patellar tendon moment arm (þ 18%). Therefore, of these two
key strength determinants, muscle size, rather than joint lever-
age, appeared to be the predominant factor responsible for the
WSM’s extraordinary strength. Indeed, when we previously
compared the muscle morphology and joint mechanics of indi-
viduals with distinct maximum strength capacity (long-term
resistance-trained individuals vs. untrained controls), muscle
size was the primary factor separating the groups with much
more subtle differences in moment arm (10). The extreme
e x a m p l eo fm u s c l es i z ep r o v i d e db yt h eW S M’sq u a d r i c e p s
femoris also gave the opportunity to investigate the scaling of
tendon size to muscle size; extreme muscular size (greater
than or equal to twice that for untrained controls) might be
expected to be accompanied by comparable tendinous tissue
size to effectively transmit high muscular forces to the skele-
ton. However, the WSM’s patellar tendon CSA was only 30%
larger than untrained controls and within the range of indi-
viduals we have previously measured (Fig. 6A). This obser-
vation supports the notion that tendon structure may be
largelyﬁxed by adulthood (40), with only slow/limited
0 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800
Untrained control
Sub-elite sprint runners
Elite sprint runners
Long-term resistance-trained
WSM
A
HAMS volume (cm3)
0 100 200 300 400 500
Untrained control
Sub-elite sprint runners
Elite sprint runners
Long-term resistance-trained
WSM
D
BFlh volume (cm3)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
C
ST volume (cm3)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Untrained control
Sub-elite sprint runners
Elite sprint runners
Long-term resistance-trained
WSM
B
SM volume (cm3)
0 50 100 150 200 250
E
BFsh volume (cm3)
Figure 5. Overall hamstrings (HAMS;A),
semimembranosus (SM; B), semitendino-
sus (ST; C), biceps femoris long head
(BFlh; D), and biceps femoris short head
(BFsh; E) muscle volume of a World ’s
Strongest Man and deadlift champion
(WSM) compared with long-term resist-
ance trained [n ¼ 16, from the work by
Maden-Wilkinson et al. (10)], elite sprint
runners [n ¼ 5, from the work by Miller et
al. (13)], subelite sprint runners [n ¼ 26,
from the work by Miller et al. (13)], and
untrained control populations [n ¼ 50,
pooled population from the works by
Miller et al. (13)( n ¼ 11) and Balshaw et al.
(14) (pretest datan ¼ 39)].
60 80 100 120 140 160
Untrained control
Long-term resistance-trained
WSM
A
Patellar tendon cross-sectional area (mm2)
30 35 40 45 50 55
B
Patellar tendon moment arm (mm)
Figure 6.Patellar tendon mean cross-sec-
tional area (A) and patellar tendon moment
arm (B)o faW o r l d’sS t r o n g e s tM a na n d
deadlift champion (WSM) compared with
long-term resistance trained [n ¼ 16, from
t h ew o r kb yM a s s e ye ta l .(15)] and untrained
control populations [n ¼ 39, from the work
by Massey et al. (15)].
WORLD STRONGMAN AND DEADLIFT CHAMPION
J Appl Physiol/C15 doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00342.2024 /C15 www.jappl.org 797
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