Humans are wimps with no muscles brain bug.

[Shroom Man 777]

Well, the humans being weaker than the Orkz but physically pwner than the Tau should be a prime example of this brain bug, but it...isn't. Probably 'cause the Orkz are fucking Orkz, charging you with choppaz an' shit, but the humans don't do the wimpy thing and cry or astound over the manliness of the Orky musculature. No, instead they mount bayonets and charge the fucking greenskins, and slash them and hack 'em and get torn to pieces by 'em and fight 'em knife to choppa to powerclaw to chainsword. And then the Tau shoots the humies dead, but then they run out of ammo and then the Guardsmen reload their lasguns by sticking 'em over a campfire and then blam, those filthy xenos are rumproast.

*froths in the mouth*

Though seriously, the whole Orkz is tougher than dem humies but dem greyskins break even easier than dem humies doesn't seem too brain buggish. But that's probably because instead of claiming race X being physically superior to a humanoid despite race X looking like humans but with silly forehead ridges, Orkz are fucking insane with mechanical jaws and other obscenities. Oh, and they're retarded also. And before anyone can humanwank and kick the wimpy Tau, the Tau's pointing like half a dozen death cannons at you and you go "eep" and run back to your trenches.

[kinnison]

Regarding higher energy requirements for stronger muscles, and Vulcans:

It's canon (if the movies are) that Vulcans and Romulans are the same species. They are obviously considerably stronger than humans, but humans using various biofeedback techniques (or under extreme stress) can way outdo the human norm, so Vulcans with their extremely strong mental control and powers ought to be able to tap into that when needed.

Also, it is also canon that Vulcan body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate are all considerably above human norms, thus indicating that they have higher energy requirements.

Lastly, they have different biochemistry - green blood so there is no reason why their muscle cells can't work in a different way, and perhaps more efficiently, than those of humans.

Agreed though - races weaker than humans in SF are rare, and the ones that are physically weaker tend to have ultra-advanced technology and/or mental powers to compensate.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Going the other way, has anyone seen a sci-fi or fantasy setting where human endurance was noted?

David Brin's Uplift series; not surprising since he's a big fan of the humans as cursorial hunters theory. In one of the books a character runs down an animal, complete with a narrator's commentary on human endurance and cursorial hunting.

Alan Dean Foster's The Damned triolgy mentioned that we had superior endurance ( and strength ) to most aliens, but IIRC didn't put it in context with Earth animals. Of course humans in that series were supposed to be the scary badasses of the galaxy ( "She tried to ignore the fact that his eyes burned. He couldn't help it." ).

[Sidewinder]

In Cannon God Exaxxion, it's specifically stated that the alien invaders, known as Riofaldians, have a lower bone and muscular density than humans. This is demonstrated when the human hero, fighting a Riofaldian in power armor, causes an elevator to crash and subject them both to high g-forces in an attempt to disable his opponent. (It works.)

Of course, the Riofaldians have technology far beyond what humans have in the series, with the exception of a captured Riofaldian robot that the hero is piloting.

[seanrobertson]

Actually and this is a total comment by layman but apes might be a poor example. I would assume that the stronger the muscles are the more energy they need.

Hmm, no, not necessarily. Given apples-to-apples physiology, comparatively larger muscles use more energy, yes; however, strength isn't governed solely by muscular size. There are a host of relevant factors -- muscle length, the attachment points of various connective tissues, skeletal proportions -- but probably the most important is neuromuscular efficiency.

Crudely put, that's how efficient your nervous system is at contracting given muscle groups. On a related note, nature gives us a mix of muscle fiber types at birth. Some muscles are slow-twitch, others fast and the majority, a mix of both; but the higher the proportion of fast-twitch fibers in a person's body, the more likely he'll demonstrate superior strength even without exercise.

Neuromuscular efficiency is similar to fiber-type, but where the latter seems fixed, the link between the mind and slow and fast-twitch fibers -- in other words, all skeletal muscle -- can be improved via training.

Let me see if I can come up with an example of this in action ... *scratches head* ... ah, OK. You've heard of Shaq. Big bald basketball dude

Shaq's a pretty strong guy, right? Sure, but according to an anecdote his trainer related to Sports Illustrated, O'Neill could barely bench press 135 lbs. the first time he lifted weights.

Within two weeks, however, the trainer claimed he had Shaq doing 325 (about Shaq's bodyweight at the time, IIRC).

It took me two years to manage that kind of increase on my bench press, and I lived, ate and slept pumping iron. But whereas I was a little pipsqueak when I start out, Shaq was already a big, strong dude. In essence, his CNS just had to "feel out" the motions of a bench press with heavy weights.

This shows you neuromuscular efficiency in action. 2 weeks isn't near enough time for Shaq to gain the very large amount of muscle that normally differentiates a 135 lb. bench presser from a man doing 325. Shaq didn't suddenly gain some kind of leverage advantage, like if someone had sawed a few inches out of his humerri; and if he did take performance-enhancing drugs, those alone could not begin to account for the huge increase in output.

And even though I'm all but certain the trainer grossly exaggerated his "success" with Shaq, even if we're only talking about Shaq besting his old press by 50 lbs. in two weeks, we're talking mostly about motor adaptation, not larger, more energy-hungry muscles.

That said, I do think there's merit to your idea. After a certain point, it does seem unlikely that you'd find vastly stronger humanoids from Earth-like planets.

Also, if it's not a brain-bug, it is cliche I also get tired of aliens whipping up on, and being more technically sophisticated than, us.

[Ariphaos]

I went from 80 (tied for the weakest guy in the class and the strongest girl... oi) to ~200 in about two months myself. Kept getting yelled at for not continuing that >_>

[Johndug]

for the reverse of this brain bug try reading Alan Dean Fosters series "the Damned". It puts an interesting spin on the "everyone is better than the humans Bug" Essentially it puts forward that humans have developed only developed intelligence as a more efficient means to kill things. In effect we are a planet of raving sociopathic maniacs designed for warfare and have been practicing on each other for millions of years.