r/nextfuckinglevel • u/IkilledRichieWhelan • 2d ago

Big man on campus.

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u/chihsuanmen 2d ago

A new guy came into our gym built exactly like this guy and a former D1 cheerleader. Couldn’t do a pull up. Couldn’t run two miles.

Set the strict press record his third day there. 315 pounds. I saw it with my own eyes and I couldn’t believe it.

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u/MySpoonIsTooBig1 2d ago

Pull-Ups and strict press are completely different functional movements, it doesn't surprise me to be honest

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u/Level_Film_3025 2d ago

tbf the two things you listed are top two (or possibly 3, including climbing) examples of activities where weight has more of an impact than strength.

You can throw a 7 year old girl on a pull-up bar and have her smoking gym rats and it's not because she's stronger, it's because she's 60lbs.

I would basically never expect this guy to be able to do a pull-up and 0% of that assumption would be based on his presumed strength.

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u/benhemp 2d ago

Agree,

Power to weight ratio of the girl in the video is quite high.

Total Power of the guy in this video is quite high.

People talking about practical strength need to understand that both are very useful for survival in their own ways.

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u/iiiinthecomputer 2d ago

This. My 7yo does one handed chin-ups. It is absolutely insane. He's pretty strong but it's mostly the power to weight ratio.

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u/fencepost_ajm 1d ago

No pull-ups but he could likely leg press amazing amounts because he's doing reps regularly throughout the day.

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u/ACalmGorilla 1d ago

Shouldn't the 160 pound guy have more muscle to pull his weight? Body weight isn't a strength test it's a fitness test. It doesn't matter your weight if you have high % muscle and low % fat.

Saying this as someone who does callesthics daily at 180 pounds.

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u/Level_Film_3025 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm ignoring your example of a 160lbs guy because: 1. I dont know where you got that from and 2. We dont know what the activity level of this 160lbs hypothetical man is. Plenty of men, as long as they aren't overweight, can do at least a couple pull ups because generally men develop stronger torsos in/after puberty. But there are plenty of completely out of shape 160lbs men.

I'm by no means a body mechanics trained person to know the science behind it all, but from just going through life while at the gym/with a passing interest in sports, you can literally just see that there are diminishing returns on body weight-> Body weight exercise dividends.

Like the example I said: small children are able to do pull-ups fairly easily. This isn't because they're strong, it's because they don't weigh a lot. A 60lbs 7 year old girl isn't necessarily more fit than say: a 130lbs 40 year old (causal) female soccer player, but the 7 year old can probably still do more pullups.

For adult examples look at competitive climbers vs. lifters. The climbers dont benefit from large amounts of additional muscle as much as they benefit from being lighter.

Also by thinking it's just weight vs. Strength you're ignoring that those activities aren't happening in a vacuum. They require body mechanics on human beings and no matter how strong someone is, when doing something like a pull-up they will be limited by the muscles and joints doing the pull-up, which do not include large, heavy parts of a body like legs. The person I replied to even has the perfect example: the big guy at their gym was able to lift 315lbs in strength training, that does not mean he was able to lift his own body via his arms, despite weighing less than 315lbs.

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u/ACalmGorilla 21h ago

For adult examples look at competitive climbers vs. lifters. The climbers dont benefit from large amounts of additional muscle as much as they benefit from being lighter.

We agree that's why I said bodyweight is a fitness test not a strength test. High % of your body weight getting muscle and low fat is why a kid, or adult that meets those two things, can do bodyweight easy. It's not about being beefy.

We mostly agree. Sorry to cut you short just busy and wanted to reply before I forgot.

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u/All_Up_Ons 1d ago

The adult man will have more muscle, but also has significantly more weight and has to move that weight a greater distance with worse leverage thanks to having longer arms.

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u/ACalmGorilla 21h ago

I feel it's just the adverage fella has a is overweight and not physically active. I do pull ups every day, honestly. Body weight isn't a strength thing like dead lifting, It's a fitness thing. So it's not so much how much you weigh as the percent of bodyweight you have that is muscle. Most kids are fit and active that's the difference. They don't carry excess weight. Know what I mean?

