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Most animals leave a lot of brute strength off the table by how they are designed, because there's more important concerns such as speed and explosivity. Stre

Most animals leave a lot of brute strength off the table by how they are designed, because there's more important concerns such as speed and explosivity. Strength is a tertiary concern. The human biceps is a good example of this. From a mechanical standpoint, where its insertion is like barely below the elbow joint, the bicep has extremely poor leverage, to the point where it needs to exert much more force than the hand does probably by a factor ~20-50. If it somehow went diagonally between the shoulder and the wrist, maximizing leverage, ignoring everything unpractical about this you'd be able to curl a small car engine. The downside is that a diagonal bicep would give us about 40 degrees of range of motion for the elbow and we'd be completely unable to throw things. Big exception is jaw muscles (which are set up closer to that bicep thought experiment). Since they don't need to "escape" from anything and can sacrifice a bit of range of motion, they can afford to optimize for strength and endurance.

rramadass 2y ago
Nice. I find the evolutionary design, adaptation and body dynamics of the various animal species highly fascinating. With an interest in Hatha Yoga and Martial Arts i also like to figure out how the Human Body can do apparently "impossible" feats of strength. One good example is Shaolin Monks/Circus Strongmen lifting bicycles/tables etc. by biting them with their teeth which can be explained by the natural strength of the jaw muscles due to its anatomical construction as you point out. A couple more are; 1) Mountain Sherpas carrying huge loads using headbands and traditional baskets 2) African/South Asian/South-East Asian rural women balancing and carrying huge loads on their heads all with minimal energy expenditure. These all seem to involve strong neck muscles, a unique posture and gait and proper body alignment.

rramadass 2y ago

Nice. I find the evolutionary design, adaptation and body dynamics of the various animal species highly fascinating. With an interest in Hatha Yoga and Martial Arts i also like to figure out how the Human Body can do apparently "impossible" feats of strength. One good example is Shaolin Monks/Circus Strongmen lifting bicycles/tables etc. by biting them with their teeth which can be explained by the natural strength of the jaw muscles due to its anatomical construction as you point out. A couple more are; 1) Mountain Sherpas carrying huge loads using headbands and traditional baskets 2) African/South Asian/South-East Asian rural women balancing and carrying huge loads on their heads all with minimal energy expenditure. These all seem to involve strong neck muscles, a unique posture and gait and proper body alignment.