• Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 days ago

    they have a different kind of muscle. fast-twitch. it outperforms regular muscle pound for pound. trades endurance for strength.

    a coordinated attempt to restrain it could be possible but using long sticks would be ideal, making a pike wall

    • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      Both you and the gorilla have both slow and fast twitch muscle fibers in your arms and legs (As an addendum, we tend to just call them type I and type II fibers when discussing humans). In fact basically any skeletal muscle is gonna have a mixture of both fibers, or it would be pretty useless. (Theres also a secret third kind that’s relevant when discussing the strength vs endurance thing)

      Chimps (I don’t know about gorillas) apparently tend to have more type I muscle fibers compared to type II than us, but you can’t attribute all the strength difference to this alone. Many of the human leg muscles are almost entirely type I, and I sure can’t jump like a chimp

      • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        yeah I’m just remembering something I read that was discussing why a chimp could easily kill an adult human despite the size difference. the article mentioned it having far more fast twitch muscle fibers as the reason.