For postmenopausal women, doing three sets or six sets of leg exercises during strength training leads to about the same improvement in leg strength after 12 weeks.
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
Lifting heavier or more often makes muscles bigger, but not stronger beyond a certain point because the nerves can’t turn on more muscle fibers than they already do. The body hits a limit in how hard it can signal the muscles to contract, so bigger muscles don’t mean more strength.
Most probable mechanism
When older women lift weights, their muscles get bigger with more sets, but their strength doesn’t increase beyond a certain point because their nervous system can’t recruit more muscle fibers than it already does with fewer sets. The body reaches a limit in how much it can activate the muscles during a maximal effort, so even though the muscles are larger, they can’t produce more force.
Mechanical tension from resistance exercises activates mechanosensitive proteins in muscle fibers, triggering signaling pathways that increase the synthesis of contractile proteins
Increased contractile protein accumulation leads to greater muscle fiber cross-sectional area and overall muscle hypertrophy
Neural drive to the muscles during maximal voluntary contractions reaches a plateau, limiting the number of motor units that can be recruited regardless of muscle size
Strength output during maximal efforts is determined by neural recruitment capacity rather than muscle size alone, resulting in similar 1RM gains despite differences in hypertrophy
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Community contributions welcome
Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy, but Not Strength in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Contradicting (0)
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