Among elite male handball players, lifting weights with heavy or moderate loads increases upper-body power compared to not doing extra training, but this improvement is due solely to larger muscles,...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
When elite handball players train with heavy or moderate weights, their arm muscles grow bigger because the training triggers more protein building — this makes them stronger and more powerful, but their muscles don’t get better at using that size to produce power. The study...
Most probable mechanism
When elite male handball players do heavy or moderate weight training, their upper-body muscles grow bigger because the training stresses them in ways that trigger more protein building — this bigger muscle size lets them generate more power, but their muscles don’t become more efficient at producing power per unit of size. Studies show that when power is measured relative to muscle volume, there’s no difference between those who trained heavily, moderately, or not at all — meaning the only reason they got stronger is because their muscles got larger, not because their nerves or brain sent stronger signals.
Resistance training with heavy (80–95% 1RM) or moderate (55–75% 1RM) loads induces mechanical tension and metabolic stress that activate mTOR signaling and increase muscle protein synthesis, leading to muscle fiber hypertrophy and increased upper-body muscle volume.
Increased muscle volume directly enhances absolute force production during ballistic movements such as throwing, resulting in higher peak upper-body power output.
When peak power output is normalized to muscle volume, no significant differences exist between heavy-load, moderate-load, and control groups, indicating that neuromuscular efficiency — including motor unit recruitment, firing frequency, or synchronization — does not contribute to power gains beyond what is explained by muscle size.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
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The Effect of Heavy- vs. Moderate-Load Training on the Development of Strength, Power, and Throwing Ball Velocity in Male Handball Players
Contradicting (0)
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