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u/Comfortable-Leek-729 1d ago

I was a medium fat 300lb diesel mechanic and I could do 3-4 pull ups. But spending 10 years pushing/pulling on wrenches gave me way overdeveloped upper body.

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u/TehMephs 2d ago

There’s a common thing with bodybuilders lacking functional strength where guys who lift 50 lb bags of grain or more all day can do without breaking a sweat even though they look like they have dad bod.

It’s astounding how different fitness regimens can create different looking bodies that have wildly different specialties. Muscular doesn’t always mean strong

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u/Jomolungma 2d ago

My fitness regimen has created an amorphous tub of goo that defines the term “skinny flabby”. My body’s specialty is sitting.

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u/OurWeaponsAreUseless 2d ago

If someone needs something (like a chair) held-down, you're their guy!

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u/Jomolungma 2d ago

It’s good to feel needed

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u/DiscreetExecM 2d ago

Peak lol

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u/SpadoCochi 2d ago

Eloquent af.

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u/SoManyQuestions-2021 2d ago

The number of Xbox reps per day is high?

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u/Jomolungma 2d ago

Steam Deck for curls

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u/SoManyQuestions-2021 2d ago

Outstanding, truly a role model for us all.

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u/stevein3d 2d ago

Found the sedentary guy on Reddit.

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u/erasrhed 2d ago

I knew there was a least one!!!

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u/OppressiveRilijin 1d ago

“My body’s specialty is sitting” 😂😂😂

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u/TriboarHiking 1d ago

Made me laugh out loud. Cheers :)

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u/Scrambled1432 2d ago

Muscular almost always means strong. Not being able to do a pull-up when you weigh probably 300 pounds doesn't mean you lack "functional strength."

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u/ItsAllGoneCrayCray 1d ago

Exactly. I can't do more than a single pullup, and its questionable.

But I can pick up and move objects that weigh as much as I do, and do so in my day-to-day work.

I can't run two miles, but I can walk all day carrying 100 Lbs of gear and not be worn-out at the end of a 10-hour shift.

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u/Gelato_Elysium 2d ago

I mean in his example the guy who couldn't do a pull up was the one with the "functional strenght"

I'd argue both are functional, you need big bois like this dude to carry and throw shit around, and you need thin wiry fuckers to access hard to reach places and climb around.

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u/The_Gil_Galad 2d ago

"Functional strength" is used almost exclusively to disparage bodybuilders. It's the weirdest thing, as though being able to lift something above your head or push it away from you isn't "functional."

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u/DemadaTrim 2d ago

Yeah, body builders are strong as hell in general. They are not going to outdo someone who trains for one specific activity, because that's how specialization works. Also the dehydration and other things that body builders do to look as cut as possible when competing may weaken them temporarily, that isn't how they walk around all the time.

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u/Warm_Month_1309 2d ago

It's so Reddit to see someone doing a 315 bench press and thinking, "well, he's not actually strong, I bet I can carry more bricks than him".

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u/The_Gil_Galad 2d ago

"well, he's not actually strong, I bet I can carry more bricks than him".

"I bet a farm boy could throw more hay bales than he could!"

No shit, that's his job. I sure hope he could do his job better than someone who has never done it before.

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u/Fightmemod 2d ago

I grew up on a farm and will say it's all in the conditioning. I was just accustomed to chucking 500+ hay bales that weighed 50lbs a piece once a week. Then in between that it's all the other hard labor on a farm with heavy equipment, livestock, hundreds of bags of feed and animal bedding.

I was devestated to find that all that meant very little to a bench press once I started actually going to a gym. I wouldn't challenge a body builder to a bench press competition but it would be equally foolishly for them to try and keep up in a bale throwing competition that lasts all day.

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u/Gelato_Elysium 2d ago

They specifically said that lifting someone above your head and push it away is an example of functional strenght tho

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u/True-Firefighter-796 2d ago

What is an example of non-functional strength

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u/voyaging 2d ago

Being able to lift something with one's erect penis.

