The secrets of strength

Just as Delilah famously asked Samson in the epic tale of strength and weakness, love and betrayal, “What is the secret of your strength?” we too shall ask, what is the secret of any man or woman’s great strength?

The strength of an individual muscle depends on how many bundles of muscle cells can be recruited by the central nervous system together in one instant and in one concerted effort- Matthew Muscat Inglott

Of course, the Bible’s greatest action hero didn’t spill all the beans at first, as he had already been betrayed by the evil temptress once before when she passed on the answer of one of his riddles to the Philistines.

It’s a shame Samson never knew much of the science behind human strength, because all he really had to say to the persistent Delilah was, “Well darling, it’s a combination of myofibrillar hypertrophy, optimum intra- and inter-muscular coordination, favourable biomechanics, and use of efficient technique when performing all my feats of strength.”

Sound like another riddle? Maybe, but fear not, for I shall give you all the answers before you’re done reading this. Just be sure not to pass it all on to the Philistines.

Let’s begin right down at the cellular level for the first part of our riddle: myofibrillar hypertrophy. A muscle cell is often referred to as a muscle ‘fibre’ due to its elongated shape. Inside each muscle cell are tiny strands called myofibrils which act like stretched rubber bands that contract and shorten, producing muscular work.

The myofibrils float in a gel-like substance where the energy and water that power the cell are stored. In normal cells we call this the cytoplasm, but in muscle cells it’s known instead as ‘sarcoplasm’.

Nobody likes fancy scientific words, but myofibrils and sarcoplasm are important terms because they correspond to the two major ways in which muscles grow: myo­fibrillar hypertrophy results in an increase in the number of myofibrils inside each muscle cell, while sarcoplasmic hy­per­trophy results in an increase in the volume of energy-storing sarcoplasm inside each cell.

This explains why two muscles of roughly the same size can vary greatly in strength, or why smaller muscles can even be stronger than larger ones. Barring divine intervention, the rest of us can achieve myofibrillar hypertrophy by following a strength training regimen involving the use of heavy weights.

Now things have certainly changed since Samson’s day. When it comes to proving our physical prowess, most of us would much rather settle our differences on the soccer field than marvel at great feats of strength. So if the world’s favourite game is a language we can all understand, then let’s see how it can help us explain the rest of our riddle.

Muscle cells are a lot like the players in a soccer team. We could have a muscle packed with super cells densely packed with myofibrils, but just like a bunch of soccer superstars randomly thrown into the same team, we just won’t get the results we want without the all-important ingredient of teamwork. When it comes to elite strength, there are two major types of muscular teamwork at play: intra- and inter-muscular coordination.

The strength of an individual muscle depends on how many bundles of muscle cells can be recruited by the central nervous system together in one instant and in one concerted effort. This is intra-muscular coordination.

However, during most feats of strength muscles rarely work alone. The efficiency with which different muscle groups can therefore work together to produce combined force in one instant is known as inter-muscular coordination.

Just like a good coach coordinating the efforts of his superstar players on the pitch, your central nervous system must also be a good muscle manager in producing maximum force in one instant.

But what about the wider management issues that affect the success or failure of top football clubs? What about the administration, financial management, branding and merchandising?

We all know the outcome of matches can sometimes be influenced by occurrences outside the stadium itself. The wider additional factors similarly affecting strength represent the final two parts of our riddle: biomechanics and technique.

The way muscles and bones interact as one mechanism to produce force and movement is known as biomechanics. The length of our various bones determines our leverage when lifting or moving heavy objects. As Archimedes promised, with a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, he could indeed move the entire world.

Let’s consider perhaps the simplest possible example of biomechanics at work: two men of exactly the same size attempting to lift a heavy object off the floor. Assume one of the men has very long arms, while the other has very short arms.

The man with long arms will not have to bend over nearly as far to reach the object on the floor and will have less distance to lift the object. Even with weaker muscles, therefore, the man with longer arms will still find it easier to lift the object than the man with short arms. The length of your lower limbs, thighs, back, or upper arms will all similarly to some degree affect your mechanical efficiency across a variety of different movements.

This brings us to the final frontier of great strength: technique. The way we position our bodies during feats of strength is our most valuable tool in optimising our biomechanics. For the same reasons you would use two hands rather than one to carry a TV or microwave, the way we consciously choose to use our bodies in accomplishing any task will perhaps have the greatest impact of all.

Even in sports exclusively based on strength we see more technically proficient athletes prevail over stronger but less refined adversaries.

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