I didn’t know where else to put this, so it goes in here because I say so.
I pose the following question to all forum members:
Chimpanzees and Gorillas are exponentially pound for pound stronger then any human will ever be. Cheetahs run like the wind, and kangaroos will break your face with one kick. These animals are born strong from birth due to the physical nature of survival in their habitats. Man on the other hand, survives by intelligence and wit, outthinking his predators. If animals were to train unnaturally like we do, that is, going out of their way to do so…what would their speed and strength limits be?
Well what is strength training? Picking up heavy shit and setting it down for 1-8 reps. Plenty of animals do stuff like that. You can make training seem more complicated to get that extra 1-2% of performance, but it comes down to doing the essentials first. If you want to get fast you sprint fast. The Greeks would sprint a couple 200s @ 100% every single day all year long. Cheetahs and other animals catch prey I don’t know how often and don’t do much other than that–seems pretty similar to me. My point is that animals (like some humans) are very active from birth and do a lot of what would constitute training. If every human grew up on a farm and had to work and lift heavy shit 8-12 hours a day, I am sure humans on average would be quite a bit stronger and more fit. On the flip side if animals were to work out like humans, would they have to deal with stress the way humans do? We are finding out that a lot of stress is simply in the head. If you worry about training all day and put pressure on yourself, that is a form of stress that can cause issues down the road.
Yes this was a clusterf*ck of a post but hopefully it gets something across.
That is definitely a possibility, though I think some things are beyond just the psychological (if you knee is buckling from indoor 200s then you have other issues). I think being able to detach from training is important at times, though it can be hard with a motivated athlete.
Hahaha, understood. It’s true that only recently has man become fairly “lazy” in comparison to the past…but our ancestors were not on a system which allowed for the best gains possible. In fact, most of the time they were probebly what we would consider now, overtrained (Greeks especially ;)). So if animals who are naturally MUCH stronger and faster were to train with a particular system and have adequate rest and recovery like we do, food always available, etc…what do you think would happen to their abilities? How much strength gains? Speed gains? etc. What do you think is possible? Man benches 750+lbs with training…the average gym-goer does 135 if not less. That’s a HUGE difference. If those same gym peopel wer eto train, they could most likely increase their bench to 400lbs, almost more. Thats nearly 3x what it was before. Whats possible with animals though?
Chimpanzees are 4-5x stronger on average than an adult human male by age 5! That’s a 135x4 = 540lbs bench press for the average chimpanzee at your gym people…he hasn’t even begun to train yet!
A lot of those advantages are because of levers and the like. Who says any sort of human system would work for a creature moving that fast that has incredibly long tendons. Also, I’d love to see a 5yr old chimp bench 540. I won’t get too much into it, but some of that shit is BS/skewed or inflated (according to some of the leading experts in primatology). How can you compare strength differences if you cannot even grip or hold the same implements of if 75% of your bodyweight is from the upperbody?
Frans Bosch says trained humans can express about 75% of their possible strength. If you had no mental limitations and expressed ~100% you’d probably get some experience with tendon injuries.
My hamster trains for the purpose of getting faster, it does 1x10hr wheel sprints, probably runs like 2min in the 100 right now.
Thinking of adding some contact mats in his wheel, also this is a short to long program. His diet is clean no fast food or junk food for his career. I believe once I let him taper for the competitive season he will show some vast improvements. By the way I am receiving his year long work plan from Bubba from our local jail, its worked wonders.
Ive heard rumors of charlie making ebook specifically for animal tapering any truth to this? I actually heard street sense’s team was seen with an advance order of the book.
