Once upon a time in Toronto I was apartment-hunting. I had an appointment to see a room near the top of a high-rise on Bay Street. As I entered the elevator, I was joined by a man in a T-shirt who looked to be in his late 20s. He was in all respects a normal-looking young male caucasian, except for the fact that he had… well, the most concise way I could describe it would be “Popeye arms”. That is, his upper arms were of completely normal girth, but his forearms were absolutely massive. I am renowned for the size of my hands, and I’m sure even I couldn’t wrap them both around his forearm and have my fingers meet. The forearms were uniform in size and well-proportioned unto themselves, but quite out of proportion to the rest of his body.
Exactly what the cause was of this aberration has been bugging me for some six or seven years now, and in retrospect I regret not asking the guy about his arms (rude though that may have seemed). I’m wondering if anyone here can offer some sort of explanation as to how this fellow ended up with such massive forearms. Here are some of the possibilities I’ve been mulling over:
The reason that Popeye the Sailor-Man had such exaggerated forearms is because deck-apes did have bulkier forearms than most people. AIUI, hand strength comes from the muscles in the forearms, so while the upper arm muscles are used in lifting and pulling, for the more detailed manipulations associated with rigging vessels, or even the work in a steam engineroom, gave a huge workout to the muscles in the forearms.
Thus any work where strength of grip, combined with the ability to manipulate objects under tension, is a common task would lead to those Popeye arms. Some possibilities besides the obvious: masonry, carpentry, wire handling for the local telecom, and sewage maintenance work.
The muscles of the forearms are almost exclusively dedicated to bending the wrist and helping flex or extend the grip of the hands. So yeah, if you spend much of your day holding onto objects that are trying to get away from you, you’ll get meaty forearms.
This says nothing about why Popeye’s calves are so massive however.
I’m still skeptical. Are there any photos online of deck apes, masons, carpenters, wire handlers, etc. showing their exaggerated forearms? I could then compare this to my recollection to determine whether manual labour alone could account for the man’s condition.
You’re making me dig out cruise books, yanno. (Think yearbooks for navy ships) I’ll have to see if we’ve got any candids of the more dedicated deck apes. Formal poses, after all, tend to be torso shots.
Those aren’t his calves, they’re just his pants. Navy issue trousers for enlisted men were traditionally bellbottoms, and they still are for certain uniforms.
BTW, they ought to sculpt the guy in Link 2 and put him in a war memorial somewhere. He’s the living embodiment of millions of sailors, right down to the cigarette.
It’s a long shot, but the largest forearm’d people I know play more video games than most, and when they aren’t playing video games, they’re playing with swords and boken, lifting heavy objects, or being single teenage/early twenties guys, if you get my meaning.
But in those cases, their forearms still weren’t that massive, even when flexed, and the dominant arm had larger muscles than the other.
No way, not even close. Those guys’ forearms are muscular but not huge. Toronto Popeye’s arms were huge but not muscular. Almost bloated, I would say. Think elephantiasis huge, only not as lumpy. I look at SN Rincon’s arms and think, “Wow, that guy has strong arms.” I look at Toronto guy’s arms and wonder how his arms are even possible. Imagine someone with normal (non-muscular) forearms, and then triple their diameter.
Ahhh, you suggested they were muscular in the OP. I’ve never seen it in arms, but I’ve seen it in peoples calves, though I think that is mostly a water retainment issue associated with some diseases.
My grandfather had such forearms.He started blacksmithing at an early age,ten or so,and plied the trade much of his life,though he was noted for many manual arts.
One of his genealogic lines is noted for stocky builds,no doubt a contributor.
He played that game where you take a ten pound sledge hammer,hold it at arm’s length with the arm horizontal and lower it ,using the wrist alone, 'til it gently touches the forehead.
Probably not the answer but some real-life information:
I’ve been a bowler for most of my life. I started leagues when I was 4 years old and at 16 joined men’s bowling leagues and I’d usually bowl year round, 3 leagues a week. Before I gave up on the sport around 32(long story), I had huge forearms in proportion to the rest of my arm. Most notably on my right arm. It takes a lot of wrist strength to crank a 16lb ball over and over down the lanes. Mine were nowhere near the largest I’d seen.
I guy I used to bowl league with had forearms that looked like thighs(not quite…but damn close).
I’m a sculptor, and guitar player and have over developed certain muscles of the forearm. Almost all of them exclusively on the under-portion of the limb. That would be the Brachioradialis, but not the flexors or exstensors. I think it has to do with only using certain muscle groups in that repetitive activity. Sculpting for me never needed a lot of shoulder muscle, even while using heavier hammers. I tended to spread the weight across my back and chest instead. On my dominant arm my bicep is also large, while my tricep group and shoulder are underdeveloped in comparison.
(Think yearbooks for navy ships) I’ll have to see if we’ve got any candids of the more dedicated deck apes. Formal poses, after all, tend to be torso shots.
