This might be a totally quack question, I don’t know. For some reason it just popped into my mind. I’ve read before, and I can’t remember the quality of the source, that humans actually have far more muscle strength than they can typically use - because there’s a chemical in our bloodstream that prevents the muscles from flexing to their full potential as a protection against overusing and damaging the muscle.
It also said that in periods of high stress, a chemical could be released that counteracts the muscle inhibitor chemical and let’s us use our ‘natural’ strength - and if I recall, they used that to explain ‘mother lifting car off of her baby’ sort of instances.
I just noticed there’s a somewhat similar thread on adrenaline going on… at least the same ‘mother who lifted a car’ issue :p. Maybe seeing the thread title subconciously reminded me of this question.
I hadn’t heard this before. The only thing I know of that may relate to this is that as our muscles do work, a byproduct, lactic acid, builds up which causes the muscle fibers to stop being able to fire as strongly. Build up enough lactic acid, muscle stops working. As for preventing us overusing and damaging our muscles, I’m not sure this is a big concern. We have lots of other things more prone to damage than our muscles.
Bones, tendons, ligamants all grow slower than muscles, and the problem is compounded with steriod use. This is likely a big reason for many of the injuries professional athletes receive.
Not a chemical, but there is a structure called the Golgi tendon organ that exists in the tendons that attach muscles to bones. This shuts a muscle contraction down if the tension on the structure is excessive, to prevent muscle damage under sudden loads.
Part of power-lifting training involves increasing the load that the tendons will tolerate before activating this organ.
Check out Carpenter’s Human Neuroanatomy, the 9th edition, or a Google search on “Golgi tendon organ”.
Hmm, after doing a little research, looks like acetylcholine is the enzyme responsible for initiating muscle cell contraction and cholinesterase breaks down the acetylcholine to regulate how much the muscle contracts. This may be the chemical you’re thinking of.
I don’t know what the body uses to override the function of cholinesterase but there are natural cholinesterase inhibitors in some foods and plants. Of course, they will also make you sick.
