'Dad Strength'

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
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I couldn’t see a topic about this and I think it deserves a post of its own.

I thought it would be fun to share experiences of where our training has had ‘real’ world cross over and the sense of fulfullment it brings. I had the idea after reading about some guys who were cut up at traffic lights forcing the offender to publicly and gratifyingly apologise/run like hell in the squat rack curls thread.

my own experience was early last friday when I was digging out some ground work preparing to lay a patio - I’d booked a skip (the waist/chest high ones) to remove the earth and had wheeled out my first wheelbarrow load of dirt when I realised I had no ramp plank to run the wheel barrow up to the skip to tip the dirt in. As I was pondering my predicament I noticed one of my over-the-road neighbours ( i live in suburbia) smirking to himself (in his car before he drove off to work) at my problem.

In a mild sense of rage at the fat middle-aged-spreaded chump laughing at me I took full use of my last 4 weeks heavy deadlift program and simply picked up the full wheelbarrow and emptied it over the edge of the skip. As I turned to run the barrow back round to my garden for the next load I could see the smirk had become stunned disbelief and my immediate thought to myself was ‘who’s your daddy’. Oh it was satisfying.

this kind of thing was also what made you think your own dad was invincible as a small child and can be termed ‘dad strength’

(I also have a story about my metro-sexual friend who called me after getting a flat on his car because I was the only friend he knew who was definately strong enough to unlock the wheel bolts. But that’s for another time…)

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[quote]bluebear wrote:

(I also have a story about my metro-sexual friend who called me after getting a flat on his car because I was the only friend he knew who was definately strong enough to unlock the wheel bolts. But that’s for another time…)[/quote]

Off topic, but that’s pathetic. Provided with a tire iron, my Dad had me changing tires when I was 10 years old.

If you can’t budge a lug nut with that kind of leverage, you should be shot…

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[quote]Bauer97 wrote:
bluebear wrote:

(I also have a story about my metro-sexual friend who called me after getting a flat on his car because I was the only friend he knew who was definately strong enough to unlock the wheel bolts. But that’s for another time…)

Off topic, but that’s pathetic. Provided with a tire iron, my Dad had me changing tires when I was 10 years old.

If you can’t budge a lug nut with that kind of leverage, you should be shot…

[/quote]

I dunno, I bought a truck a few years ago and it took me a good half an hour and a 3 foot breaker bar to get the lugs off. Turned out someone had overtorqued them with an air ratchet and cracked the studs (plus, for some reason they appeared to have been coated in lock-tight, still not sure about that). I ended up blowing out the studs and losing a wheel a few weeks later, luckily I wasn’t on the highway. If your lugs are that hard to loosen, be careful, they may be cracked.

Just thought I’d share some wisdom,
Jay

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[quote]m0dd3r wrote:

I dunno, I bought a truck a few years ago and it took me a good half an hour and a 3 foot breaker bar to get the lugs off. Turned out someone had overtorqued them with an air ratchet and cracked the studs (plus, for some reason they appeared to have been coated in lock-tight, still not sure about that). I ended up blowing out the studs and losing a wheel a few weeks later, luckily I wasn’t on the highway. If your lugs are that hard to loosen, be careful, they may be cracked.

Just thought I’d share some wisdom,
Jay
[/quote]

Very true, if over-torqued, and especially if coated in lock-tight (wtf?), you’re just as likely to break the stud off inside the bolt.

Ironically enough, my Dad did exactly that, when trying to take the lugs off a wheel of my car, which I had apparently over-torqued with a tire-iron (whoops!)

How’s that for a 'Dad Strength" story, my dad’s so strong he breaks metal bolts! He could totally kick all your dad’s asses…

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I also have a Dad Theory! I think that no matter how big you get, how bad you get, your dad will always be able to kick your ass. I really firmly believe this. It’s like they know all our weaknesses and know just how to put us in our place. I’m bigger than my dad but I would seriously be scared to fight him. My buddy agrees with me. I think it’s some genetic thing. haha

Anyone else agree with this?

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my goal in life is to have my dad’s strength,cause at 39 he can still pick my 215lb ass up with one hand…this is why I still say “yes sir,no sir” at 17.

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[quote]dre wrote:
I also have a Dad Theory! I think that no matter how big you get, how bad you get, your dad will always be able to kick your ass. I really firmly believe this. It’s like they know all our weaknesses and know just how to put us in our place. I’m bigger than my dad but I would seriously be scared to fight him. My buddy agrees with me. I think it’s some genetic thing. haha

Anyone else agree with this?[/quote]

I believe more firmly in the “angry-dad” theory of strength.

As in, a Dad, no matter what his physical condition, will hand you your own ass if he catches you pounding his daughter.

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ok - so what have you guys done that celebrates your own ‘dad strength’

come on - some of you must have had to hold a car up whilst the attractive lady driver’s wuss boyfriend changed her tire or something equally impressive due to your years of training.

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I posted this a couple weeks ago on the “Overhead Squats?” thread.

I feel you and know exactly where you’re coming from on the whole “Dad Strength” thing.

My dad would carry two 100 lb grain sacks, one on each shoulder to the back of the barn (about 100 feet or so) while I struggled with only one.

