Analysis Version
v1
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mechanistic
Analysis v1
Strong Support

Some people’s muscles grow way more than others when they lift weights, and this might be because their muscle cells make more of the tiny machines (ribosomes) that help build muscle protein.

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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (2)

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Community contributions welcome

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Ribosome biogenesis may augment resistance training-induced myofiber hypertrophy and is required for myotube growth in vitro.

Cohort Study
Human
2016 Apr 15

People who got much bigger muscles from weight training also made more cellular machines (ribosomes) to build muscle, while those who didn’t grow much made fewer. When scientists blocked these machines in lab-grown muscle cells, the cells couldn’t grow — proving ribosomes are key.

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Physiological Differences Between Low Versus High Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophic Responders to Resistance Exercise Training: Current Perspectives and Future Research Directions

Narrative Review
Human
2018

The study found that people who gain more muscle from weight training also tend to have more of the cellular machinery (ribosomes) needed to build muscle, which matches the claim that ribosome differences explain why some people grow bigger muscles than others.

Contradicting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

38

Ribosome biogenesis adaptation in resistance training-induced human skeletal muscle hypertrophy.

Cohort Study
Human
2015 Jul 1

The study shows that lifting weights can make muscles bigger and increase ribosomes, but it didn’t compare people who grew a lot vs. people who grew little, so we can’t say if ribosome levels explain why some people get much stronger than others.

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Similar Assertions

When older people do strength training for four weeks, those who get much bigger muscles also see a big jump in the cellular machinery that helps build muscle, while people who don’t gain muscle don’t see this change—so it seems like making more of this machinery is tied to getting stronger and bigger.

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0
86%

When you lift weights, your muscles make more of the tiny molecular machines that build proteins, which helps them grow bigger.

38
0
86%

People who get much stronger from weight training tend to make more of the cellular machinery (ribosomes) that helps build muscle, while those who don’t get as strong show little to no change in this machinery.

1
0
85%

When you lift weights, your muscles grow bigger because your cells first make more protein-making machines (ribosomes) — and the more of these machines you build, the more your muscles grow.

1
0
83%

When you first start lifting weights, your body makes more of the tiny machines that build muscle proteins, which helps your muscles grow. But after a while, your body shifts focus and gets better at using those machines more efficiently instead of making more of them.

1
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81%

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