Uriah

Richard Carson recently wrote an enormous paper arguing that grip strength is primarily independent of muscle mass in other parts of the body and that individual variations in grip strength are for the most part due to variations in neural health: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_36d985e/UQ36d985e_OA.pdf?dsi_version=255cf2f829ab01c05aff584f92d3e379&Expires=1601770436&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=PjbHudBI3P1PmtonH3RK7u3Yn8Vd98vpu-vX-lcpYgwwoDKTxnrBY6GZzPb9GPWAW~42dgvESdvHkDn1zk-5JwVKLdumT~WIPXwfw5apKJmp4UPVfldIFq3XPGQAwPrrpAklrAPOAVVJjbt6-UlJ7nghmOAhzMPNW90fDGbl10L34jVRpzwhCbNlMgdxO1EozPc2rnbdb8Pi0Sm5Dn5ycEk7PT3gPksLrpKUzkA0SkKqmfc04XiEPk58gZrHwq4UvpU2Y7istk6c9d1DqI1gNsONx57odvLOxafWIXTQDOEJISIHxrI5kI-2r~PoWxxJ44W7eLIsaQMPhtc5wuKQNw__ …

To give an idea of what “neural” means here, grip strength is positively correlated with a large number of fmri brain measures such as primary motor cortex volume. Grip declines with age in a way independent of muscle mass and is a better predictor of mortality than sarcopenia.

When fingers flex as a unit they generate half as much force as when moved individually, so "in these circumstances the level of neural drive received by the actuating muscles is also diminished, suggesting that the limiting factor is neural rather than biomechanical."

The central argument I’m making here is the apparent physical decline in grip strength suffered by millennials is actually a mental defect in disguise, a failure of their nerdy brains to effectively coordinate muscle at every level of the body.

One of the ways people born after the onset of the autism epidemic resemble autistics is in the dulled emotional tone of their voices: they have a hard time sounding genuinely threatening when they need to be or charming or…any emotion really.

There are generational changes that everyone notices but never really talks about. When you listen to tape recordings of even average Joes from the 50’s or 60’s it’s remarkable how crisp and clear their diction is, whereas millennials slur together syllables like drunks.

When people notice this they tend to say things like “we need to start emphasizing enunciation just like the old schools did”, but again I think this is actually a cohort effect and you can tell by looking at elite talkers: sports broadcasters, talk show hosts, etc.