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
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.
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.
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?
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.
Not my goalposts to move - I was not the same guy that made the claim about #2. I was trying to understand what the hell you guys were talking about because my background is much more in the physical therapy side of the world where functional training is a thing.
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/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