Venting....

[WBBIRL]

Something at work got me kinda flusterd today... I guess I really shouldnt care but here goes:

So I work with 2 other guys and my uncle (hes the boss/owner). One of the guys was injuried around 2 years back due to a drunk driver wrecking into him. He is still rehabing and shouldn't really even be working right now. He's going to the gym/rehab clynic thats conviently enough about a block away from where we work.

So today the guy who got hurt is talking to the other guy and the other guy says this:

"Got some interesting mail yesterday. My son has been invited to the ADAIS combine type deal in pittsburgh. Now alittle BG info on his son.... the kid is 17 years old and hes 6 ft 4 inches tall. He claims the kid weighs 280lbs (I've only seen him one time breifly and he had a hoody on, but it didnt look like he weighed 280 at all). He claims this kid of his is really strong and went as far as to say that he could bench 315lbs (max I assume).

Then he goes on to say that his kid doesnt build muscle and only maintains and is working on how many times he can rep 225. And that his son is naturally that strong and isnt really growing in the gym. He then goes on to say how you dont want to bulk up, and that what im basically doing in the gym is building tissue and not muscle fibers. He then goes on to claim its god given strength is all that counts. The guy said that he knows people who could bench 2x what he does and yet those people couldnt lift the end of a pool table up as high as he can. I didnt even respond at this stupidity as you wouldnt be benching it up anyhow.



Its weird, like one day when I had a big coin op game on a dolly... it was so hard on my upper body to keep it balanced and it isnt for him yet I know im stronger?????



I guess I really shouldnt care, but it bugs me. Gym strength SHOULD translate to real world strength... but it doesnt.

[BigCorey75]

alot of what the guy is talking about is real world strength, he prob has tons more experience on picking things up and moving them than you, it used to piss me off when my dad did it then he showed me how to move stuff instead of trying to use brute force and i learned alot beter, so the guy has a point you have to know how to lift things, not just be strong

[mikey4402]

at one of my jobs i worked in the summer we had to move kegs from a deliver truck to the coolers and then to each of the stand's perlicks..anyways im pretty big and i could lift a keg from the ground to the golf carts very easy. but the keg truck driver would some times help us when we would get a lot of kegs in (like 500 just from miller)
anyways this guy is alot smaller then me but he could lift two kegs at a time. he told me once he carried two on a dolly and one on his shoulder up three flights of steps. he just knows how to do it, and has been doing it all his life

[WBBIRL]

Real world stregth pisses me off, that and the fact you dont gain very much of it at all in the gym. Someone who I could just tear apart in the gym could be a much better at moving heavy things... and thats just wrong. Makes sense though, you train to move kegs and your good at moveing kegs... you train to benchpress and you get good at benchpress.

[Bohizzle]

that's where GPP comes in.

[MM]

I guess I really shouldnt care, but it bugs me. Gym strength SHOULD translate to real world strength... but it doesnt.

I haven't read any other responses. I saw this and my heuristic response is, "the **** it doesn't".

[mrelwooddowd]

I haven't read any other responses. I saw this and my heuristic response is, "the **** it doesn't".

I agree. When I helped some people move a big screen TV from truck to house, and I handled one side while two men had the other, I felt like this was somehow worth it. You don't get to use it very often, but when you do it's pretty cool.

[Shark]

When i got in college my mom used to move furniture better then me and I was 6'3" 230-240. She had been doing it forever and was strong. It wasn't until after I started lifting that I got better at it.

[WBBIRL]

I dont know, it just seems that somethings amiss... the other 2 guys I work with a real world stronger then me (ones kinda close really) but I would blow them both away in the iron game. Either that or my weak points are EVERY point I need to have for the work im doing.

[BigCorey75]

like i said its all a matter as to what your used to and what you know how to do, dont sweat it much man, its not that huge of a deal, just ask them any techniques they use and im sure if you learn them youll be better

[MM]

Of course there's a difference between expertise and brute strength, but it's sort of silly to think strength gains in the gym don't translate into functional strength gains. If you spend all day lifting kegs, you're probably going to be pretty damn good and strong at lifting keg-like objects. But if you put 50lbs onto your dead and 50lbs onto your squat, my guess is that it'll be easier for you to lift a keg after than it was before.

Which leads me to another point: the bench press is a terrible guage of functional, "real world" strength.

[diesel_dan]

When I first started bailing hay in the summers, there were a couple guys out there that could bail hay all day long like it wasn't anything. I on the other hand got tired after awhile etc. Well one of the guys told me one day it's more technique then trying to use brute strength. After learning the technique (which was to push the bail off your leg with your body weight into the trailer, instead of only using your arms and shoulders), I was able to half-@$$ed keep up with them without wearing out. Now in the gym I could blow these guys away. I know that for a fact because we discussed what each other could lift on different types of lifts and I easily out lifted them by anywhere from 25-100lbs. So like everyone else said, don't stress it. Maybe learn a better technique for what you’re trying to do.

