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

The median human gets barely any exercise and has a terrible diet. Also, as an acrobat I can tell you that branch swinging is very physically demanding. I’m just here to say that the median ape, particularly if we are talking about animals in the wild, is far more physically active than the median human. Someone else might be able to explain if there are meaningfully differences in terms of apes having more hormones to rigger muscle development, I don’t know the answers to those questions.