Ape strength

[ghostexorcist]

A science paper came out a few years ago explaining why apes are so much stronger than humans. I figured that others on here might find it interesting since weight training and animal mimicry are connected to Chinese martial arts, and because primates figure largely in Chinese mythology. This science blog sums up the paper in a humorous way:

The strength of great apes… « mental indigestion

The next time you’re down the pub, engaging your favourite Chimpanzee in an arm wrestle, I want you to reflect on a few things (besides the absurdity of wrestling an Ape).

As you take up the strain, know that the fine-tuned positioning and slow, steady building of muscle force you exert is due to the greater amount of grey matter that you posses in your spinal cord; motor neuron nerves cells that connect to muscle fibres and regulate muscle movement. The huge surplus of motor neurons you possess allows you to engage smaller portions of your muscles at any given time. A Chimpanzee, by comparison, has fewer motor neurons, thus each neuron triggers a greater number of muscle fibres, resulting in a greater proportion of muscle activation.

Reflect on how this finely tuned, incremental strength allows you to engage in tensing your muscle for a longer period. It is this fine motor control that allows you to do delicate tasks, like be victorious on the Nintendo Wii or replace the RAM in your laptop, and you know that if the RAM chip stubbornly refuses to slot back into place, you can gently exert greater and greater precise force until it does.

Finally, as the arm wrestle begins in earnest, reflect on two last things: one, your brain limits the degree of your muscle activation in an attempt to prevent damage to the fine motor control components of your muscles; and two, a Chimpanzee has no such limitation. So as the Chimpanzee tears off your arm easily and beats you over the head with it, think to yourself that rather than engaging in an arm wrestle with a Chimp, which has four times your strength, try sitting at home playing your Nintendo Wii instead, the precise motions for which it seems we are supremely evolved.

The info comes from a paper by Prof. Alan Walker called "The strength of Great Apes and the speed of Humans." I am currently reading a copy of it that I found on JSTOR. It mentions a past experiment where two Chimps were tested against college football players:

Bauman (1923, 1926) showed that adult male and female chimpanzees held long in captivity were much stronger than any of several fit young football players when normalized for body mass. He had the animals (when they felt like it) and the students pull on a calibrated metal loop dynamometer. The female recorded a two-handed pull of 1,260 pounds,while the male recorded a one-handed pull of 847 pounds. The strongest student managed a one-handed pull of 210 pounds and a two-handed pull of 491 pounds. When normalized for body mass, this meant that the chimpanzees were more than four times as strong as the men.

I watched a brief documentary on gorillas the other day that speculated that they are eight to nine times stronger than humans! Could you imagine being that strong?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Well, they aren't humans, LOL !
Ants can lift 50 times their BW right?
Can a chimp do that?
Don't think so !!

Of course Apes are our closest relatives so I can see the fun of comparing but they are NOT THAT close

Still, to be able to pull 840 lbs ! that is some serious wacking off power !

[ghostexorcist]

Here is a video of a female orangutan playing tug of war with a sumo wrestler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFMpWm6ECgQ

[xinyidizi]

They use their hands and legs for hanging on their mothers and trees from childhood. Of course they get very strong.

[ShaolinDan]

I wonder if those figures are for their arms, or their overall strength? Are their legs that much stronger than ours? They don't look it. Anyway, if we walked on our hands and spent half our lives climbing trees, we'd be pretty **** ripped. Problem is our legs are too big and heavy for tree climbing.

[GeneChing]

Ants are stronger because of the exoskeleton. It gives more places for muscle attachment than an internal skeletal frame. The downside is that the exoskeleton gets too heavy to support itself when it gets too big, which is why bugs are generally small. The largest exoskeleton creature would be Alaskan king crabs, but they are aquatic and closer to the poles (which allegedly has some gravitational ramifications).

Anyone see Chimpanzee? I caught it last weekend. It's a good flick, although Tim Allen's narration bugged me. Allen is on my 'stars I'd like to punch in the nose for no good reason at all' list with Michael Cera and Gwyneth Paltrow. Anyway, there's some amazing footage in Chimpanzee, just no sword fights.

[ShaolinDan]

Anyway, humans aren't really as weak and pathetic as we mostly seem to think. At least fit humans aren't. We can run further than any other animal, and we can do lots of things better than other animals. those that out run us we can out climb, others we out swim, jump, see, hear, or throw, punch, kick. even without taking our tools and communication into the equation, we are not really a pathetic animal...we are a jack of all trades, master of none animal. With our tools and communication, forget about it...we're so overpowered it ruins the game.

P.S. Ants are stronger because they weigh so little.

[ghostexorcist]

Originally Posted by ShaolinDan

I wonder if those figures are for their arms, or their overall strength? Are their legs that much stronger than ours? They don't look it. Anyway, if we walked on our hands and spent half our lives climbing trees, we'd be pretty **** ripped. Problem is our legs are too big and heavy for tree climbing.

They have more mass in their arms than in their legs. I'm not sure how they positioned the pulling participants. Anyone standing would naturally use their legs and body weight when pulling, even with a single arm. However, they could have positioned them behind something where they would only haven been able to pull with the arm. I'll try to find the original paper.

Originally Posted by GeneChing

[...]

Anyone see Chimpanzee? I caught it last weekend. It's a good flick, although Tim Allen's narration bugged me. Allen is on my 'stars I'd like to punch in the nose for no good reason at all' list with Michael Cera and Gwyneth Paltrow. Anyway, there's some amazing footage in Chimpanzee, just no sword fights.

I saw it with my nephew about two weeks ago. I've been reading quite a bit on primate behavior recently, so it was neat to recognize many of the facial, body, and hand gestures. The use of stone tools really blew the audience away. I guess they didn't figure that the chimps were smart enough to do that.

[ghostexorcist]

Here is the original paper. I haven't had a chance to read it yet:

http://animalcreativity.webs.com/Obs...ons%282%29.pdf

[mickey]

Greetings,

So....uhh....does that mean that Matt Furey was on the right track with that Primate Power stuff? Please say no.

mickey

[ghostexorcist]

Originally Posted by mickey

Greetings,

So....uhh....does that mean that Matt Furey was on the right track with that Primate Power stuff? Please say no.

mickey

He was wrong. Doing body weight exercises to strengthened your arms and chest is different than being able to call upon more muscle groups because you have less gray matter in your spinal cord. The reason that apes walk on their hands is because their feet and legs are meant for grabbing and climbing, not bearing weight.

This information would be kind of useful for any one writing comic book stories. It could explain why a particular character has super strength.

[wenshu]

http://www.esquire.com/features/chimpanzee-attack-0409

[sanjuro_ronin]

Originally Posted by mickey

Greetings,

So....uhh....does that mean that Matt Furey was on the right track with that Primate Power stuff? Please say no.

mickey

Humans are HUMANS, not apes and most certainly not tigers, cranes and snakes !!