How is Anatoly So Strong?

Muscle Growth Hypothesis Follow-Up

Two hilarious, impressive, less than 1-min videos of Anatoly: www.youtube.com/shorts/JJIcU-ZF9z0 ; www.youtube.com/shorts/uD3-TTjjwCw

In my article from April 19th, on my alternative hypothesis for the mechanism behind muscle growth, I proposed that the buildup of lactic acid during exercise is the primary mechanism. Acid is positively charged, so it building up in the muscles draws additional negatively charged electrons (extra electricity) into the muscles to balance the charge (balance the pH), thus providing the extra energy needed for cell division. (See linked article for thorough explanation.)

I proposed that the healing of ‘micro-tears’ in muscles has little to do with their growth, contrary to widely accepted theory that considers such ‘tear healing’ to be the primary growth mechanism.

To follow up on my idea, consider the comedic feats of the champion Ukrainian weight lifter known by his alias ‘Anatoly’ (Vladímir Shmondenko). Aside from obviously working very hard, how is he able to lift such incredible weight, and yet is much smaller than typical body builders?

Well, there are two ways muscles can grow:

#1: Cell division (multiplication of muscle cells)

#2: Elongation of existing muscle cells

I suspect that the steroid and steroid-like compounds used by body builders primarily increase the latter—i.e., cell elongation. This leads to hypertrophy, but with smaller gains in strength compared to gains produced by cell division.

Cell division and cell elongation are also the two ways plants grow. When a plant deprived of light stretches for more light, it is using cell elongation. The existing cells rapidly elongate, and a taller but weaker plant is produced.

Likewise, it is known that irrigation can be carefully applied to allow for plant cell division, without providing enough water to encourage excessive cell elongation. This is called ‘regulated deficit irrigation.’ Excessive cell elongation will lead to a weaker plant that is more susceptible to buckling under the weight of its fruit (cereal grain, tomatoes, hemp seeds, etc.).

In humans, muscle cell elongation will obviously not make an adult ‘stretchy’ like a plant—and thereby lanky—since this would require a substantial change in skeletal height, which is fixed in adulthood. However, the elongation of muscle cells will increase the size of the muscles, leading to the look desired by the types who haunt the Jersey Shore.

Here is a pithy plant analogy: when an immature citrus fruit is green and perhaps a quarter or third of its final size, it has all of the cells that it will have at maturity. If you’ve ever squeezed such a citrus fruit, you know that at this stage it is practically rock-hard.

As the fruit grows from this stage to maturity, no cell division takes place. The existing cells elongate, thereby producing the final fruit size, and a far softer fruit, which we can eat. Now I ask you, at which stage is the fruit stronger? We can all agree that the smaller, harder fruit, that has not been enlarged by cell elongation, is stronger.

Muscle density, increased by the multiplication of relatively small, minimally elongated muscle cells, is probably key for strength. If I am correct in suspecting that steroids and steroid-like substances favor an increase in cell elongation and not cell division/multiplication, then, bearing in mind the analogous citrus fruit, it appears we’re on the right track to understanding why steroid-puffed mirror lovers aren’t as strong as Anatoly.

Thanks for reading! God bless.

(P.S., I hope this article and others at The Bender Observatory will show the connectedness of various scientific fields, and discourage excessive scientific specialization.)