Are you Stronger than a Gorilla?

Just how strong can a gorilla be? After watching the latest iteration of King Kong over the weekend, the answer seems obvious. They’re very strong. As in smash anything in their way strong.

Not the most scientific of answers but hey, it works for me.

Luckily not everyone is as lazy as my good self. Indeed, some have gone to some interesting lengths to scientifically provide an answer. Today’s post, focuses on a 1920s study, which may have contributed to some common misconceptions about our primal relatives.

And before you protest about the nature of this post, the experiment (Spoiler Alert!), contains weightlifting. Both human and primate.

The Great Scientific Question…Why should I care?

According to John Bauman, the scientist responsible for the study in question, no one had bothered to actually examine the strength of chimpanzees. Instead, estimations had been made based on the monkey’s stature. Or in his own words

Tests were conducted as follows: With one small piece of banana as incentive, the subject was given the rope and allowed to pull against the maximal resistance that he had previously overcome. When the incentive was recovered, the rope was withdrawn, one 10 pound weight was added to the load, another piece of banana was provided as incentive, the subject was given the rope and allowed to pull.

If the subject failed to move the system in one minute, an additional piece of fruit (apple, orange, or banana) was added to the incentive and so on with further additions of fruit each minute until ten minutes had elapsed, at which time the test was terminated and the subject’s max as recorded as the resistance which he had overcome (as judged by a movement of the incentive of at least 3 inches). It might be noted that the became comparatively very great before a trial was recorded as a failure.

At this point I’d like to point out the fact that these Chimps were effectively lifting weights to eat more of their favourite food. A tactic that has led me to spoon mouthfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar on many an occasion!

What were the results?

So how did our furry friends do? After all, food is the best motivator!

While some Chimpanzees refused to take part in the experiment, the undoubted stars of the show were Suzette, a former circus performer and her father Boma. From a relaxed state, Suzette was credited with pulling 905 pounds and over 1260 pounds once agitated. An ape you evidently don’t want to mess with.

Not to be outdone, Suzette’s father Boma registered one-hand pulls of 847 pounds with his right hand and 640 pounds with his left.

As detailed by Bauman in his original Bauman 1923, a third primate, named Dempsey pulled over 120 pounds as a child. Bless.

How did the Humans do?

How then did all of the above compare with humans?

Then acting as college professor in South Dakota, Bauman used his university contacts to assemble a group of men he believed to be comparable in strength…. Football players.

But not any football players would do. They were a

A full table of their lifts is available below

What were the conclusions?

Taking all of the data together, Bauman came to the conclusion that apes such as Suzette and Bauman were four times stronger than the average human. For those amongst us comfortable with bizarre math, here’s a treat:

What was of all of this impact?

Remarkably Bauman’s conclusions, based largely on anecdotal evidence and an intricate system of measurement resembling nothing found in the wild, nevertheless had considerable academic and public purchase.

Within academia, Bauman’s conclusions were largely accepted until the early 1940s, when Finch’s investigations dispelled the ‘four times as strong idea’. Incidentally, Finch found that in a pulling exercise male chimps and adults were roughly of the same strength. Although once bodyweight was taken in to account, the chimps came out as marginally stronger.

In the public realm, blogs and newspapers still regularly make the claim that monkeys are four times stronger than humans, despite the criticism Bauman’s study has suffered over the years.  Furthermore within Hollywood and Television, monkeys are often depicted as having strength far outweighing man. King Kong and the Planet of the Apes being two relatively recent examples.

Luckily however I have devised an idea to settle this question once and for all. Pit Eddie Hall, Brian Shaw and Žydrūnas Savickas, the three most recent World’s Strongest Men against the strongest primates we can find in a series of pulling, pushing and throwing movements.

Who cares if its not scientific… the viewing alone would be worth it!

As always… Happy Lifting!