Does your bone size decide how much muscle you can gain?
Resistance training-induced appendicular lean tissue mass changes are largely unrelated to pre-training bone characteristics in a larger cohort of untrained adults
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
This study checks if people with bigger bones gain more muscle when starting weight training.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 542 / 72
Evidence Score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
This study checks if people with bigger bones gain more muscle when starting weight training.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 542 / 72
Evidence Score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Publication
Authors
Tiede DR, Plotkin DL, McIntosh MC, Michel JM, Huggins KW, Beck DT, Goodlett MD, Carr JC, Schoenfeld BJ, Mobley CB, Young KC, Swinton PA, Frugé AD, Roberts MD
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Claims (6)
If you're new to lifting weights, how muscular you already are doesn't really predict how much you'll grow from training — it's not a strong clue.
In people who don't work out much, the amount of muscle in their arms and legs is closely linked to the strength of their bones in those same limbs — more muscle usually means stronger bones.
If you're new to strength training, your bone size or density doesn't really predict how much muscle you'll gain in the first few months—people with all kinds of frames tend to gain muscle at similar rates.
If you're new to lifting weights, having more muscle at the start doesn't really mean you'll gain more muscle from training — it's not a strong predictor of results, especially once you account for whether someone is male or female.
If you're new to lifting weights, things like how much you eat, how much protein you get, how old you are, or your BMI don’t really help predict how much muscle you’ll gain in the first few months.