Top

Published in:

01-07-2019 | Commentary

Exercise-Induced Changes in Muscle Size do not Contribute to Exercise-Induced Changes in Muscle Strength

Authors: Jeremy P. Loenneke, Samuel L. Buckner, Scott J. Dankel, Takashi Abe

Published in: Sports Medicine | Issue 7/2019

Excerpt

Early work from Ikai and Fukunaga [1] found that those with smaller muscle cross-sectional areas had less arm strength than those with larger muscle cross-sectional areas. However, the question that remains is whether the exercise-induced change in muscle size contributes to the exercise-induced change in muscle strength. The current model for explaining changes in muscle strength is that neural mechanisms play a role initially followed by larger contributions from muscle hypertrophy. …

Ikai M, Fukunaga T. Calculation of muscle strength per unit cross-sectional area of human muscle by means of ultrasonic measurement. Int Z Angew Physiol. 1968;26(1):26–32.PubMed

Schneider EC. Physiology of muscular activity. 2nd ed. London: W.B. Saunders Company; 1939.

Rasch PJ. The problem of muscle hypertrophy: a review. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 1955;54(9):525–8.PubMed

Morehouse LE, Miller AT. Physiology of exercise. 4th ed. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby Co.; 1963.

Morehouse LE, Miller AT. Physiology of exercise. 7th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 1976.

Brooks GA, Fahey TD. Exercise physiology: human bioenergetics and its applications. New York: Wiley; 1985.

Ikai M, Fukunaga T. A study on training effect on strength per unit cross-sectional area of muscle by means of ultrasonic measurement. Int Z Angew Physiol. 1970;28(3):173–80.PubMed

Moritani T, deVries HA. Neural factors versus hypertrophy in the time course of muscle strength gain. Am J Phys Med. 1979;58(3):115–30.PubMed

Hakkinen K, Alen M, Komi PV. Changes in isometric force- and relaxation-time, electromyographic and muscle fibre characteristics of human skeletal muscle during strength training and detraining. Acta Physiol Scand. 1985;125(4):573–85.CrossRefPubMed

10.

Mitchell CJ, Churchward-Venne TA, West DW, Burd NA, Breen L, Baker SK, et al. Resistance exercise load does not determine training-mediated hypertrophic gains in young men. J Appl Physiol. 2012;113(1):71–7.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

11.

Dankel SJ, Counts BR, Barnett BE, Buckner SL, Abe T, Loenneke JP. Muscle adaptations following 21 consecutive days of strength test familiarization compared with traditional training. Muscle Nerve. 2017;56(2):307–14.CrossRefPubMed

12.

Mattocks KT, Buckner SL, Jessee MB, Dankel SJ, Mouser JG, Loenneke JP. Practicing the test produces strength equivalent to higher volume training. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017;49(9):1945–54.CrossRefPubMed

13.

Carroll TJ, Herbert RD, Munn J, Lee M, Gandevia SC. Contralateral effects of unilateral strength training: evidence and possible mechanisms. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2006;101(5):1514–22.CrossRef

14.

Ploutz LL, Tesch PA, Biro RL, Dudley GA. Effect of resistance training on muscle use during exercise. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1994;76(4):1675–81.CrossRef

15.

Yao WX, Ranganathan VK, Allexandre D, Siemionow V, Yue GH. Kinesthetic imagery training of forceful muscle contractions increases brain signal and muscle strength. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013;7:561.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

16.

Jakobsgaard JE, Christiansen M, Sieljacks P, Wang J, Groennebaek T, de Paoli F, et al. Impact of blood flow-restricted bodyweight exercise on skeletal muscle adaptations. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpf.12509 (Epub ahead of print).CrossRefPubMed

17.

Martins FM, de Paula Souza A, Nunes PRP, Michelin MA, Murta EFC, Resende E, et al. High-intensity body weight training is comparable to combined training in changes in muscle mass, physical performance, inflammatory markers and metabolic health in postmenopausal women at high risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Exp Gerontol. 2018;107:108–15.CrossRefPubMed

18.