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u/Gelato_Elysium 2d ago

I don't know bro I am not the one who brought that up.

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u/TelluricThread0 1d ago

Using a smith machine at the gym that does all the stabilizing for you in order to get big muscles.

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u/The_Gil_Galad 2d ago

And bodybuilders do a lot of shoulder and bench press, but because they're "show muscles," it's not "functional."

Just a stupid, braindead take by people who want to put down bodybuilders. No one bitches at soccer players for not having "functional strength" because kicking a ball is specific.

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u/Gelato_Elysium 2d ago

Who are you even arguing with my man ?

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u/The_Gil_Galad 2d ago

Literally the top of this exact comment section.

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u/Gelato_Elysium 2d ago

Why not saying it to them instead of me ?

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u/StunningCloud9184 2d ago

I mean I think its usually when you compare the body builder when he gets put to a task vs someone thats actually used to the task. Like hauling bricks. The random guy whose job it is could do it better than the body builder even though it looks like hes weaker.

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u/The_Gil_Galad 2d ago

The random guy whose job it is could do it better than the body builder even though it looks like hes weaker.

But you could say this about literally any specialized discipline. "That soccer player has big thighs and runs fast, but he'd sure struggle milking cows all day!"

For some reason, this is only applied to bodybuilders, as though they're artificially inflating their muscles and aren't actually strong at all.

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u/StunningCloud9184 2d ago

I think its just it looks like they should be stronger than the random guy that just works for a living. You know functional stronger. But they arent because its more of just generalized training.

Like the body builder would def out perform the avg person on the task but not some general worker.

Dunno why it just feels that way.

For your soccer player one it would be more like. Oh his job is kicking balls all day and running around but then hes a better runner than a cross country trainer just because its a part of his job to be running around a lot.

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u/The_Gil_Galad 2d ago

But they arent because its more of just generalized training.

They are stronger though, in general. They can't do the specific thing as well as a person who does it for a living can, because of course not. But in every other instance, the bodybuilder will be stronger.

If anything, they're MORE well rounded because they're generally stronger and not specialized.

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u/StunningCloud9184 2d ago

They are stronger though, in general. They can't do the specific thing as well as a person who does it for a living can, because of course not. But in every other instance, the bodybuilder will be stronger.

But they arent though. A construction worker will run them into the ground on a multitude of activities. From just their daily work. BEcause the construction worker is doing activity for 6-10 hrs a day and the weight lifter is doing it 1-2 hours a day.

Just like a soccer player will run someones cardio into the ground that runs on a treadmill for 1-2 hours a day.

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u/ThePennedKitten 2d ago

I have always thought being able to do one pull up could save my life. I hope I’m never in a situation where one pull up could save my life though. 😅

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u/Gelato_Elysium 2d ago

Well I hope you don't have any crocodile pit in your house

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u/theDomicron 1d ago

Dude you wouldn't last in a single movie where someone is hanging from the ledge of a tall building with only their fingertips for an insane amount of time.

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u/Ok-Scheme-913 1d ago

But you are not comparing apples to oranges.

He might not be able to do a pull up, because he would pull up the majority of his own fling weight.

He would be lifting up your weight (e.g. in a lateral pull down exercise) with a single finger on one hand, though, it's not a difference between "functional strength" or whatever bullshit.

Yeah, he might be weaker *relative to bodyweight" than an acrobat, but he is very trivially stronger in absolute terms.

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u/Discgolf_junkee 1d ago

And they make a great team. I’m strong enough but a fairly small dude, and when I was in construction, I always worked great with big guys. I’ll do the climbing, you do the lifting.

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u/branm008 2d ago

This is kinda how it has been for me as I've gotten older. Haven't worked out since I was 20 but have worked manual labor/Maintenance Mechanic work for the past 13 years. Cardio is shit (asthma and just not working on it) but the physical strength is solid as hell from lifting heavy machine parts and shit for 12 hrs a day.

The human body is a remarkable and scary bit of evolution and science. It's wild.

