Why Are Chimps So Strong?

[quote]Mzungu wrote:
I have had the pleasure of spending alot of time working in Africa, and did a short stint working on a Chimp conservation project.

There are a couple of things that I saw there that could explain their strength.

1: If you ever see a Chimps skeleton, next to a human one, you will notice how massively thick the bones are compared to ours. That gives them the ability to attach massive musculature to their joints. Secondly, as someone already said, the length of the limbs gives them huge leverage advantages.

2: I have seen a full grown male chimp that had a medical condition that made all his hair fall out. It was only at this point that I appreciated how much muscle they actually carry. They are absolutely massive beasts, especially in the back (All those chins from birth I guess).

3: As everyone has said, they spend their entire lives doing bodyweight workouts, and for all those arguments you always see on this site about pullups vs pulldowns, I think chimps are living proof that pullups win LOL.

4: They can be hyper aggressive, especially the top ranked males (God alone knows what their Test levels are!!!), but no more than us. They do it to protect their families, push themselves up the social hierarchy etc.

5: To the comment that they don’t know Ju Jitsu. They don’t need to. The ape would tear 99% percent of men to bits in a matter of seconds. He dos’nt know the rules about not biting, gouging, or tearing limbs off.
Any man that could stand up to a chimp would be tough as hell, but would be destroyed by a mountain Gorilla (I have seen one of those literally pull a fair sized tree clean out of the ground, just because he could).[/quote]

I wonder how much of their muscle/strength is due to genetics, and how much is due to physical activity.

[quote]Vicomte wrote:
Mzungu wrote:
I have had the pleasure of spending alot of time working in Africa, and did a short stint working on a Chimp conservation project.

There are a couple of things that I saw there that could explain their strength.

1: If you ever see a Chimps skeleton, next to a human one, you will notice how massively thick the bones are compared to ours. That gives them the ability to attach massive musculature to their joints. Secondly, as someone already said, the length of the limbs gives them huge leverage advantages.

2: I have seen a full grown male chimp that had a medical condition that made all his hair fall out. It was only at this point that I appreciated how much muscle they actually carry. They are absolutely massive beasts, especially in the back (All those chins from birth I guess).

3: As everyone has said, they spend their entire lives doing bodyweight workouts, and for all those arguments you always see on this site about pullups vs pulldowns, I think chimps are living proof that pullups win LOL.

4: They can be hyper aggressive, especially the top ranked males (God alone knows what their Test levels are!!!), but no more than us. They do it to protect their families, push themselves up the social hierarchy etc.

5: To the comment that they don’t know Ju Jitsu. They don’t need to. The ape would tear 99% percent of men to bits in a matter of seconds. He dos’nt know the rules about not biting, gouging, or tearing limbs off.
Any man that could stand up to a chimp would be tough as hell, but would be destroyed by a mountain Gorilla (I have seen one of those literally pull a fair sized tree clean out of the ground, just because he could).

I wonder how much of their muscle/strength is due to genetics, and how much is due to physical activity. [/quote]

If I had to guess, I’d say that it’s mostly genetics. Natural selection still works with these guys, the weak do not survive and/or get to breed. There are no Chimp gyms where a big chimp is telling all the little chimps to do their squats :slight_smile:

I assume no one assumes anyone has a chance against a grown silverback gorilla…but I call BS on the pulling a fair sized tree off the ground part.

[quote]Mzungu wrote:
Any man that could stand up to a chimp would be tough as hell, but would be destroyed by a mountain Gorilla (I have seen one of those literally pull a fair sized tree clean out of the ground, just because he could).[/quote]

I read someplace that a gorilla got mad at some observers and deadlifted their car (1800 lbs.) to intimidate them. Worked great!

[quote]Vicomte wrote:
I wonder how much of their muscle/strength is due to genetics, and how much is due to physical activity. [/quote]

Well probably a fair amount of it is due to genetics in the sense that they are made to be powerful animals – they have to deal with nasty things like lions or a pack of hyenas in the wild. Their skeletal structure is for strength and they have the muscles to support it.

Great quote:“Genetics tells us what parts of the environment are important.” Here I suspect that it means that they should do plyometric full body training for several hours a day. YMMV though with this protocol…

Also, don’t forget the Neanderthals: they had roughly twice as much muscle as a humans. This required a lot more calories (around 5,000 a day) just to exist and the most reasonable explanation for their demise is social. Humans might be weaker physically, but we invented the bow and arrow, spear and a few other aids to hunt in the last Ice Age while Neanderthals hunted by rat-packing their prey and clubbing it. Over the course of a few thousand years they just couldn’t keep up as food got scarcer.

(It shows up in the popular literature that eeeevil humans ate the noble savage Neanderthals but most archeological evidence shows that the two groups avoided each other.)

– jj

[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
I assume no one assumes anyone has a chance against a grown silverback gorilla…but I call BS on the pulling a fair sized tree off the ground part.

Mzungu wrote:
Any man that could stand up to a chimp would be tough as hell, but would be destroyed by a mountain Gorilla (I have seen one of those literally pull a fair sized tree clean out of the ground, just because he could).

