If I lift on the moon will I get stronger?
Say I lift on earth I will obviously build muscles, but what if I were to lift on the moon? Since objects are lighter on the moon I would be able to lift more weight thus I would get stronger faster? Right?
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Moon Lifting
This is a big project, and I don't think it's going to work.
Here's the thing: resistance is resistance. Whether you're lifting your bodyweight, a barbell, or a barbell on the moon, the amount of resistance determines the amount you get stronger. On Earth, a barbell loaded with many kilograms of mass provides excellent resistance for you to work against and thereby get stronger. In places where there is less gravity (like the moon), you'll be able to lift many more kilos. But in order to get stronger instead of weaker in reduced-gravity environments you'd need to increase the amount of resistance you're working against in proportion to the decrease in gravity.
The moon's gravity is approximately one-sixth that of Earth's. Therefore you would need to make or bring six times the weights (in kilograms) you would use here on Earth. For example, say you can deadlift 100kg at Planet Fitness here on Planet Earth. You would need 600kg* to challenge your deadlift on the moon. My barbell can't even fit that many weight plates! But if you had 600kg on the moon, it would be the same as 100kg here. Except you have other problems...
What about finding protein on the moon? Astronauts pack freeze-dried food to save mass while escaping the atmosphere. I doubt you'll be able to hit your macros on that stuff: there's a limited amount of it, it's not too appetizing, and I doubt it's particularly high-protein. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn't let you pack more than a few kilos worth of personal effects. For instance, on the Apollo missions, astronauts were only afforded 5 pounds of personal baggage. 5 pounds isn't much resistance on Earth; on the moon it would be the equivalent of 1 pound on Earth. That's not really worth bringing.
Your trip there (and presumably back) is also going to include a bunch of time spent in microgravity, both in high Earth orbit and in transit to the moon. Living in the absence of full gravity has been shown to decrease muscle mass and bone density rather quickly. Spending time on the moon you're going to experience a similar issue to a slightly lesser extent.
And what about your spacesuit? Good luck achieving a good squat in that thing. At this point, along with the food and weight-plate issues, you would be better off investing in a permanent moon weight room. Pressurize it so you don't have to wear the suit and make some special lifting bars that can be loaded with moon rocks.
Well, 602.5kg if you're following a standard linear progression.
I know this is an old question, but I thought both of the answers weren't quite right, so I decided to add my own
In moon gravity, your muscles can counteract the weight of 6 times of what it can counteract on Earth. The 6x mass is not so easy to deal with.
If you deadlift 100 kilos on earth, you can deadlift 600 kilos on the moon.
However, that 600 kilos is still 600 kilos of inertial mass, which means it's going to take you a long time to accelerate that mass up to the top of the lift, and you'll probably find if you lifted it up too explosively, it will keep on going upwards beyond hip level and you'll have to figure out a way of decelerating a 600 kg object before it crashes into something else and destroys it.
All weight training on the moon with sufficiently heavy weight will look like it is in slo-mo because of this. For movements like clean and jerk, the technique would change drastically.
The main effect of training on the moon will be an increased difficulty in training explosive movements. Static and slow movements will be much easier to train.
That is not true. In fact, most astronauts suffer from severe muscular atrophy and struggle to put the mass back on once they get back. This is because, without the constant gravity, your overall workload is so lessened that your body does not need to maintain much muscular mass.
In short, if you lifted on the moon, you would get weaker and smaller..
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