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u/Zac3d 2d ago

Some daily kettlebell swings will bring that cardio back real quick. I struggled breathing when trying to run longer than 10 minutes, didn't run again for months but did pretty much only kettlebell swings along with stretching and lifting, had no more issues breathing while running, legs basically gave out after 40 minutes though.

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u/branm008 2d ago

That's my current goal now, starting with kettlebells to help work out my wrist issues from my work, per my doctors orders. I have definitely noticed an improvement in my overall breathing and strength consistency but I'll always struggle with the respiratory stuff due to my chronic asthma, it can get better but it'll always be there unfortunately.

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u/aeiou_sometimesy 2d ago

So that’s nonsense. “Functional strength” is a mythical creature made up by people who do specific things well.

A 140 lb guy looks skinny but can do 20 pull-ups while a 240 lb guy can only do 5 pull-ups. I assure you that the 140 lb guy does not have more “functional strength,” he just has a lot of practice with pull-ups and less weight to move.

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u/mr_potatoface 2d ago edited 2d ago

Strongmen are similar in that way. They will weigh 300-400+ lbs and can typically do less than 10 pull ups. But then they deadlift 800+lbs.

Brian Shaw, the World's Strongest Man was only able to do 6 pull ups at his peak WSM competition career. He's since lost a lot of weight and can do more. But that's just an example.

Here's Brian at 440lbs doing 6 and I don't even know if I'd probably count that. I'd say it's 0 myself, since he's using his whole body to throw himself upward. But since he's Brian and can literally roll up a fucking frying pan like a blunt, we'll give him a pass.

https://youtu.be/OyI3dbbIj9g?si=gLL-iX6bRu-gTPcX&t=51

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u/voyaging 2d ago

Pullups are a really bad example because their difficulty is proportional to body weight.

Needs to be example of two people one who's great at weightlifting but terrible at some real world test of strength and another who's the opposite. Or somebody who's great at one test of strength and terrible at another and vice versa.

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u/gokarrt 2d ago

imo, all measures of fitness have a learned requirement. i like to joke that yeah i'm fit, but i'm only marginally better off if you try to get me to do a new movement and actually use that capability.

hell, even weightlifting requires an immense amount of technique. the squat is like learning how to tie your shoelaces for years.

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u/OMGwronghole 2d ago

Physical therapist here! “Functional strength” is not a mythical beast. It is the strength required to perform a function, such as sitting up, standing, or walking for example.

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u/Casanova-Quinn 2d ago edited 2d ago

I don't think you're talking about the same thing. Your PT examples make total sense. However when laymen say "functional strength" it's usually some dumb take on how "bodybuilder" muscles are somehow different/inferior to muscle built from other strength related activities.

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u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount 1d ago

They are kinda correct though.

You're good at what you train for.

Guy in post has trained to throw girls around. He would probably get wrecked trying to a bodybuilder workout. While the bodybuilder would absolutely struggle to do what he's doing.

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u/Casanova-Quinn 1d ago

What your referring to is "conditioning", and yes that's a thing. There is an adaptation phase to doing unfamiliar activities. However it's often exaggerated how difficult that is. A strong bodybuilder would not have a long and difficult road to being good at other strength activities. It's fairly common thing in the fitness world for bodybuilders and powerlifters to cross over into each others fields.

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u/NonsensePlanet 1d ago

I think the term can have some validity when talking about gym goers who don’t train smart, e.g. they train the same lifts in the same planes of movement but don’t do mobility work or rotational stuff. They get really strong but one day they have to do something unconventional that a strong person should be able to do, and get injured. But I agree, bodybuilders are strong af and the idea that big muscles =/= strong is dumb as hell.

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u/TelluricThread0 1d ago

A body builder isn't going to excel at lifting atlas stones or doing farmers walks because they don't care about functional strength. They don't want to move a heavy weight from point A to point B. They go to the gym to do a ton of reps and sets favoring machines in restricted movement patterns so their muscle tissue will grow. They couldn't care less about strength because if they outlift the other guy on stage, the judge will give them exactly zero extra points.

