Measuring Strength Introduction

Strength is an undefined concept that lacks concrete and tangible variables that can relate to real world application. Tensil Strength or resistance seem to come close to defining the essence of strength, but they fail at capturing the meaning as it is used in common languages.

Breaking Down Strength

Strength can be broken down to the amount of muscle mass on the body proportional to the rest of the weight of the body. So then how do you determine the weight of muscle versus the weight of everything else on the body. Surprisingly, most people we perceive to be overweight or portly actually have a large amount of muscle mass on their skeletal structure. The layer of soft fat on top of the muscle deceives us into thinking they are that way all the way through to the bone, but for the most part, large people are primarily layered with muscle fibers, not fat.

Removing Fat

Thus, the amount of fat weighing down a person can be considered negligible relative to the amount of muscle they carry. Given that muscle weighs more than fat, and by no small margin, the amount of fat or sagging skin can be considered irrelevant to the findings of this study.

Further, the skeletal bones, organs, tendons, and other matter, such as blood, can be estimated with a high degree of accuracy from the height and waistline of a person. Subtracting that figure from the person's total weight produces their muscle weight for their body minus a miniscule amount for any fat surrounding the muscle fibers.

Putting It Together

Now that we have the weight of the muscles of a body, we can divide that by the total weight of a person and arrive at a percentage of muscle to total body. Thus, strength is measured as a percentage, where perhaps 60% for example, is an extreme body builder in the heavy weight division with more muscle on his body than everything else combined.

Adjusting the Scales

So if 60% is the maximum amount of proportion for muscle to total body, then that signifies the highest value and then strength can be measured on a decimal scale where ten is the 60% mark and the minimum value, perhaps 10% would be the zero mark.

By that logic, for the muscle percentage ratio (or perhaps body fat index might be a more familiar term) values between 10 and 60% we have the strength indicators of 0 to 10, where 0 is 10% and 10 is 60%. Keep in mind these percentages are purely hypothetical for argument's sake and have no scientific data to back those numbers. They are merely placeholders for the actual minimum and maximum values of a human's body's possible muscle mass index / ratio.

The Formula

Given that the maximum muscle index is some value Ia and the minimum muscle index is some value Ib, and the actual muscle index value for a person is Ip, then the equation for determining the strength quotient would be...

   S = [Ip / (Ia - Ib) ] x 10

...and that equation gives us a base-10 value for measuring strength given the other variables are measured properly.