Kacin A, Strazar K. Frequent low-load ischemic resistance exercise to failure enhances muscle oxygen delivery and endurance capacity. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2011;21(6):e231–41.CrossRefPubMed

19.

Jessee MB, Buckner SL, Mouser JG, Mattocks KT, Dankel SJ, Abe T, et al. Muscle adaptations to high-load training and very low-load training with and without blood flow restriction. Front Physiol. 2018;9:1448.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

20.

Dankel SJ, Buckner SL, Jessee MB, Grant Mouser J, Mattocks KT, Abe T, et al. Correlations do not show cause and effect: not even for changes in muscle size and strength. Sports Med. 2018;48(1):1–6.CrossRefPubMed

21.

Aagaard P, Andersen JL, Dyhre-Poulsen P, Leffers AM, Wagner A, Magnusson SP, et al. A mechanism for increased contractile strength of human pennate muscle in response to strength training: changes in muscle architecture. J Physiol. 2001;534(Pt. 2):613–23.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

22.

Narici MV, Hoppeler H, Kayser B, Landoni L, Claassen H, Gavardi C, et al. Human quadriceps cross-sectional area, torque and neural activation during 6 months strength training. Acta Physiol Scand. 1996;157(2):175–86.CrossRefPubMed

23.

Garfinkel S, Cafarelli E. Relative changes in maximal force, EMG, and muscle cross-sectional area after isometric training. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1992;24(11):1220–7.PubMed

24.

Martin-Hernandez J, Marin PJ, Menendez H, Ferrero C, Loenneke JP, Herrero AJ. Muscular adaptations after two different volumes of blood flow-restricted training. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2013;23(2):e114–20.CrossRefPubMed

25.

Morton RW, Oikawa SY, Wavell CG, Mazara N, McGlory C, Quadrilatero J, et al. Neither load nor systemic hormones determine resistance training-mediated hypertrophy or strength gains in resistance-trained young men. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2016;121(1):129–38.CrossRef

26.

Kubo K, Komuro T, Ishiguro N, Tsunoda N, Sato Y, Ishii N, et al. Effects of low-load resistance training with vascular occlusion on the mechanical properties of muscle and tendon. J Appl Biomech. 2006;22(2):112–9.CrossRefPubMed

27.

Abe T, Dankel SJ, Buckner SL, Jessee MB, Mattocks KT, Mouser JG, et al. Short term (24 hours) and long term (1 year) assessments of reliability in older adults: can one replace the other? J Aging Res Clin Pract. 2018;7:82–4.

28.

Atkinson G, Batterham AM. True and false interindividual differences in the physiological response to an intervention. Exp Physiol. 2015;100(6):577–88.CrossRefPubMed

29.

Dankel SJ, Mouser JG, Mattocks KT, Jessee MB, Buckner SL, Bell ZW, et al. Changes in muscle size via MRI and ultrasound: are they equivalent? Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018;28(4):1467–8.CrossRefPubMed

30.

Franchi MV, Longo S, Mallinson J, Quinlan JI, Taylor T, Greenhaff PL, et al. Muscle thickness correlates to muscle cross-sectional area in the assessment of strength training-induced hypertrophy. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018;28(3):846–53.CrossRefPubMed

31.

Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res. 2017;31(12):3508–23.CrossRefPubMed

32.

Bickel CS, Cross JM, Bamman MM. Exercise dosing to retain resistance training adaptations in young and older adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011;43(7):1177–87.CrossRefPubMed

33.

Dankel SJ, Kang M, Abe T, Loenneke JP. Resistance training induced changes in strength and specific force at the fiber and whole muscle level: a meta-analysis. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2019;119(1):265–78.CrossRefPubMed

34.

Griffin L, Cafarelli E. Transcranial magnetic stimulation during resistance training of the tibialis anterior muscle. J Electromyogr Kinesiol. 2007;17(4):446–52.CrossRefPubMed

35.

Aagaard P, Simonsen EB, Andersen JL, Magnusson P, Dyhre-Poulsen P. Neural adaptation to resistance training: changes in evoked V-wave and H-reflex responses. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2002;92(6):2309–18.CrossRef

36.