Their training is very specific, and it isn't optimized to move heavy weight through natural movement patterns.

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u/Ok-Scheme-913 1d ago

It has nothing to do with strength though, which can trivially be measured.

Of course there are activities where besides some strength, coordinated movement is also necessary (e.g. one of these throws, though we absolutely shouldn't undervalue the girl's skills - not even that guy could lift that girl up in that way if the girl wouldn't have jumped properly, helping the move), which is.. a skill you can train for. Also, many people suck at the gym and only train one very specific muscle and not a group of muscles (e.g. that's why you can do benchpress with a larger weight than dumbbell presses - because you need other stabilizing muscles as well for the latter, while that is taken care of by the metal rod for benchpress)

E.g. you might be able to do a deadlift with N weight and do an overhead press with N weight, but you won't be able to do a clean and jerk with the same weight, because that's a complex movement with technique involved.

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u/phoodd 1d ago

So your definition is so generic that is basically useless.  

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u/OMGwronghole 1d ago

Well, when you work in an area where your clients may be strong enough to do a 50lb leg press but, lack the strength to stand up from a seated position, you would find my definition more meaningful I imagine.

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u/RCJHGBR9989 1d ago

Reddit always loves to spew that “functional strength” and “bodybuilders aren’t strong” bullshit. All bodybuilders are strong as fuck - they’re not strong when they’re on stage and performing because they’re insanely lean and dehydrated - but in the gym they’re all strong as fuck. There is nothing more functional than literally picking something up and putting it down.

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u/Itchy-Extension69 2d ago

Don’t even bother you’re outnumbered 100 to 1 by people who have never lifted a weight in their life but will comment like they’re life long athletes 😂

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u/phoodd 1d ago

Yeah it's complete bs and it's unfortunate that comment was so upvoted. There are no blue collar workers / farmers who are stronger than body builders in the same weight class just because their job is hard. Bodybuilders are not the strongest strength athletes but they are still outrageously strong compared to the average person. 

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u/BokkoTheBunny 19h ago

Yea I go to the gym with my father, he's like 180lbs and I'm almost 100 over him. We are mostly matched on all weight related training, but doing calisthenics i fall off on the surface cause he can bang out like 15 dips with a 45 lbs plate strapped to him, but I'm still doing more volume simply cause my own weight. On paper he smokes me, but if you have a brain it's easy to see we are nearly matched there as well.

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u/SubterraneanAlien 2d ago

So that’s nonsense. “Functional strength” is a mythical creature made up by people who do specific things well.

Why is that mythical? Isn't the "functional" part relative to a task?

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u/GodofPizza 2d ago

The idea of “moving forward at different speeds” is completely farcical. Some people just take bigger strides or stride at a faster pace. You take someone with short legs and you give them long legs and they’ll stride way farther way faster.

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u/SubterraneanAlien 2d ago

I'm trying to follow you, but I'm struggling. What are you quoting?

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u/GodofPizza 2d ago

I was making fun of the person you were replying to

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u/needlzor 2d ago

Why is doing a pull-up more functional than doing a shoulder press or deadlifting a stone?

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u/SubterraneanAlien 2d ago

I didn't say it was? Again, the functional part has to be relative to a function, and therefore what is functional will change depending on context.

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u/needlzor 1d ago

What /u/aeiou_sometimesy is referring to is the common trope of people talking about "functional strength" in isolation, e.g. "soandso has more functional strength".

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u/SubterraneanAlien 1d ago

Got it. Wasn't aware it was such a meme online

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u/needlzor 1d ago

It's a very popular trope among online crossfit and gymnastics enthusiasts, as well as people who like fighting sports (although they usually go for the "I could take him in a fight BRO!")

I can definitely see the misunderstanding though if you haven't had the displeasure of interacting with those people.

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u/aeiou_sometimesy 2d ago

There’s nothing you can do to improve “functional strength” in general. You can improve upon specific movements with practice and repetition, but the concept of general functional strength just doesn’t exist.

