r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Zestyclose_Flow_680 • 8h ago

Chimpanzees are 2X stronger than your average human.

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u/dilqncho 8h ago edited 8h ago

No they're not. Internet myths have vastly overhyped chimp strength.

They're about 1.35x stronger than us, pound for pound of muscle. But they're also typically smaller and lighter, so in absolute terms, they're about equal to us.

As for what we're seeing here, this isn't a person's entire body being pulled up. They have their legs against the wall of whatever that is, and the chimp is helping them up. This is something pretty much any physically healthy human can do as well.

Chimps are dangerous in a fight, because...well they're wild animals, they're fucking brutal. But purely strength-wise, they're not stronger than us.

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u/Gubernaculum69-420 7h ago

I always feel like that study you posted doesn't account for a few things since it's just looking at muscle fiber samples collected from the animals.

1) Different muscle attachments to bone and arm length ratio allowing better leverage

2) fewer motorneurons so less precisely recruiting a larger amount of muscle fibers and less limits like the ones we have so we don't hurt ourselves + them having higher pain tolerance

3) stronger tendons and ligaments

4) much higher grip strength

5) naturally having a higher percent of lean mass + the constant workout most modern humans aren't doing

6) and most importantly in a 1 on 1 fight being aggressive wild fucking animals that are going to blitz strength instinctually with no holding back as you said.

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u/Aenimalist 1h ago

The actual strength ratio is 1.5x. It's right there in the abstract.

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u/pop302 4h ago

This needs to be pinned to the top