Eli5: How do apes like chimps and gorillas have extraordinary strength, and are well muscled all year round – while humans need to constantly train their whole life to have even a fraction of that strength?

Question

It’s not like these apes do any strenuous activity besides the occasional branch swinging (or breaking).

Whereas a bodybuilder regularly lifting 80+ kgs year round is still outmatched by these apes living a relatively relaxed lifestyle.

In: 8644

Answer 1

People have talked about differences in musculature but there is another thing monkeys do, that is strenuous exercise. You joke about swinging from trees but give it a try and do it all day everyday. Even as a human you would build a good physique. Not a body builder physique but quite muscled. Try climbing a tree, that takes quite a bit of muscular effort. Monkeys do this repeatedly all day every day. That is a lot of exercise. In fact as a human, do some of these simple things monkeys do daily for 6 months. You would be in great shape. Of course you will never be as good as the monkeys at it for other reasons but it would be a heck of a work out.