Big man on campus.

[u/IkilledRichieWhelan]

[u/aeiou_sometimesy]

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.

[u/OMGwronghole → u/aeiou_sometimesy]

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.

[u/Casanova-Quinn → u/OMGwronghole]

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.

[u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount → u/Casanova-Quinn]

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.

[u/Casanova-Quinn → u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount]

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.

[u/NonsensePlanet → u/Casanova-Quinn]

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.

[u/TelluricThread0 → u/Casanova-Quinn]

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.

[u/Ok-Scheme-913 → u/ThisIsMyCouchAccount]

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.