Scientists at one of England’s top sporting universities have been putting one of the world’s strongest men under the microscope — and their findings could change how athletes train for power forever.
Eddie Hall, the 2017 World’s Strongest Man and first man to ever deadlift 500kg, was invited to Loughborough University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences for a deep-dive study into what makes his body capable of lifting weights that most humans couldn’t budge.
The results? A discovery that has turned the spotlight away from bulging thighs and massive glutes — and onto a lesser-known set of muscles now being dubbed the body’s hidden “guy ropes.”
The study, published by the American Physiological Society, set out to identify the muscle groups most responsible for Hall’s extreme strength. Using a fixed barbell setup known as an isometric mid-thigh pull — essentially a deadlift without movement — scientists aimed to recreate the enormous exertion required for Hall’s record-breaking lifts.
“This is kind of as close as we could get, really, to asking him to do a maximum deadlift attempt,” explained Dr Thomas Balshaw, Lecturer in Kinesiology, Strength, and Conditioning at Loughborough University.
MRI scans revealed the kind of muscular development you’d expect from a man who once hoisted 500kg (1,102 pounds) off the floor — but they also revealed something unexpected. While Hall’s quadriceps and hamstrings were predictably massive, it was the smaller, stabilising muscles that really stood out.
“With Eddie, a strongman and deadlift champion, we expected the big muscles involved in extending the knee and hip would show the greatest development,” said Professor Jonathan Folland, who specialises in Neuromuscular Performance at Loughborough. “Whilst these muscles were certainly well developed, we were surprised that the greatest muscular development was of the long, thin ‘guy ropes’ muscles that stabilize the pelvis and thigh. This indicates that these stabilizing muscles may be more important for heavy lifting and carrying than we previously thought.”
These so-called “guy rope” muscles — the sartorius, gracilis, and semitendinosus — are the unsung heroes of the lower body. Running from the knee to the pelvis, they work like tension cables to keep the pelvis and thigh steady during movement. Despite being long and slender, Hall’s versions of these muscles were measured as being between 140% and 202% larger than those of an untrained man.
In practical terms, that makes them potentially just as crucial as the more famous quadriceps or glutes when it comes to big lifts. “These muscles have had very little attention scientifically, so we don’t really know how important they are in different tasks,” Folland added. “But to find that they were really very well developed in someone who has spent decades lifting and carrying heavy loads – and is very good at that – was really interesting.”
Dr Balshaw suggested that specific training for the “guy ropes” could become a new area of focus for lifters and athletes chasing improved stability and power output. “It may be possible that targeted exercises, including hip rotations and knee flexing, could boost the ‘guy rope’ muscles independently of squats and other, more common exercises that also appear to work,” he explained.
For Hall, who transitioned from competitive swimming into strongman training before taking the 2017 world title, the experience of seeing his own physiology mapped out was both fascinating and validating. “It’s been very interesting to sort of learn how your muscles react and your tendons react to the forces I’ve been putting through my body,” he said.
Dr Balshaw summed up the findings by pointing to just how adaptable the human muscular system can be: “Overall, the results suggest how adaptable the muscular system is, with the greatest muscular development of the muscles that Eddie trains and uses the most. This suggests that we can all change and develop our muscular system to improve the function and performance of our muscles.”
The researchers also highlighted how drastically Hall’s measurements outstrip those of the general population. His quadriceps alone were more than twice the size of an untrained man’s, and even 18% larger than those found in elite sprinters previously tested at Loughborough. His hamstrings? Double the average. His biceps femoris, the powerful muscle running along the back of the thigh, was up to three times larger.
It’s clear that Hall’s physique is on another level — but the real revelation is how vital those smaller, rope-like muscles are in allowing the rest of the system to perform. As the fitness world continues to evolve, this study could spark a shift in how athletes think about leg training and balance.
And for those chasing the kind of strength that moves half a tonne off the floor, it might be time to start giving your “guy ropes” a little more attention.
Featured image credit: YouTube/Loughborough University (screenshots)
