how can muscles be big but not strong, like body builders vs rock climbers?
In: Biology
As others have said, body builders are usually pretty insanely strong still compared to the average guy. No one, and I mean no one, will be able to go into a gym untrained and bench 200kg.
They still train really hard, even if it is adapted for aesthetics, another thing to consider is that bodybuilders often stop trying to grow specific muscles once they hit the right size with it, there is a golden ratio in body building where your biceps, chest and forearms are all just perfect, not many hit it but it happens.
Yet another thing to consider is that yeah, some of the greatest hand strength compared to body mass absolutely comes from rock climbers, but you know what? If I trained my ability to hold onto something constantly I’d have insane grip strength as well.
I actually watched a video recently of this one rock climber guy who went to a grip strength competition. In two of the events he came second and the rest he placed sort of at the bottom of the highest third. The ones he came second in were unsurprisingly (to me anyway) the awkward grip events, the thomas-inch dumbell, which is an extremely wide handled dumbell you pick up, and then an event where you have to pick up and hold all manner of heavy, odd shaped rocks.
He also held 150kg in each hand in a farmers carry for something crazy like 45 seconds, the heavier guys actually mostly beat him there, but that’s because they already work with those kinds of weight and he doesn’t.
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