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   mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 05:55:31 JST mekka okereke :verified:

   More nerdy stuff about powerlifting that you didn't ask for but I'm going to tell you anyway, because this is my timeline and I write what I want.🤷🏿♂️

   Muscle mass is a physical attribute. Strength is a skill.

   Some bodybuilders are very muscular, but are slow, can't run fast, and can't jump high. But some bodybuilders are very muscular, but are much faster and jump much higher than normal athletes. Why is that?🤔

   Picture a large concrete slab standing on its edge. It takes 10,000 lbs of force to knock the slab over. Picture a gym full of 200 elementary school kids, each of whom can produce a peak force of 100 lbs but for under 1 second. If I tell them all to knock the slab over, they can't do it, even though they should be able to generate 20,000 lbs of force. Force plates might measure the max generated force at 9,000 lbs.

   They can't push the block over because they're not coordinated. Ideally all kids would apply their force within 10ms of each other. But they don't know how to do that yet.

   Now imagine that the kids all join a step class for Black history month.

   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KU5g2MwmTEQ&t=55s

   On March 1, they try to push the block over again. 1 kid jumps out front and leads the others in a synchronization call. They push the block over easily!

   Plyometrics training, and super heavy weight training, don't really make your muscles bigger. They don't "add more kids." They make the muscles you already have, better adapted to the task of *maximal exertion*.

   You can't tell from looking at a group of school kids if they know how to coordinate their force to under 10ms. Similarly, you can't tell from looking at a big person, if they can apply their muscle in under 10ms🤯

   Mark Henry dunking at 370lbs (not 410 lbs but still)
   https://youtube.com/shorts/VDQLUd_OwNI

   Bodybuilder dunking and doing a back flip
   https://youtube.com/shorts/7y4pOCk0muE

   Miles Garrett (270 lb NFL player) dunking
   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zp15t_Zyns

   Dunking a basketball is about vertical jumping ability. From a physics standpoint, it's "How much can you accelerate your bodyweight by the time your toes lose contact with the ground?" Which is a combination of (how much muscle x how coordinated is that muscle) and (how much do you weigh).

   (It's also about storing and releasing energy in tendons, but hey).