Bear Strength

[Shadow]

(12-26-2018, 11:05 PM)Polar Wrote:

(12-20-2018, 03:25 AM)Shadow Wrote: This link is to article in digital version of finnish science magazine. This is from section, where people can send questions and then they get answers from specialists. Anyway most people here don´t understand a word from that text, so I put here a short summary. Someone has made a question, that how much could a bear bench press? Person answering to question is Heidi Kinnunen, who has doctoral degree in zoology. She is quite well known animal expert in Finland and can be found from University of Helsinki.

She tells, that compared to ordinary human, bear has very strong muscles what comes to forelimbs, pecs and shoulders. Even cubs have been observed to flip easily flat stones weighing 140 kg (about 309 lbs). In fight a bear can lift with forelimbs another bear which has thrown itself over it. Then she tells, that canadian researchers recommend, that when bear is wanted to catch alive with a rope to leg, there should be used a coil able to withstand force of 16,8 kilonewton, which might be easier to understand if putting figure 1713 kg (3777 lbs).

Then Kinnunen explains, that bench press isn´t for a bear natural thing to do which everyone should understand. Mentioning also, that bears can do kind of pull-ups with branches. Then she does a little comparison to human but final statement from her is conclusion, that what comes to strength, adult bear would be able to bench press at least double of its own body weight. 

Here is link to article if someone wants to check and maybe try to learn finnish. If you try to use google translator..... good luck. Finnish-english translations are nightmares/torture for anyone trying

https://www.tiede.fi/artikkeli/kysy/palj...i_penkista

Here is some info about Kinnunen: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Heidi_Kinnunen

Her credentials (from ResearchGate link) seem more suited to ecological preservation and habitat-related relationships rather than on animal morphology.

But even if the study is possibly faked or simply not publicly released in an academic institution, the videos and some of the evidence gathered so far tell me that there might be a middle ground here. If a bear can "bench" at least twice his weight (and without even training for it), we as normal humans would have to put many times the effort to get to even get close to that point.

In my powerlifting years, it took me three years to get my bench up to 355-pounds at the age of 18, and I was 215-pounds heavy at the time. Imagine being a 175-pound bear and benching that outright, lol. That would be a huge difference if true.

Some people say, that gorilla has strong forearms because it uses them when walking... and climbing. Bears as many other animals walk all the time on all fours, then they dig, climb, flip rocks.... so I guess, that training is natural part of their life. As to so many other animals too.

What comes to Kinnunen, I think that she has done some research and discussed with other experts before giving estimations. She has some reputation to maintain, so I think, that she is quite careful what she writes. Of course that is one estimation as usual in these cases. I have considered to ask from her, that to what she based that estimation. It is clear, that she has been discussing with other animal experts and done some research, because she knew some canadian recommendations. 

What comes to your results, I would be only surprised if you would able to be trained to be stronger than a bear, that bear is stronger than you is quite normal, no matter how much you train  But I think, that she meant more adult bears and their power levels even though also cubs are known to be quite strong. Reply