When he tinkered with his snowmobilehe would pick the fucking font end up, balance the ski’s on his work bench, scoot around to the rear end, pick it up, and slide the thing onto his bench all becuase “bending over to work on this thing is a bitch.”

When I got older and thought I was big enough to handle him in a brawl he’d ball up both his meaty fists and give me a quick double jab to my chest, rendering me without breath and unable to do a thing but listen to him laugh and tell me to calm down.

When it would come time to hook up the plow, disc, manure spreader, hay bailer, or wagon, he’d be next to the equipment lifting it up to the hitch point on the tractor. I’d try to do the same thing and basically blow my nutsack out trying.

There was an attic above the lean-to in the back of our barn where he’d store hay bales. You could access it from the outside with a ladder. This guy would climb the ladder with one hand, carry a hay bale in the other and then snatch/launch the thing into the attic one handed.

Shit like that just left me in awe sometimes. In his farming days he was 5’6 and about 220 bills. Nowadays he’s slowed down a little but the guy can still do some freaky shit that I’d never ever consider and he turns 63 in a couple weeks. I’ve seen plenty other Dad’s do the same type of stuff, especially growing up around farmers, never pounding their chests or strutting like they just did some amazing feat, to them it was just business as usual.

I think that’s what “Dad Strength” is all about.

B.

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that’s impressive. Are you getting there yourself now ?

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I recently put a deceased 27 cubic foot side by side frig. in the the back of my truck without a dolly. Just got my hands under the side and deadlifted that bad boy up about waist high and flipped it foreward into the back of the truck. My wife witnessed this and I actually got laid that night, and it wasn’t even Saturday!

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[quote]bluebear wrote:
ok - so what have you guys done that celebrates your own ‘dad strength’

come on - some of you must have had to hold a car up whilst the attractive lady driver’s wuss boyfriend changed her tire or something equally impressive due to your years of training.[/quote]

Well, I carried a really damn heavy 80’s style window air conditioner (not sure how heavy but definitely over 200 bills) from the back of my house to my front drive on my back this previous Monday.

I wasn’t using it and a friend needed it for her kids.

But even still, I believe my Dad and a miriad of his buddies would have done that and then a bunch of other stuff for the rest of the evening. I, on the other hand was too gassed to do anything more but sit on the front porch and drink water for a good half hour.

B.

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now that’s what I’m talking about - I bet you felt pretty well satisfied after both the lift and the subsequent reward !

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That’s fuggin’ hilarious! Tell us that one please…

On Dad strength, I heard that one of my friend’s dads, when changing the engine of a small block 202 Holden Commodore (an Aussie car), would lift the whole freakin’ thing out of the car, set it aside, pick up the new engine, and place it in the car’s engine bay. All without a hoist, just using his bare hands.

I’m 28 now, and I don’t even know if I can equal those feats of Dad strength I used to see grown men perform when I was a kid in awe of them. I think it’s a more basic type of strength - a different type of strength to what you get from working out at the gym. A ‘useful strength’ that comes from doing everyday physical work. A lot of those old timers have it; you know, the ‘real men’ from ages past. I think working out at the gym definitely helps you achieve basic isolated motion strength in each muscle group, but ‘useful strength’ involves compound motions, with different muscle groups activated throughout the whole body, while acting in concert to perform certain tasks. There are certain other muscle fibers and tendons involved in ‘everyday work’ type of strength, that are not activated with the standard gymnasium exercises.

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anyone that does warehouse/store type work will now what i’m talking about…sometimes for whatever reason people will leave pallettes loaded with freight in the way, and it usually happens when there’s something i need to get to and no pallette jack in sight to get to it…if it’s one of the lighter ones(maybe 300-400 pounds) i’ll just bend down, grab the wooden pallette and pull it 'til it’s out of my way…if it’s a heavier one, usually have to do some pushing…if it’s the heaviest ones, back against the load, and push with my legs…always try to do this when no one’s looking, but a couple of times i’ve turned around to see someone about to have a heart attack…yep, good times:)

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What I find amazing about ‘dad strength’ is that no matter how much stronger or bigger than my dad I get, I will never be able to tighten a screw a much as he can.

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[quote]
Anyone else agree with this?

I believe more firmly in the “angry-dad” theory of strength.

As in, a Dad, no matter what his physical condition, will hand you your own ass if he catches you pounding his daughter.[/quote]

That might be something akin to “Bouncer Syndrome” i.e. how Bouncers hardly ever lose a fight when they are working. The dude thinks he is doing something wrong and almost gives into or accepts the pummeling that is about to happen.

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not sure I can believe that someones dad pulled out an engine block from a holden with his bare hands - aren’t they V8’s ?

I mean - lugging hay bales up a ladder single handed is one thing - reaching into an engine bay and pulling the engine out is another. The biomechanics are completely different for a start.

With regard to my friend and the tight wheel bolts. I’m office based and made him hold my suit jacket and tie for me whilst I changed his wheel. All at the side of a busy intersection…

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I helped a couple of girls moving into their flat recently and carried a tumble dryer up 3 flights of stairs single handed without pausing.
It wasn’t that heavy, but was bloody awkward and took some gas to do it. I’m not claiming it was an awesome feat or anything but it certainly impressed the girls and I know for damn sure that no-one else they know could have done it.

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I opened a jar for a woman yesterday.