as the annually contested“World’sS t r o n g e s tM a n” event,
generate extensive global interest (2). Moreover, scientiﬁc
understanding of muscular strength is important because of
its role in athletic performance (3), injury prevention (4), and
healthy aging (5). However, our knowledge of extreme human
strength is limited.
To date, there is little scientiﬁc information on the charac-
teristics of extremely strong humans in terms of laboratory-
based tests of strength and power, particularly the size and dis-
tribution of their muscle mass, as well as tendon size and joint
mechanics (moment arm). Kraemer et al. (6)e x a m i n e dt h e
body composition of elite strongman competitors using dual-
energy X-ray absorptiometry scanning and found that they
h a dab o d ym a s s( 1 5 3 ± 1 9k g )a n dl e a nm a s s( 1 1 8 ± 1 2k g )
approximately twice that of an average untrained healthy
young man. Whole body skeletal muscle mass of athletes from
strength- and power-based sports has also been estimated
using ultrasound measurements at a limited number of ana-
tomical locations (7, 8). However, neither ultrasound-derived
Correspondence: T. G. Balshaw (t.g.balshaw@lboro.ac.uk).
Submitted 8 May 2024 / Revised 2 July 2024 / Accepted 16 July 2024
www.jappl.org 8750-7587/24 Copyright© 2024 The Authors. Licensed underCreative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0.
Published by the American Physiological Society.
789
J Appl Physiol137: 789–799, 2024.
First published August 15, 2024; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00342.2024
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