Relationship between lifting performance and skeletal muscle mass in elite powerlifters

Aim of the study was to examine the relationship between whole body skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and powerlifting performance in elite powerlifters.

Twenty elite male powerlifters, including 4 world champions, volunteered. Muscle thickness (MTH) and subcutaneous fat thickness (FTH) were measured by ultrasound at 9 sites on the anterior and posterior aspects of the body. FTH was used to estimate body fat and fat-free mass and SMM was estimated from ultrasound-derived prediction equations. Best lifting performance in the squat (SQ), bench press (BP), and dead lift (DL) was recorded from competition performance.

Significant strong correlations (P<0.01) were observed between absolute and relative (divided by height) SMM and performance of the SQ (r=0.93 and r=0.94, respectively), BP (r=0.88 and r=0.87), and DL (r=0.84 and r=0.85). Relative lifting performance to SMM for squat (SQ/SMM ratio) and bench press (BP/SMM ratio) were constant throughout a wide range of weight classes (56kg-145kg) and there were no significant correlation between the SMM and those performances (r=0.21 for SQ and r=0.12 for BP). However, the DL/SMM ratio was negatively correlated to DL performance (r=-0.47, P<0.05).

SMM is a good predictor of powerlifting performance throughout all weight classes.