What is the maximum weight a person can lift: the scientist's answer will surprise you

Scientists believe that athletes are probably still working below the maximum power of their muscles, and it is unclear what the limit of human strength might be. Despite this, it is difficult to measure a person's maximum muscle power.

The only way to do this is to train continuously, constantly setting your own records. And then see if you can break them again, Live Science quotes Todd Schroeder, a professor of clinical physical therapy at the University of Southern California.

"To a certain extent, you can lift a lot more than you think if you have the right attitude," the professor is sure.

Muscle strength can be measured using electromyography (EMG). It works by recording the electrical activity generated inside the muscle, both by nerve cells and by the contraction of muscle fibers. Such tests can only be performed in a laboratory, and EMG monitors only a localized set of muscles, so it cannot assess the entire muscle power of the human body.

"If someone says: "Oh, I can lift 200 kilograms," I say: "That's great, but I know you can lift more. We just don't know how much more," says Schroeder.

Physically, a person's ability to support weight depends on actin and myosin, two proteins that enable muscle contraction. These proteins are located in different types of muscle fibers, including "fast" and "slow" ones. A person's muscle mass and the ratio of these fibers depends on their training regimen, as well as biological factors such as genetics and gender. In general, the more muscle mass you have, the more force you can generate.

Elite powerlifters push themselves to the limit by constantly increasing their muscle mass - however, the return on strength decreases as muscle mass gets bigger and bigger, and eventually the muscles reach their limit. And sometimes simply building muscle is not enough. Paradoxically, sometimes people with less body mass lift more weight than people with more.

One of the factors that powerlifters must overcome is "neuromuscular inhibition" - it limits the force with which a muscle can contract to prevent injury. Research shows that this limit can be increased through strength training.

"The other piece of the puzzle is that, in addition to physical fitness, powerlifters must overcome mental blocks to lift heavier and heavier weights. The best weightlifters are those who have been able to overcome these inhibitions and put themselves in the right mental state to engage all their muscle fibers," the expert explains. "If I tried to lift the maximum force I could, say 90 kg, and then enter a state where I removed this nervous inhibition, I would lift 135 kg," Schroeder gives an example.

This effect was demonstrated in a 2020 study. The researchers tried to determine whether positive visualization, a technique that involves mentally practicing positive outcomes, affects strength training. They recruited 133 student athletes and divided them into two groups. The first group was asked to imagine lifting 110% of their lifting capacity for at least five minutes a day while listening to motivational music. The second group did not. Three weeks later, the athletes returned to the lab. Those who practiced positive visualization increased their lifting capacity by at least 4.5-6.8 kg, while the comparison group increased their weight by only 2.2 kg on average.

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