Bro-Science

[BIBIANO]

I've heard on the JRE that one of the differences between Chimp strength and human strength is that the Chimp brain activates more muscle fibers than the human brain. This makes the Chimp incredibly strong, but also bad at tasks that require a lot of motor control (the types of tasks humans are good at it).

I wonder if this is why people with rounds and rounds of jiu jitsu feel so strong. After you understand the move better and it is less nuanced, the brain feels more comfortable activating more muscle fibers?

Could be.

If it is, I want to find how to override that setting and become a fucking gorilla!

[Aaron C]

Kind of true I guess, when you first start lifting weights your strength improves really quickly because of 'Neural adaption'. After a while your gains slow down because your body starts needing to actually increase the muscle to improve strength any more (Hypertrophy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_adaptation

[Mike May]

The tendon to muscle ratio has a lot to do with strength potential as well. The tendon leverages are a huge factor in force production. In bodybuilding versus weightlifting and powerlifting, the bodybuilder wants long muscle bellies and short tendons to have the largest mass, while longer tendons are more advantageous for the proportionate strength athlete (less so in the absolute open weight divisions).
I'm a huge proponent of the Soviet Block Periodization method made famous by Westside as a strength training system, as it is very conscious of the role of neural priming/activation in motor unit recruitment. Worth looking into if you are looking to increase strength (check out what them have done for Matt Brown among others). They have tons of free articles and videos.