A buffed up physique with ripped muscles does not necessarily give you physical power, according to a study. It found that even though the muscles’ individual fibres were larger, they produced a lower force, which means they were of poor quality.
Researchers led by Hans Degens of Manchester Metropolitan Univeristy, stimulated individual muscle cells taken from a group of volunteers – 12 bodybuilders, six power athletes and 14 control subjects (average men, who are physically active but not performing weight training). They discovered that although the individual fibres of the bodybuilders’ muscles were larger than those of the control group, they also had a lower specific force.
This could be because of the changes in muscle architecture or to a dilution of the proteins that do the work of muscle contraction, according to a report in the Daily Mail. This study was published in the journal Experimental Physiology.
