Shocking result of arm wrestle match shows massive difference between muscle mass and strength
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: X / @fasc1nate
What image pops into your head when you think of someone who is physically very strong?
There are, of course, a lot of different ways that someone can be strong.
All the same, if you were shown a picture of someone with big muscles and someone with smaller muscles, who would you think was stronger?
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You'd probably assume it would be the person with bigger muscles.
Well, one extraordinary video has shown why that might not necessarily be the case.
In the video posted to Twitter, two men have an arm wrestle, the age old tried and tested way of finding out who is stronger.
The man on the right has huge bulging biceps, like bodybuilder style muscles, with enormous shoulders and arms.
Meanwhile, the other on the left is much more wiry, and while he is clearly strong he doesn't have the muscle mass of his opponent.
You'd think it would be a walk in the park for the man with larger muscles, but you would be wrong.
In fact, the man on the left wins out. Not only that, but he doesn't even seem to be putting in much effort at all.
No matter how hard his opponent tries, he just can't seem to make any progress against him.
Eventually, the man on the left gets into gear and the bodybuilder is powerless to stop him from winning the arm wrestle.
People took to social media to share their thoughts on the confrontation.
One wrote: "Muscle man moved to all the cardinal points and still flopped."
A second explained: "Size does not equal strength, many powerlifters have a small frame because they don’t do sets with high reps like bodybuilders do just to build size, they train purely for strength."
A third posted: "Building strength vs building muscle for looks/competition are two different things."
Strength can also look very different depending on what it is that you are training for exactly.
No one would say that a powerlifter and a gymnast are not strong, but their strength manifests very differently.
And as much as strength is important in arm wrestling, there is also technique to it as well, and an element of genetic luck in having long arms.
One person wrote: "Professional arm wrestlers also tend to have super long forearms, like this guy does, which makes a big difference.
"And his technique is clearly spot-on. I used to kick almost everyone's ass in arm wrestling in high school simply because I practiced good technique."