Besides tendon placement and other structural differences, is a gorilla so powerful (versus a man) due to the much larger amount of testosterone he has?
How did I miss this thread? Gorillas are vastly stronger than Humans for several reasons:
- Their muscles are much larger in absolute terms.
- They have a much higher proportion of fast-twitch, type II muscle fibers, especially on their back muscles and arms.
- Their muscles process lactic acid much faster and more efficiently than Humans.
- Their muscles attach in the tendons in positions that maximize leverage, especially for pulling, whilts Human muscles attach to the bones in positions that maximize fine motor coordination. As a consequence, Humans can touch the center of their palms with their thumbs, which gorillas can't. Humans can write with a pen, whilst gorillas, even if they had the intelligence to learn how to write, would never be able to due to lack of ability to control the fingers with the precision that Humans can.
- Their tendons are four times thicker and several times denser than Humans, which allows them to hoist much bigger weights than Humans. An elite Human bencher can bench 750 lbs raw; a gorilla can hoist that weight with a single arm whilst using the other to hold itself to a tree branch, and then lift the weight to it's face. A strength that is several leagues above Human level.
- Gorillas lack the strong neurological inhibition that Humans have when it comes to exerting strength. Their brains are primed for generating extreme exertions of strength.
- Their adrenaline levels reach several times that of Humans when they are enraged, and adrenaline increases mobilization of muscle fibers. Even without adrenaline, though, they can exert 5 X the strength of a Human elite powerlifter and 10 X the power(strength X speed)
- Their bones are 10 X denser, which means that hoisting huge weights is less strssful for them than for Humans. A gorilla's wrist is so thick and dense that it can hoist 800 lbs, the same weight that takes a Human's entire skeleton to hoist.
- Gorilla strength has nothing to do with testosterone levels. Their testosterone levels are actually lower than Humans, since they are less sexually competitive and promiscuous than Humans.
It is important to point out that gorilla's strength advantage is mostly for pulling and bending, at which they are, according to the Discovery Channel, 20+ times superior to the average man. Most of their muscle mass in on the back and arms and not on the legs and chest as well as higher proportion of fast twitch type II muscle fibers, and their muscle attachments are designed to maximize the power of the back muscles and of the arms for pulling. At pushing, they are still much stronger than Humans but not crushingly so, because their absolute muscle mass, type of muscle fiber and tendon thickness garantees much greater strength even though their muscles do not enjoy better leverage than ours for pushing. For pushing a gorilla is probably only about 5 times stronger than an average men - which is still huge. In fact, on the bench press, a gorilla probably can't bench as much as Human bench champion because, besides their muscle being at a disadvantage for pushing, they have long arms which makes the amount of force required to move a weight in the bench press greater.....
SUCKMYMUSCLE
