Gym-goers who want to pump the heaviest weights might think that bulging thighs and bulky butts are the way to greater strength. But a study involving one of the world’s strongest men, found that a set of lean, rope-like muscles that typically receive far less attention may be more important than previously thought.
Scientists at Loughborough University’s school of sport, exercise and health sciences examined the rippling tendons of Eddie Hall, a Staffordshire lorry mechanic nicknamed “the Beast” who became the world’s strongest man in 2017.
They discovered that after his 15 years of continuous training, a set of long, thin muscles in his legs were up to three times the size of those in men who do no strength training.
To their surprise, they found that in Hall, these muscles – which connect from below the knee to the pelvis – showed the greatest development compared to ordinary mortals who did not spend time developing extreme strength.
They are known as “guy rope” muscles and they stabilize the pelvis and femur. The scientific name for these less understood powerhouses is the sartorius, gracilis and semitendinosus, and they helped Hall achieve a world record 500kg deadlift in 2020 – the equivalent of lifting a camel over his head.
Relative to untrained men, these muscles showed the greatest differences in mass of any examined under laboratory conditions. Some of his other muscles and tendons – for example the patellar tendon in the knee and the hip flexors – were much less extraordinary.
“These muscles have had very little attention scientifically, so we don’t really know how important they are in different tasks,” said Jonathan Folland, a professor of neuromuscular performance. “But to find out that they’re really, really well developed in someone who’s been lifting and carrying heavy loads for decades – and is really good at it – was really interesting. These muscles are clearly more important for lifting and carrying very heavy loads than we previously thought.”
Dr Tom Balshaw, a lecturer in kinesiology, strength and conditioning at Loughborough, said it may be possible that targeted exercises, including hip rotations and knee flexion, can strengthen the “old rope” muscles independently of squatting and other, more common exercises that also seem to work.
Hall benched 300kg and achieved a world record of 216kg on the parallel bars, which requires a large barbell to be lifted off the ground and held overhead. After that milestone, a pumped-up Hall declared, “Don’t ever put a limit on what I can do because I’ll prove you wrong every time.”
Hall is available to hire for events and will appear in a 1960s British Army tank painted with his “Beast” logo for £5,000 to £10,000 a time.
The study comes amid a surge in gym use among young men and women. It originated concerns about the effect of “gym influencers” and fears that constant comparison to ideal bodies can cause mental health problems. A report by PureGym said 42% of 16-24 year olds increased their spending on exercise last year.
Just how different Hall is from the general population was made clear when the scientists at Loughborough measured his individual muscles. The quadriceps in his thighs were more than double the size of those of an untrained man and 18% larger than the next largest the team had ever assessed, in an elite sprinter.
Hall’s hamstrings were twice the size of the untrained population and his biceps femoris, a large muscle in the back of the thigh, was two to three times larger.
In June, two svelte TikTok influencers Jamil and Jamel Neffati got a close-up view of Hall’s extreme proportions after signing up to fight him at the same time at a mixed martial arts event in Blackburn called the “World Freak Fight League” . Since the Neffatis each weighed less than half as much as Hall, his victory was never in doubt.
