ArticleMedicine and science in sports and exercise2025
Muscle Growth Is Very Strongly Correlated with Strength Gains after Lower Body Resistance Training: New Insight from Within-Participant Associations.
Article in Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of Resistance Training on Muscle Hypertrophy in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of velocity-based hypertrophy training on pectoralis major morphology, neuromuscular activation and bench press maximal strength.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Hypertrophic Effects of Single- versus Multi-Joint Exercise: A Direct Comparison between Knee Extension and Leg Press.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Insights Into Pediatric Hypertension, Cardiac Consequences, and Physical Activity.Current hypertension reports · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeQuantitative mechanistic evidence for muscle size and agonist neuromuscular activation explaining the individual strength gains that occur after resistance training (RT) remains opaque and controversial, with nonsignificant or weak/moderate relationships reported. This study aimed to quantify the within-participant association of strength gains following 15 wk of RT with muscle growth and the changes in agonist neuromuscular activation.
methodsKnee extension muscle strength (isometric maximum voluntary torque (iMVT) and single repetition maximum (1RM)), magnetic resonance imaging-derived quadriceps muscle volume, and normalized (to Mmax) quadriceps surface electromyography amplitude were measured in 39 previously untrained healthy young males, before and after 15 wk of lower body RT (3× per week). Data were analyzed using repeated-measures (within-participant) correlations and linear mixed models.
resultsVery strong repeated-measures correlations were found between muscle growth and strength gains (iMVT: r = 0.92, P < 0.001; 1RM, r = 0.89, P < 0.001). Changes in surface electromyography amplitude were moderately correlated with the changes in strength (iMVT: r = 0.58, P < 0.001; 1RM: r = 0.56, P < 0.001). Linear mixed models revealed muscle growth and changes in neuromuscular activation both had significant positive effects on strength gain, but muscle growth contributed >5-fold more than neuromuscular activation (standardized beta coefficient = 0.88-0.94 vs 0.13-017).
conclusionsUsing more powerful within-participant statistical techniques, these results show that muscle growth is, in fact, very strongly, and neuromuscular activation moderately associated with strength gains after RT. These findings suggest that muscle growth is a major adaptation that is highly relevant to the individual increases in strength of young healthy males after RT.
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