Animal Strength Feats

[Pckts]

(01-17-2017, 04:23 PM)brotherbear Wrote: I have no doubt concerning the strength of either the lion or the tiger. Pckts mentioned in another topic that due to the more flexible spine of the big cats, that a tiger can push with his hind legs underneath his body while pulling a heavy carcass by his jaws and of course pushing also with his front legs, if I am understanding his post correctly. When the tiger is pulling a heavy load, he is actually pushing against the ground with all four paws. Pulling a tremendously heavy carcass then, I would think, is a matter of both great strength and technique.

Correctly interpreted brobear.
A big cat will need to drive their anchors into the ground (limbs) then pull backwards, we jokingly say "push the earth down" when we do this on my strongman training days.
You can see this example here

*This image is copyright of its original author

and here you can see the extreme example

*This image is copyright of its original author

This is where the longer and more flexible spine comes in, the cat is able to curve the rear end of its spine, thus creating leverage and driving its body weight into the ground, this is the anchor point, once good footing is gained, the cat can now begin to lean backwards while driving its body into the ground, once the object begins to move, it now becomes easier to continually keep the object moving unless of course it's just to heavy and you expel all your energy simply budging it.

For this type of movement, the most important muscles will be in the cats rear section.
It's hips, legs and general core strength will be the muscles firing most, the jaws will be the grip and the forelimbs and chest will be the stabilizing and secondary force.

As peter and brobear alluded to, this isn't only brute strength but also technique. A cat would of had to try and fail many different pulling and tugging options to figure out which position is best for which scenario. It is also this repetitive failure and success that will separate any wild animal from its captive counterpart. A captive animal will have what is commonly referred to as "enrichment,'' and this is meant to stimulate the cat and allow it to burn some of its excess energy by imitating its movements from the wild. The problem is, this is stationary objects, and while they may weigh the same as an animal the cat would prey on, this object isn't fighting for its life. When you get resistance from the object you're trying to move, that increases muscle growth and core strength.

I've been a fighter for most of my life, before I was a boxer I was an mma fighter and started as a BJJ student and I can tell you first hand, there are no stronger human beings on earth than wrestlers. (at least when it comes to core strength)
You can always tell who's a wrestler from who's just a brutally strong guy, a wrestler will first have much better technique, they'll keep your shoulders pressed to the mat and they'll control top position, this of course is the goal for any fighter but they are able to do this while maintaining a top position that feels like an anvil is on your chest. Trying to move a good, strong wrestler is like trying to budge a piece of concrete. What I'm getting at is that it's not only the fact that they spend all day trying to move things that don't want to be moved (other wrestlers) and what that does is teach the wrestler different techniques for different positions while gaining great stabilizer strength and grip strength as well.  The same will be said for a wild animal, if they make a living on tackling live prey, fighting for its life, they will use far more muscles than an animal who occasionally gets to roll a big ball around from time to time. Reply