Strength is interesting because it doesn’t always correlate to size. For an individual it’s almost impossible for someone to get stronger without also getting bigger, but that doesn’t mean that someone big is also someone strong, or that someone small is not strong
I don’t think we truly understand strength still, and just chalk it up to “genetics” + better training. But to go along with the “genetics” explanation, I think it has to do partly with attachment points of bones, muscles, and ligaments. Leverage is everything when it comes to moving weight. For example try moving something with a pulley system, then position one of the pulley’s 1 inch higher or lower than it was an all of a sudden the system can’t move the weight with the same amount of force. I wonder if strength phenoms just have attachment points for the skeletal-muscular physiology that are advantageous for that lift
I personally like seeing someone who doesn’t appear big be freakishly strong, like this little Asian power lifter. Will have to skip along in the vid to see the lifts, I can’t link at a certain time on my phone. He hides a camera in the gym and films dudes bigger than him walking over and being like “HTF is that little guy benching that?”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=