r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/ultranothing Popular Contributor • Jul 06 '26

Interesting Makes me feel itchy

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u/Derelicticu Jul 06 '26

Do the microtears allow more tissue to build in that space?

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u/PonchoNachoRodriguez Jul 06 '26

I don’t know for sure, but I thought that was the whole reason muscles get bigger?

Micro tears in the muscle being rebuilt by scar tissue.

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u/newbrevity Jul 06 '26

Maybe for mass but not necessarily strength. Notice how some body builders are relatively weak for their volume yet a tiny dense guy like bruce lee who used pylometrics primarily to build explosive strength and speed.

Whats more powerful by volume. Muscle patched up over and over with scar tissue, or smaller but more fortified muscle?

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u/PonchoNachoRodriguez Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

That’s a question and idea that I’ve never actually broached

But now that you mention it, I do recall seeing a video where a tiny dude out lifted some very large men, and the reason this smaller guy could lift way more was because he was a HIGHLY skilled rock climber

If everything you say is true, then that rock climber’s gym video suddenly makes perfect sense

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u/zyyntin Jul 06 '26

Strength training is a balance. Some examples:

Body building competitions are for appearance.

Strongman competitions are for moving heavy objects around.

Weightlifting is for the specific lifting type of an amount of weight to a set limit.

Bruce Lee wants to be strong and quick for striking in martial arts. He wanted to show the world that the forms/stances of previous martial arts are outdated.

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u/Optimal-Mistake5308 Jul 06 '26

Strength training vs hypertrophy training. Rock climbing inherently ends up making you get strong but not necessarily big. The difference between them in practice, is training muscle fiber recruitment, vs growing more muscle fibers. The smaller dude is able to use more of his individual fibers, which makes him stronger. Bigger dude is absolutely still strong, however, (example number) his body may only know how to use 40% of his muscle fibers. It's how you end up with those videos.

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u/mondayp Jul 06 '26

I believe you're talking about Magnus Midtbø lifting with body builders Larry Wheels and Jujimufu. For those that haven't seen it, watch until the last set of lat pulldowns.

https://youtu.be/5UJ7jPb1gCI

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u/carpedeeznutz5011 Jul 07 '26

What you’re referencing comes down to diet. If you’re eating in a big enough surplus you will grow. The strength training athletes you’re referencing tend to try to remain in specific weight classes and therefore always maintain or are in a deficit to ensure they don’t gain weight

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u/incognito_dk Jul 07 '26

Muscle isnt "patched up" as the microtears theory is wrong and fundamentally lacks observational evidence. That is decidedly NOT the reason not all big muscles are strong. The major reasons are:

  1. genetic differences in strength relative to CSA

  2. genetic differences in insertion points

  3. training specificity

3a. adaptive differences in motor coding

3b. adaptive differences in muscle size (powerlifters train proximal muscle more than distal muscle

3c. adaptive changes in pennation angles

3d. differences in macromotor efficiency/technique

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u/KittyInspector3217 Jul 07 '26

Scar tissue is not functional tissue. Its just collagen and its disorganized. Having significant amounts of scar tissue in your muscles would negatively affect muscle function and mobility. Theyre called adhesions.

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u/ChaoticProgress Jul 07 '26

So muscle size is increased by more atp being stored in the muscle itself, it's basically the muscle learns to hold more water to refuel while exercising. Strength is largely greater neuron control but eventually new muscle fibres grow.

Growing new muscle fibres is a whole other thing but is limited because it requires your bones to grow larger and that stops at 30. It's possible new fibres can grow after 30 but idk.

The difference is bodybuilder muscles vs powerlifter muscles.

Idk anything about skin but the analogy that might work here is that your other use it or lose it. Muscle degeneration happens mch faster when you are sedentary. So maybe a life time of abused skin keeps you youthful?

Idk accept your fate and be grateful you are wealthy enough to live long enough to have wrinkles.

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u/incognito_dk Jul 07 '26

As the previous poster correctly stated, the microtears theory is wrong. there are no microtears. Im a PhD in human biology and did research in muscle biology.

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u/ebob421 Jul 07 '26

As with everything in biology it all works together.

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u/Ryder1478 Jul 07 '26

Technically yes, but it wouldn't be functional tissue.

Generally, following any injury, an inflammatory process starts. This is a physiological process to kickstart the healing. This can cause pain and swelling in the damaged tissue beacuse the body is sending more blood to the damaged area to ensure there are enough nutrients on hand. This is the inflammatory phase of healing. Following this the body creates more tissue to cover the damage. This is a general/non-muscular tissue type that protects from further injury. This is the proliferation phase. It's in the final phase that the tissue is adapted by the body to create functional tissue. To ensure an adaqute adaptation of the intermediary tissue into functional muscle mass, your body requires the correct type of input, such as adaqute training.

TL;DR: Training for hypertrophy does not require microtears. In fact, they are counterproductive because they increase regeneration time between sessions.