Has anyone else come across a friend or family member who thinks weights are nothing but toys? I had a big argument with my dad who thinks any muscles and strenght from lifting weights cannot translate into any “real world” power (such as manual labor). It’s frustrating to see someone that’s 40 pounds overweight and eating like crap to make such statements. It just made me really mad that someone (especially my own dad) thinks that my lifestyle of eating healthy and staying in shape is a joke. Am I the only one?
You are not the only one. I’ll be walking funny from hard workout and someone will ask if I am hurt. I’ll give them the story and they will say “Why would you want to do that to yourself?” I just smile back and walk on. Some people don’t get it and never will.
i really hate to say this-but in a way he is right. my father had the same opinion at one time-when i personally was bodybuilding, and even after powerlifting for quite a while using support gear i did not have “Real World” STRENGTH. very much like being a collection of bodyparts. chopping wood, doing farm stuff, cutting the grass-it did not really carry over. sure i was stronger-but not in a usable way (except of course for horizontal exercise 
about 2 years ago i entered a amateur stongman contest and found out just exactly how “weak” i was. i could deadlift 500 lbs-but flip a tire, carry rocks, try to run with a sandbag?phhhhhhhhhhhh!
most of us Are better off than the sedentary-but mostly in a cosmetic, narcissistic way. want to prove me wrong? try to pick up your girl cave man style and carry her up a couple flights of steps (or even from the kitchen to the bedroom on the other side of the house without using a weight belt or looking like you are going to go into cardiac arrest. my dad is/was 40-60 lbs too heavy-but he and even more so my Grandfather could have run circles around me if i had to “work” for a living. get a job loading “measley 10-30 lb boxes” at ups at 5 am and see what i mean.
Yeah, I run into that stuff alllll the time. I was helping Dad with yardwork Saturday. We had logs/branches to cut for burning. I kicked/stomped mine into neat 2 1/2’ pieces. He used a saw… I was done long before his first log was finished. We also needed to pull some old stumps out of the ground. I got in my sumo deadlift stance and pulled them out barehanded. If that’s not manual labor, I don’t know what is.
I think there is a long line of us mate, every time I am making my protein shake or am on the web reading up on weights my eldest brother kindly reminds me that i need psychiatric help.
Ignore him. He is just jealous that his son has more willpower and is smarter than he is. He knows you are correct but is too insecure and bullheaded to admit it. Feel sorry for him but don’t waste any calories on getting upset with his comments.
Nope my father, also 15-20 lbs overweight, thinks my lifestyle is silly and instead argues that he’d rather just enjoy every meal than worry about what’s in it. Meanwhile he asked me to find him a way to lose the excess weight without changing his diet or exercise…I just politely said it wouldn’t be possible.
highersights, why let it make you mad? You know it’s not the truth. Those of us in this game constantly face questioning, or putdowns and even ridicule from people who simply don’t know better. Or, they’re jealous because we have the guts to do what they don’t.
Don’t let it get to you. Just do what you know is right for you and let your father continue in his ways if that’s what suits him.
i am stronger than my dad but he could still kick my ass when it comes to wrestling. something to do with the extra 40lbs of fat and 2 inches in height. he thinks my eating habits are weird aswell.
Well, he’s kinda right, but what he is not taking into account, or perhaps seperating, is the role of sport specific, or activity specific, training in addition to weight training.
Two examples. Two weeks ago I watched this “personal trainer” training a HS kid. He was clearly training him for basketball. He had him do dumbell lunges holding the bells at shoulder level, and on his way up twist and press the bells over head. He then had him do step-ups on a bench with a medicine ball mimicing a shot. I wanted to beat the trainer to a bloody pulp with a wobble board. IMHO, sport secific movements like that with weights are a waste of time and will probably harm rather than help his clients performance. He should be focusing on traditional compound movements.