[Hockey66]

I've found that my gym work has contributed hugely to my everyday strength. The reason most people don't is they don't do the compound exercises (deadlifts, squats, cleans, etc.) that contribute to everday life. Getting your curl and bench up isn't going to do too much.

[Canadian Crippler]

Having a huge bench press isn't going to necessarily translate to real world strength because when are you ever lying down and pressing something? Military Press on the other hand would be extremely beneficial.

[Built]

Maybe it's different for women - I was SO weak before I started lifting ... but most women are. All of the women I've spoken to who started seriously lifting have remarked at how much easier day to day activities are - like carrying groceries or loading the water bottle on the water cooler.

I had a job about a dozen years ago working graveyard cutting freight for a large grocery chain, which then led to a gig as shipper-receiver. Part of the job involved stacking loading pallets so they could be moved onto the empty rigs.

I was the first woman they had ever hired to do this - I weighed 150 at the time, and was pretty strong, although not like I am now.

I watched the little guys. I figured if they could do it, so could I.

It was all technique. Once I had it, I could flip them all day.

[Organichu]

Get ready, because we're going to have a class lesson where I explain the laws of muscularity and physics based on a shoddy and ill-analagous comparison between lifting weights and peeling fifty lbs of dough from an industrial bowl.

There was a boy named John (that's me). I first worked for City Pizza and couldn't peel a 50 lb batch of dough for my life! Sticky, semi-heavy, big and awkward, not at all manageable for me.

John takes a few weeks off work (can't practice technique or get stronger through those means).

John lifts weights during weeks. Gains 15 lbs on bench, 10 lbs on deadlift.

John returns and peels dough!

Question answered.



(I'm so tragically bored.)

[Organichu]

...led to a gig as shipper-receiver...

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned..

[Built]

?

[Canadian Crippler]

Women are so stupid. ;)

[Organichu]

Just to defend against the moment when you do comprehend what I suggested.. I'm very sorry, I think you're a great lady. Love you!

-hides in a bomb shelter-

[Built]

Yeah. We have to be to put up with men. ;)

(Emily, don't say it... )

[Built]

Just to defend against the moment when you do comprehend what I suggested.. I'm very sorry, I think you're a great lady. Love you!

-hides in a bomb shelter-

I hate to admit it, but I'm stumped here.

[Organichu]

Well, it's no insult, more of a compliment.

Xian should be in here sooner or later to break up my reverie. I'm the man, of course, and he's pretty iconoclastic. Meanie.

(think: birds and bees)

[Canadian Crippler]

Iconiplasmic?? What??? Someone get a dictionary.

[Organichu]

It means he likes penis. A lot.

[Sensei]

There is transfer, of course. But, strength is a skill.

If you think because you DB curl 100s and one arm shoulder press 150s, that you can challenge John Brzenk to an arm-wrestling match, you're going to end up humbled and hurt... The lesson is strength without technique won't get you far.

[Titanium_Jim]

Yep, I would be willing to bet more than half the people on this site could outlift me on every lift, even the beginning 14-17 year olds. But When I was 25 lbs smaller than I am right now, (that was, 6' 5 and a thin framed 150lbs) I was helping my girlfriend move, and she gave her lazy boy to a neighbor. I hoisted the lazy boy over my head, walked down a flight of stairs, through the apartment complex a little, and up a flight of stairs without setting it down, no pause, no problems.

[meltedtime]

I've found that my gym work has contributed hugely to my everyday strength. The reason most people don't is they don't do the compound exercises (deadlifts, squats, cleans, etc.) that contribute to everday life. Getting your curl and bench up isn't going to do too much.

This has a lot to do with it. Large, heavy, compound movements will help you develop the strength you are looking for. You need to get your muscles to work together.

[Wannabelean]

Lifting made me stronger in day to day life also..

[ShockBoxer]

It definitely has for me... but I work at functional real world strength when I can as well (move furniture for the hell of it, pick up the end of a 300 lb fold out bed couch, raise all sorts of crap like end-tables over my head). It's all definitely gotten easier but I can't grab a 20 lb end table with one hand and lateral front raise it like I can a 20lb DB. The weight distribution and balance is all wrong so it seems a lot closer to trying to raise a 50.

[Goodwinm]

for all u guys and gals who are annoyed or generally feel a bit cheated by "real world strength" and would like to gain more of it. Then try punching some real world exercises into your workouts maybe.
for example. If you have a sledgehammer, do a full motion swing over the shoulder and crash it back down onto a cushionned mattress for sets and reps.
if you got a car, try and deadlift it from the back for reps.
practice picking your 40 inch arkward widescreen tv up and holding for 20 seconds and do that for reps.
theres loadsa things u can do to improve your "real world strength".
Also when u go shopping. sod the trolly. your mr muscle man. Carry them all with your hands, to improve grip and core strength.
it all works superbly well!

[KevinStarke]

I work in a warehouse and my job is literally... to move heavy things. When I wasnt lifting in the gym moving alot of the things I moved proved pretty difficult, when im consistantly training in the gym and doing deadlifts picking up and moving the things that were once heavy... is now easy... so I definitelly think gym training helps functional strength.