Biochemistry 4th Edition by Reginald Garrett, Charles Grisham

Exercise 5

Assessing the contraction potential of human muscle
Skeletal muscle can generate approximately 3 tO₄ kg of tension or force per square centimeter of cross-sectional area. This number is roughly the same for all mammals. Since many human muscles have large cross-sectional areas, the force that these muscles can (and must) generate is prodigious. The gluteus maximus (on which you are probably sitting as you read this) can generate a tension of 1200 kg! Estimate the cross-sectional areas of all of the muscles in your body and the total force that your skeletal muscles could generate if they all contracted at once.