example) to avoid the eccentric part of the exercise. Gain that power without gaining much muscle size.
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