[/quote]

I’ll take a gorilla.

At any rate, it’s much more badass to be killed in mortal combat with a gorilla, than, say, choking on a popsickle.

Feel free to edit that one.

[quote]jj-dude wrote:
(It shows up in the popular literature that eeeevil humans ate the noble savage Neanderthals but most archeological evidence shows that the two groups avoided each other.)

– jj[/quote]

Ha! Proles and plebs, no doubt.

[quote]tribunaldude wrote:
I assume no one assumes anyone has a chance against a grown silverback gorilla…but I call BS on the pulling a fair sized tree off the ground part.

Mzungu wrote:
Any man that could stand up to a chimp would be tough as hell, but would be destroyed by a mountain Gorilla (I have seen one of those literally pull a fair sized tree clean out of the ground, just because he could).

[/quote]

Got no way of proving it, but I saw it in Uganda in 2005. Did’nt get a photo, as I was too busy doing as I was told, which amounted to: ‘don’t look him in the eye, and start backing off very slowly’.

[quote]DJS wrote:
See this link…

“A 165-pound male chimpanzee named “Boma” registered a pull of 847 pounds, using only his right hand (although he did have his feet braced against the wall, being somewhat hip, in his simian way, to the principles of leverage). A 165-pound man, by comparison, could manage a one-handed pull of about 210 pounds. Even more frightening, a female chimp, weighing a mere 135 pounds and going by the name of Suzette, checked in with a one-handed pull of 1,260 pounds”

You think you can pull an arm bar on of these guys? ha ha ha. And you have only 2 weak sauce hands to use vs his FOUR and his TEETH. H. Gracie in his prime would get murdered. Brock Lessner after 10 cycles of juice would get murdered. There is simply nothing you could do.

I equate it to fighting a grizly. You have no shot no mater your skill level and are entirely at their mercy. I’m talking hand to hand obviously.[/quote]

Rear naked choke is the most effective way of killing a beast.

[quote]jj-dude wrote:
I read someplace that a gorilla got mad at some observers and deadlifted their car (1800 lbs.) to intimidate them. Worked great!

The Rhino in my Avatar was famous for flipping cars over in Zambia. He did it whenever his mate would’nt let him mate with her. So, he’d get pissed off, and take it out on the first car he could find.

[quote]Mzungu wrote:
jj-dude wrote:
I read someplace that a gorilla got mad at some observers and deadlifted their car (1800 lbs.) to intimidate them. Worked great!

The Rhino in my Avatar was famous for flipping cars over in Zambia. He did it whenever his mate would’nt let him mate with her. So, he’d get pissed off, and take it out on the first car he could find.[/quote]

That’s hilarious.

Are chimps the next chuck norris?

I saw crazy comments there:

“Like this one time, dude, I saw a chimp poke a hole in a coconut like it was made of paper, dooood!”

People can’t access most of their strength. Our reflexes have evolved to the point of protection against using too much proportional strength. This effects everything even our training, if we can’t train at full potential we can’t gain strength from birth at full potential.

We also tend to think things through more than animals which means we have lower and less frequent adrenaline rushes.

Besides that leverages works both ways if it was simple leverages we would be strong in areas where monkeys are weak. They’re just stronger than us period.

If your arms stay attached while his fingers/claws dig into gristle and soft tissue, sure.

[quote]SonnabenD wrote:
DJS wrote:
See this link…

“A 165-pound male chimpanzee named “Boma” registered a pull of 847 pounds, using only his right hand (although he did have his feet braced against the wall, being somewhat hip, in his simian way, to the principles of leverage). A 165-pound man, by comparison, could manage a one-handed pull of about 210 pounds. Even more frightening, a female chimp, weighing a mere 135 pounds and going by the name of Suzette, checked in with a one-handed pull of 1,260 pounds”

You think you can pull an arm bar on of these guys? ha ha ha. And you have only 2 weak sauce hands to use vs his FOUR and his TEETH. H. Gracie in his prime would get murdered. Brock Lessner after 10 cycles of juice would get murdered. There is simply nothing you could do.

I equate it to fighting a grizly. You have no shot no mater your skill level and are entirely at their mercy. I’m talking hand to hand obviously.

Rear naked choke is the most effective way of killing a beast.
[/quote]

[quote]DJS wrote:
G87 wrote:
And the castrating thing was no joke. If a male chimp comes into another troop’s territory, the chimps gang up on him, kill him and take his balls as a trophie.

F- that!

[/quote]

Those Damn Dirty Apes!!!


Look at those forearms.

[quote]Vicomte wrote:
It’s like retard strength. You gotta figure a chimp is at most as smart as a retard, so there you go.[/quote]

Right on! lol. Should we rename it “chimp strength”?

[quote]Stuntman Mike wrote:
Look at those forearms.[/quote]

he has gyno

or is that girl?

Tendon strength

[quote]Stuntman Mike wrote:
Look at those forearms.[/quote]

Looks a lot like my grandpa. Bald head, big ears, drooping lower lip from decades of chewing Skoal. Even the big grayish forearms from working in a steel mill.