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.
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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.
Our muscles that move our limbs are generally made up of two kinds of muscle fibres.
“Fast-twitch” muscle fibres are extremely strong and quick.
“Slow-twitch” muscle fibres are weak, but are energy-efficient and last long for things that require endurance.
In humans, a majority of muscle fibres are slow-twitch.
In other apes, a majority are fast-twitch (e.g., chimps have a 2:1 fast:slow ratio).
In addition, humans have more “small motor units” controlling their muscles.
We’re good at things that require a lot of precision.
Other apes do not have very neat handwriting, are pretty shit at knitting, and couldn’t throw a slider to save their lives.
When they move their muscles, they don’t have very fine control, and tend to move their limbs in exaggerated (overly-strong) ways.
A side-effect of that is that they tend to work their muscles harder than humans when doing small things, and effectively end up doing a bit more exercise.
Different animals have different base levels of strength because *they are different animals*. They adapted to different ecological niches and their bodies develop and grow based on different genetic material.
>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.
A mouse has little chance of reaching human level strength by doing more excercise. Every being is stuck with its nature-given physical abilities. Everything else is just a little variance, largely dependent on body mass. A 150kg human for example is always going to be stronger than a 50kg human.
It’s due to us developing a much higher musculature for endurance, that was our initial method of hunting – find an animal, and follow it until it becomes too exhausted to continue and can easily be killed. It’s doubtful that other primates could travel even a small fraction of the distance we can, without giving up. However they have us beat in raw power in that regard, especially when it comes to jumping.
The upper bodies of other primates have a different musculature which enables their strength, around 1.5 times what we can achieve. This probably contributed or even led to the development of tools, as a way of compensating in nature; as they say, brains vs brawn.
Some main factors. Avg human contains ~2/3 “slow twitch” muscle fibers and ~1/3 “fast twitch.” The great apes as you mentioned are basically the opposite.
Also, very important is the tendon insertion points of muscle groups. Iirc, joints are essentially fulcrums and the closer the attachment of a muscle to that joint will require more work and force to move the opposite end. Imagine holding a 20lb weight, if the tendon insertion of your biceps was closer to your wrist instead of your elbow, it would be much easier to lift. If you notice on great apes, their arms and legs never seem to be fully extended, their range of motion relative to our is pathetic, but they don’t need it like we do. Their joints/muscles basically come pre-loaded for work.
Another thing, is the size of their muscle bellies. Chimps are always hanging around in trees, that constant grappling strength can be correlated to a professional rock climber even in their fingers. Rock climbers muscles are extremely dense even they may appear scrawny. Which kind of answers the last part of your question…
Modern humans have to dedicate their lives to physical endeavors by choice, for great apes it’s all day every day from birth as a matter of survival.
Different apes are specialized for different things. Chimps and orangutans and bonobos are arboreal. They need strong, powerful limbs for climbing. Gorillas spend more time on the ground, but need to be able to physically repel predators. They also walk on their arms, a high effort activity.
Humans are specialized in.. well, a lot of things. Humans have less muscle mass and hair then other great apes relative to body size, but in return can stay cool while jogging over long distances. Our arms can’t easily haul our body weight up a tree or be used for walking, but can accurately throw things, build tools. Once humans started building tools natural selection greatly preferred the most nimble, flexible hands and arms that could make better tools, and larger brains that make better tools.
Humans are weaker because our hands are hyperspecialized for making and manipulating tools. Long, fragile, sensitive figures and muscles made to make very small, accurate motions. Sure, you can’t punch like a gorilla, but no other apes can make a ship in a bottle.
Oh, and as to your main question: All other apes lose muscle mass and flexibility just like humans if denied exercise. This has been tragically proven with apes in captivity.
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> It’s not like these apes do any strenuous activity besides the occasional branch swinging
Have you ever swung from a branch? Go outside and try it. It takes a shitload of strength to carry your body by your arms.
> Whereas a bodybuilder regularly lifting 80+ kgs year round is still outmatched by these apes living a relatively relaxed lifestyle.
Human muscles will atrophy if they aren’t used. The body will actively scavenge from them if they are not needed. Apes have to maintain that muscle mass all the time, because their bodies aren’t capable of that. If their muscles are atrophied, it’s because they are sick or undernourished.
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.
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