Refinements of classical theories for entangled or crosslinked polymeric systems have led to incommensurable models for rubber networks and polymer melts, contrary to experimental evidence, which suggests a great deal of similarity. Uniaxial elongation and compression data of linear and branched polymer melts as well as of crosslinked rubbers were analyzed with respect to their nonlinear strain measure. This was found to be the result of two contributions: (1) affine orientation of network strands, and (2) isotropic strand extension. Network strand extension is caused by an increasing restriction of lateral movement of polymer chains due to deformation, and is modelled by a molecular stress function which in the tube concept of Doi and Edwards is the inverse of the relative tube diameter. Up to moderate strains, $f^2$ is found to be linear in the average stretch for melts as well as for rubbers, which corresponds to a constant tube volume. At large strains, rubbers show maximum extensibility, while melts show maximum molecular tension. This maximum value of the molecular stress function governs the ultimate magnitude of the strain-hardening effect of linear and long-chain branched polymer melts in extensional flows.