Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Some bodybuilders these days look like absolute beasts. But we all know that many of them are using performance enhancing growth hormones to achieve that look, something that our ancestors surely never had. Further to that, looking like 'the hulk' doesn't not necessarily equate to being as strong. We all know some folks who are somehow just naturally very strong for their size, even if they don't necessarily appear to be, right?

If gorillas and orangutans are four to eight times stronger than similar sized humans, do you think humans from long ago naturally possessed higher strength due to muscular and bone skeletal structure? If so, do you think a gradual change in diet and/or lifestyle played a contributional role in the progressive decline of inherent human strength endowment?

flag	asked Mar 14 2011 at 15:44 Jack Kronk 19.9k●4●33●101

	I know that chimps are insanely strong as well. There is a story in Roger Fouts's book Next of Kin (Fouts is the guy who did the sign language with Washoe): Fouts was out walking a young chimp half his size, attached to him by a leash. At some point the chimp climbed up a tree, and then effortlessly pulled Fouts off the ground by the leash. Maybe somebody can check that, but I think I have it mostly right. If you see a 150-pound adult male chimp (it's always baby chimps in the movies) in a zoo, you can just feel their strength by watching them move. They could easily kill a human being. – Paul Mar 14 2011 at 16:57
	wouldn't it be cool to HACK that kinda strength? Humans can achieve some pretty remarkable feats of strength, but in general, we are way out of our element when pit against other animals. Think about the strength of a bear, or a tiger. How about sea creatures? Or maybe an anaconda. We have dominion because of our brains, but we are pretty low on the totum pole of natural strength. If you weigh in at 240 lbs and a 150 pound chimp can jack you up, it makes you wonder. – Jack Kronk Mar 14 2011 at 17:05
	Right on. But we're weaker than the lions in Richard Nikoley's video: freetheanimal.com/2011/03/… and we're still the apex predator. What a great video that is. ... Chimps are generally afraid of humans in areas where humans hunt chimps for meat. (See Goodall.) We're the thing that has weapons. – Paul Mar 14 2011 at 17:17
	exactly. higher intellect = win. that's a crazy video by the way. in the comments someone writes that maybe they are circus lions, and richard seems a bit put off by that comment. i do not believe they are, but i did have a skeptical moment, like maybe behind the camera (behind the 3 men), there could have been some other element to inject fear into the lions. maybe a big machine or gang of people or something, but the camera just never shows it? Probably not, but interesting video anyway. – Jack Kronk Mar 14 2011 at 18:05
	I watched that programme on tv with the background showing how they filmed that section. The lions were real and the small camera crew were a long way off in a landrover with long lenses. The film makers were serious worried the three guys were going to be eaten. – Matt Mar 14 2011 at 18:21

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TMS · Answer 1 · 2011-03-14 20:10:03Z UTC

There's a book out now called 'Manthropology' written by a paleontologist about exactly this stuff. I think we've lost the genes that made us super strong. When we became smart we didn't need to be as strong. Its not diet and lifestyle mostly. Lazy chimps in the zoo, who do nothing and eat grain-based chimp chow are still much stronger than humans.

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qwork=16233179&matches=16&keyword=Manthropology&cm_sp=works*listing*title

Stabby · Answer 2 · 2011-03-14 16:18:42Z UTC

Humans never shared ancestors with anything Gorilla-like. Lucy was small and chimpish and then humans got more badass along the way. Homo erectus was very strong and so were the original homo sapiens up until agriculture. So they had human strength, different from Gorilla strength, and yes they were very strong, although probably not Gorilla strong.

They probably didn't look like Scott Steiner, though. Bodybuilders build their bodies for show and employ special lifts to get a nicely sculpted body. Grok's muscles wouldn't look like a bodybuilder's but would be thick and tight but not builky and cumbersome.

i'm thinking about Art Devany pulling his truck like he's pulling a bison carcass. That's the kind of exercise you get from being a hunter-gatherer.

xyz · Answer 3 · 2011-03-14 18:07:10Z UTC

The additional myostatin inhibition in humans is likely what gave us the fine muscle control required for detailed facial expressions, tool use, and the ability to talk. This is shared by all humans (even the "double muscled" humans, though they are super-muscled from the point of view of us normals).

So no, eating paleo is not magic and will not get you there. Gamma rays would be more plausible.

khwarezmid · Answer 4 · 2011-03-14 21:46:20Z UTC

Sorry guys, but while our ancestors were surely fit, they were almost certainly not muscle-bound hulks. While some hunter-gatherer groups are still quite muscular, many have a lean, wiry frame. Take a look at these guys, for instance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUpo_mA5RP8

Testosterone levels in modern primitives are also lower than in industrial societies: http://www.springerlink.com/content/f1818h7x31112jt0/

If you've read lindebergh's book, he speculates that this is due to over stimulation of the IGF-1 signaling pathway.

Did our Paleo ancestors have GORILLA strength?

4 Answers