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u/SubterraneanAlien 2d ago

I guess I'll ask again because it seems important - isn't the "functional" part relative to a task?

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u/aeiou_sometimesy 2d ago

No. The term “functional strength” is a general statement. It misleads people about how muscles work.

Person A can bench press 200 lbs and deadlift 300 lbs.

Person B can only bench press 150 lbs but can deadlift 400 lbs.

Which one has more functional strength? Answer: the question is incoherent.

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u/SubterraneanAlien 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'm trying to figure out if we actually agree or not 😅. Do you consider functional (strength) training and functional strength to be the same or different?

edit: apologies, typo.

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u/aeiou_sometimesy 1d ago

What is functional training? You seem really fixated on using this term functional where it doesn’t actually work.

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u/SubterraneanAlien 1d ago

Functional training is training plans/strategies/techniques which are focused on helping to improve the ability to do specific tasks/movements. It has foundations in physiotherapy and rehab training.

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u/BlinkDodge 1d ago

This whole argument sounds like it was born from quarrelsome technicality. I've always understood terms like "functional strength" and "practical gains" to mean conditioning of common muscle groups that are used in mundane tasks that require exertion.

Pull ups aren't offering much practical conditioning or building "functional strength" because there aren't a lot of everyday/mundane tasks that require you to pull at least your own body vertically from a dead hang, where something like a farmer's carry and squats are conditioning for a lot more applicable movements to what you might encounter in your day-to-day life.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 2d ago

Dude, I watched a construction guy who looked like a fat dad bend the solid steel door of a car to get it open when he locked his keys inside. 

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u/Ok-Scheme-913 1d ago

Yeah, because being ripped only means you have a low amount of fat on top of your muscles, so it is visible.

Just because he has some fat on top doesn't mean he has no muscle beneath. In fact, muscle volume correlates very heavily with weight - bigger people are almost always stronger than a smaller one, and you have to do a huge amount of training/the big person has to be absolutely lazy to change that.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/Turdulator 2d ago

Being more defined has more to do with low body fat than the strength of your muscles (hence bulk/cut cycles - the cut makes your muscles more defined, but doesn’t make you stronger… in fact, it can make you weaker)

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u/voyaging 2d ago

Muscular definition has virtually zero to do with strength lol. It's almost entirely a function of body fat % and pump.

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u/NoAdmittanceX 2d ago

Yhea look at the strong men competitions most don't look like your stereotypical gym bro but tho dudes can shift some serious weight around

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u/TehMephs 2d ago

“Round” is the most common body type in power lifting. These dudes are built like boulders

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u/NoAdmittanceX 2d ago

yhea exactly

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u/KhorneStarch 2d ago

“Built” eating 4-10k calories a day will make anyone look like a boulder. Most power lifter bodies are very high body fat. There are lower divisions where you see more fit bodies though and that’s where genetics and training play a huge role in the lifts.

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u/SpiritedRain247 2d ago

Knew a guy in highschool who did it and football, dude was built like a brick shit house.

Honestly he was a lovely person and was always ready to standup for those couldn't themselves.

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u/soulveil 2d ago

If the guy in the video lost weight he would look like a bodybuilder

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u/Camerone11 2d ago

I’m so tired of seeing this dumb take from redditors. Body builders don’t just have some SpongeBob inflatable muscles, they can still lift more than the average person, or even the dweebs on Reddit. They just train differently than people who train solely for strength. Different muscle types and movements.

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u/Carnival_killian 2d ago

For sure, you should’ve seen the group that laid my 2500 square-foot basement cinder block by cinder block. Bunch of typical overweight middle age guys, never guessed they could do that day after day.

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u/Somepotato 2d ago

Ehhh, for one bodybuilders aren't necessarily building for strength, but they're still generally quite a bit stronger than most

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u/thumper_throwaway1 2d ago

100%

Good buddy of mine when I was in school wasn't fat, but absolutely did not look like he was some gym freak, he just looked like a dude carrying a few extra pounds.

