I have known way too many people stronger than me at at least one thing to class myself in the top 5%. And mostly as you get older you compare where you are to where you were, and I still wasn’t number one then. There are certainly an awful lot of younger dedicated lifters (and older probably) that can outdo me.
I should note, I may have a warped perspective in this. I have a relative that was top 10 WSM twice and natty.
This conflates skilled/practiced with strength. You could say strength is partly practice but my general experience is a strong guy is going to be muscular and a muscular guy is going to be strong.
People people.
Bodybuilders are not very strong.
And neither are strongman competitors or powerlifters.
Not compared to a gorilla.
Or an ant, if we go pound for pound.
Ok, ok, being serious now, can we stop being stupid and act like “bodybuilder” and “strongman” are character classes in Dungeons and Dragons? Maybe? For like, one second?
You do considering you’re only comparing the foo many people who are fanatical about lifting, not the millions upon millions of people who don’t care to lift at all or who leisurely stroll about the gym, hop on machines and camp out on the back extension (I say this because EVERY time I want to use it some schlep is parked on it).
Nearly every time I’ve been to Bev’s I’ve been the smallest and weakest guy there. The men there don’t represent the average guy.
You seem invested in defending this. I’m not.
Of course, I’m also right, so that’s a lot easier for me.
Just having som fun and shooting the bull man. No big deal.
If a level 20 bodybuilder is leading a party of mid level powerlifters through the mountains of madness and they collide with a clan of orcs at a smorgasbord in the valley of goldemort, who gets dibs on the brown pudding?
Trick question: all bodybuilders die before reaching level 20.
Could a level 20 bodybuilder wield the holy avenger?
And do powerlifters always roll a 1 on diet checks?
Sorry, Brick. Rep in next time during my five-minute-long texting rests.
Powerlifter attempts to run away, takes three steps and is now layed out on the ground struggling to breathe. A dragon walks up to Powerlifter and swallows him whole. Powerlifter spends 30 minutes arguing with the dragon about the non-standard acid in its stomach, refusing to be digested. Powerlifter takes out his phone and posts on social media about the injustice of this fight for 2 weeks, including how if the ground was paved with calibrated equipment, he would have eaten the dragon, not the other way around.
Yeah well it seems people nowadays have a very warped vision of strength and physique. 500lbs squats and deads are very strong to me, and I’ll be very happy if, one day, I can reach them. Is it because of social media? Of the professionalisation of sports? Which exposes athletes who are driven, molded since their young age, with one in a million DNA and usually drugs?
Yes, when I hang around in T-nation I find myself very weak, but when I’m around regular people, not that much
Well yes, see my above point about beating people who aren’t competing.
My thoughts are that “very strong among lifters” means you’re in the top tier of serious strength athletes. I stress that this is just my thoughts, this isn’t moral theology, there isn’t a right or wrong.
Agree with your spectrum here. I’m pretty much stronger than anyone I personally know outside of the strength sport community. As for those I personally know inside of it? Well, I’m probably one of the weakest deadlifters in my powerlifting/strongman gym, a lift that crosses both sports.
I’m already stronger than most of the people I know or meet in real life. I was routinely the strongest person in the weight room at my commercial gym. It would be ridiculous for me to consider myself strong, never mind very strong.
I don’t say this to belittle peoples achievements, a 500lbs deadlift is an achievement and something to be proud of. It doesn’t warrant the label “very strong” though.
That is a correct statement.
That is entirely a matter of personal opinion.
You gents are lucky. Nearly everyone I know in real life used to bench 405 and squat over 600, but then they broke their finger and couldn’t diet anymore. So I’m fat and weak in real life and here.
Some BBers are strong (Ronnie, Franco, Arnold, Efferding, Jackson, Yates). All of those listed except Yates competed in Powerlifting.
IMO, if you are not strong compared to general public on the pro BBer drug regimen something is wrong. At the same time, small local PLing meets will commonly have people who would out lift anyone on the Mr. O stage, and they often in the drug tested division.
In fairness, they would outlift them on the 3 lifts they spend their training dedicated to master, and specifically in the 1 rep maximum of said lift. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are stronger: it can just as easily mean they are better. In much the same way an average boxer will most likely beat a top level professional MMA fighter in a boxing match.
When lifts change, things get interesting. Like in the first World’s Strongest Man, when Pro BBers and powerlifters got matched against football players and weightlifters and throwers on lifts and movements that the competitors had never done before. Things were a bit more even then.
That sounds far more fun than arguing over the minutae of straight bar deadlifting from the floor.
Some of this comes down to definitions of strength. If the reps go up and up all of a sudden a marathon runner is looking pretty strong at the lift of ambulating with body weigh.
In some ways the PLer is generally strong in that a big squat is normally going to lead to a big leg press, or hack squat or whatever the BBers do, but not really as much the other way around.
The early WSMs were pretty amusing. It is a good reminder of the importance of practice. I don’t think anybody got above a 200 lb keg in the keg press in 1977. I don’t think they have a warm up keg that light anymore.