Krutki P, Mrowczynski W, Baczyk M, Lochynski D, Celichowski J. Adaptations of motoneuron properties after weight-lifting training in rats. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2017;123(3):664–73.CrossRef

37.

Canepari M, Rossi R, Pellegrino MA, Orrell RW, Cobbold M, Harridge S, et al. Effects of resistance training on myosin function studied by the in vitro motility assay in young and older men. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2005;98(6):2390–5.CrossRef

38.

Chin ER, Olson EN, Richardson JA, Yang Q, Humphries C, Shelton JM, et al. A calcineurin-dependent transcriptional pathway controls skeletal muscle fiber type. Genes Dev. 1998;12(16):2499–509.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

39.

Westerblad H, Allen DG. Changes of myoplasmic calcium concentration during fatigue in single mouse muscle fibers. J Gen Physiol. 1991;98(3):615–35.CrossRefPubMed

40.

Taber CB, Vigotsky AD, Nuckols G, Haun CT. Exercise-induced myofibrillar hypertrophy is a contributory cause of gains in muscle strength. Sports Med. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01107-8.CrossRefPubMed

41.

Mayo DG. Statistical inference as severe testing: how to get beyond the statistics wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2018.CrossRef

42.

Blazevich AJ, Coleman DR, Horne S, Cannavan D. Anatomical predictors of maximum isometric and concentric knee extensor moment. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2009;105(6):869–78.CrossRefPubMed

43.

Trezise J, Collier N, Blazevich AJ. Anatomical and neuromuscular variables strongly predict maximum knee extension torque in healthy men. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2016;116(6):1159–77.CrossRefPubMed

44.

Brechue WF, Abe T. The role of FFM accumulation and skeletal muscle architecture in powerlifting performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002;86(4):327–36.CrossRefPubMed

45.

Balshaw TG, Massey GJ, Maden-Wilkinson TM, Lanza MB, Folland JP. Neural adaptations after 4 years vs 12 weeks of resistance training vs untrained. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2019;29(3):348–59.PubMed

46.

Cribb PJ, Williams AD, Stathis CG, Carey MF, Hayes A. Effects of whey isolate, creatine, and resistance training on muscle hypertrophy. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007;39(2):298–307.CrossRefPubMed

47.

Baker D, Wilson G, Carlyon R. Periodization: the effect on strength of manipulating volume and intensity. J Strength Cond Res. 1994;8(4):235–42.

48.

Appleby B, Newton RU, Cormie P. Changes in strength over a 2-year period in professional rugby union players. J Strength Cond Res. 2012;26(9):2538–46.CrossRefPubMed

49.

Vigotsky AD, Schoenfeld BJ, Than C, Brown JM. Methods matter: the relationship between strength and hypertrophy depends on methods of measurement and analysis. PeerJ. 2018;6:e5071.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Title: Exercise-Induced Changes in Muscle Size do not Contribute to Exercise-Induced Changes in Muscle Strength
Authors: Jeremy P. Loenneke
Samuel L. Buckner
Scott J. Dankel
Takashi Abe
Publication date: 01-07-2019
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Published in: Sports Medicine / Issue 7/2019
Print ISSN: 0112-1642
Electronic ISSN: 1179-2035
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01106-9

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Exercise-Induced Changes in Muscle Size do not Contribute to Exercise-Induced Changes in Muscle Strength

Excerpt

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Excerpt

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 7/2019

Comment on “Drinking Strategies: Planned Drinking Versus Drinking to Thirst”

The Effects of a Patient and Provider Co-Developed, Behavioral Physical Activity Intervention on Physical Activity, Psychosocial Predictors, and Fitness in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Comment on “Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for Performance-Enhancing Effects”

When Jump Height is not a Good Indicator of Lower Limb Maximal Power Output: Theoretical Demonstration, Experimental Evidence and Practical Solutions

Correction to: What is the Prevalence of Hip Intra-Articular Pathologies and Osteoarthritis in Active Athletes with Hip and Groin Pain Compared with Those Without? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Optimising the Late-Stage Rehabilitation and Return-to-Sport Training and Testing Process After ACL Reconstruction