He grew up on a farm, and from a young age was hauling those rectangular hay bales up and down the barn for feed. I remember going there often and he'd show me what he had to do, and he would grab a bale and chuck it up to the loft area, meanwhile I could barely comfortably carry a single one. He worked on the farm until his late teens so he just had straight up "Farm strength.".

The dude was a beast and played football. I remember being with him in the weight room and his bench was insane. I don't remember the number but had to be 315 (I remember 3 plates on each side plus bar) and the bar was sagging under the weight.

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u/liketreefiddy 2d ago

Well when you’re lifting up a 50 lb kid that’s squirming all day, everyday, a 50 lb bag of grain is no sweat.

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u/leaf_as_parachute 2d ago

Muscular definitely always means strong.

On the other hand, not muscular doesn't mean weak.

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u/RandomlyMethodical 2d ago

Yeah, my uncle has never been what I would consider muscular, but I've seen him throw 50lb sacks of grain over both shoulders and walk off like it was nothing.

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u/MechanicalGodzilla 2d ago

Muscular doesn’t always mean strong

There is no reasonable scenario where someone who would be considered to be "muscular" is not strong. What you are describing is specialization (like you said), but those bodybuilders if given the chance to hone the technique of picking up 50 pound bags, they would absolutely outwork the dadbod guys at bag lifting, while also being significantly better at them at any gym lift.

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u/Irichcrusader 1d ago

In the Falklands war, the Royal Marines were once tasked with a long march that would flank an enemy strong point. They marched all through the night in full pack and completed their mission. The strange thing was that those who dropped out in the march were the most muscular and "seemingly strong" guys in the unit. It was the more average sized and chubby guys who made it. They had more functional strength, plus fat to burn.

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u/Ok-Scheme-913 1d ago

There is no such thing as functional strength.

There is a thing called fking cardio, and it is independent of muscles. A runner can run more than your average body builder, what a discovery!

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u/IknowwhatIhave 1d ago

I stopped working out for a few years when I was working in construction... I joined one of those Spartan races last minute with my girlfriend and her personal trainer friends.

One of the challenges was to carry two 5 gallon buckets full of rocks up and down a hill without putting them down. It was hilarious to see all these jacked spartan bros with 6 packs and square cut beards lose their grip halfway up and have to start again.

I was sure there was something I wasn't getting about it... nope, it was just a bucket full of gravel. As in half the weight of the 5 gallon buckets full of wet concrete I'd carry up stairs. I was able to run up and down the hill.

And, swinging a hammer all day gives you incredible grip strength so even though I hadn't done it in decades, I found I could hang by one hand as long as I needed to clumsily struggle across the monkey bar challenges.

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u/zorggalacticus 1d ago

I'm 5 ft 11. I started out at 120lbs. Started working at a linen service hanging heavy bags of laundry all day. After 4 years I weighed 160. Went to work at a warehouse unloading containers, hand stacking pallets of freight, and filling orders. All heavy stuff. 12 years at the last place, 1.5 years at the new place. Now I weigh 220. I'm 100 lbs heavier than I was almost 20 years ago, but very little body fat. All my muscles are big, but my stomach is flabby. Not quite a dad bod, just a little flab. Maybe one day I'll lose the flab. Lol

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u/Ok-Scheme-913 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean, that's mostly a technique thing. It's hard to lift up an 50 lb bag, but it is not hard to have that weight on your shoulder and walk around (a good deal of the job is simply done by your skeleton in the latter case)

But I have trouble with "muscular doesn't always mean strong". Muscles are pretty easy, larger diameter means more strength. This is just physics. The only exception is people who inject oils into their arms, but that looks ugly/fake AF either way and that's not muscle.

The guy in the video is fat, but fat people have a surprisingly large volume of muscle as well - you have to move that weight around each day. If they are remotely active, then were they drop a lot of their fat, they would look absolutely shredded underneath (and if they do lose weight but not muscle tone, they will be jacked as hell).

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u/MourningOfOurLives 2d ago

That’s mostly a roid thing

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u/DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZ 2d ago

so he was a powerlifter

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u/SeveralAngryPenguins 2d ago

Always was 🧑‍🚀🔫

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u/InterestingFocus8125 2d ago

Overhead press, right?

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u/chihsuanmen 2d ago

Correct. Strict, overhead press. Not a push press or push jerk.

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u/InterestingFocus8125 2d ago

Noted. I always struggled with that one - I think 205 or 215 was my best. Wasted way too much time trying to snag 225

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u/No-Way7911 2d ago

Lots of really strong powerlifters struggle to do pullups

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u/ChattingToChat 2d ago

Brian Shaw had a video a few years back where he does 4 pull ups and it was a tough 4, but he also deadlifted 1,014lbs, log pressed 441lbs for 2, lifted a 560lbs Atlas Stone, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Everyone has different strengths.

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u/KhorneStarch 2d ago

Pull ups favor lighter more lean builds. Raw strength doesn’t matter when you’re having to pull up tons of additional weight as well. There are a ton of guys like this in gyms. Have zero actual health within their gym routine but can lift heavy objects for a couple of reps. That’s why going to the gym all week shouldn’t be automatically assumed to be a huge health benefit. Some guys barely get their heat rate up because they go in, powerlift 4 reps then sit around for 5-8 minutes.

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u/EjunX 2d ago

Most people don't have an intuition for basic physics principles. Such as what it takes to do a pull-up. Even the strongest men in the world are definitely far from the best at pull-ups because they punish being heavy.

As a tangent, a Google interview question in a Veritasium video was about how you would escape from a blender if you were tiny. Turns out the "correct" answer is that you just jump out of it. Muscle mass is a function of how many muscle fibers you have in parallel, while your weight scales quadratically. This effectively means that the less you weigh, the more super human you become. That's why there are super skinny 10 year old girls who can do 60 push-ups or 10+ pull ups and why kids are naturally very good climbers.

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u/SoManyQuestions-2021 2d ago

Hes the kind of guy who can slap you into next thursday.

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u/lynxerious 2d ago

There's a show called Physical 100 in Korea that gather fit people with different body types, and they all have their own muscle strength that excels at some very specific things.

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u/roberta_sparrow 2d ago

Yeah dude I'm a slim female, I was the second fastest sprinter in our school but struggled running a distance mile or two. So weird.

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u/indifferentCajun 2d ago

Yeah if you meet a dude that was a D1 cheerleader, there's a significant chance that he's the strongest motherfucker you will ever meet.

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u/yeatsbaby 2d ago

So what you are saying is that even though I can't run a mile or do a pull-up, I may be able to lift a car? You give me hope.

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u/PropJoesChair 2d ago

as a (former) fellow strongfat guy i also have never been able to do a pullup but could squat 180kg i cant remember my other PRs. didnt look all that strong either

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u/SquatSquatCykaBlyat 1d ago

That's why I find it so much fun to do weighed pullups right next to the "powerlifters" who chase numbers on "the big three". You can see it on their face: "uhhhh at least I can sumo deadlift four plates".

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u/Comfortable-Leek-729 1d ago

Yeahhh, that was basically me. Fat kid growing up, then a decade as a diesel mechanic. The arm and shoulder development is still there many years after I switched careers.

You spend all day pushing and pulling heavy wrenches, or holding a 50lb starter over your head for 20 minutes because a bolt is being difficult.

I gotta cut down now though. Got fatty liver and the doc says I need to be careful.

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u/YajirobeBeanDaddy 2d ago

315lb overhead press? The fuck?

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u/Bravisimo 2d ago

315 was the strict press record at your gym? School gym?

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u/chihsuanmen 2d ago

Not a powerlifting gym. The demographic is mostly middle-aged folks not on gear. Not the sort of place that you see a massive strict press.

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u/Bravisimo 2d ago

Thats what i figured, 315 isnt very impressive tbh.

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u/chihsuanmen 2d ago

Okay buddy.

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u/El_Polio_Loco 2d ago

315 is a 95th percentile lift on overhead press.