Here is the other one. I used to move furniture during the summers while I was going to college. First day back the guys at the warehouse would always tell us, “It’s time to build your moving muscles.” And truly, the first 2-3 weeks would be a period of adjustment. However, when a triple dresser, piano, or oak desk needed to be moved, they grabbed one of us. Why? Because in addition to demonstrating good technique (control and ability to plan our attack), we had the strength to back it up.
Hopefully this makes sense.
Thanks guys (and ladies) for your input. I think I can see both sides of the coin here.
Pitt - what you said makes sense. And to be honest, most farmers (and any type of hardcore laborer) seem quite a bit stronger than avid weight lifters. I remember when I was 14 or 15 and bench pressing a whopping 100 lbs (sarcasm) when a farmer friend lifted the weight off the bench with one hand and curled it for reps like it was nothing. I would assume (look, I’m making and ass out of…) it’s because they don’t “specialize” in specific lifts or presses. They have a sort of “do or die” adaptation.
I’m not looking to be a powerlifter or bodybuilder, just a guy adding overall strength and endurance. I would definitely have to say that it has translated into “real world” power for me. Ok, excuse me while I go apply at the nearest farm.
Pitt, hate to say it, but you probably did not have a very functional programme if your strength did not “carry over”. People that go to the gym 3-4 days a week and do the same shit day in and day out without progressing (of which there are many) just add to the stereotype. I am not saying that that is you pitt, but if you did more functional intergrative exercises such as the squat/press, one leggd cable pull with twist and woodchops etc, then this might not have been the case. Tempo and rep selection can dictate functionality too.
who gives a shit if it translates into “manual labor” strength?
My dad used to say that lifting wasn’t worth it, too much time and effort for too little results. He did a good bit of yard work, does 50 pushups every morning, 2-2mile runs a week, eats like crap, and he’s still built like a truck. One day we were horsing around in the yard, he was blasting me with the leaf blower, so I tackled him, hauled him up over my shoulder, and dove into our pool.
He won’t admit that maybe I was right about lifting, but my sister says he’s started using my dragging sled, bought a removable pullup bar, and stopped eating kraft mac and cheese four times a week. I’d like think I made a small impression on him.
Weightlifting/Bodybuilding is a joke? Hate to admit your pops is right about weightrianing if you follow a bodybuilders routine. There is no carry - over for real life strength and application. But, if you weightrianing for strogman competetion or a athletic proctocl there is carry -over strength. If you train for looks thats what you are going to get just looks and maybe a little bite more healthier. But, if you train for strength, speed, agility, power, balanace, and flexiblity. Then, that type of training will carry - over to everyday activities.
In Health,
Silas C.
This is from a different perspective. When I was in my 20’s, my father used to say the same thing. He thought I was a, “dam fool” lifting weights and being selective with my diet. I remember him just shaking his head when I would come in after a fast two mile run, or finish a grueling session with the weights. He would just shake his head and say something like, “All that energy and you get nothing for it.”
Well…that was over 20 years ago, and now my father is absolutely astonished at the condition that I am in today. And he’s also my biggest fan (I have four I think). He now brags about me to everyone! I went from being “that dam fool kid” to " I never saw anyone who could do the things my son can do, and he is in his 40’s!"
To all of you younger guys who want acceptance from your parents, hang in there! Time may have a way of vindicating you.
“The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.”
Herbert Agar
i think manual labor and weightlifting compliment eachother. i’ve been chopping trees and carrying heavy shit since i was 9-10 years old and it has really carried over into my lifting.
the first time i ever deadlifted (10 months ago) i pulled 365 lbs with no knowledge of form with an overhand grip, and i owe it mostly to ‘functional’ lifting.
zeb you bring up an interesting point, when i first started lifting and had nothing to show for it my dad would give me shit about ‘those chunky milkshakes’ i would always drink. and now that i outweigh him by 40 lbs and can throw him around like a ragdoll at the tender age of 19 he is very supportive of what i do.
P-DOG, I personally give a shit, ‘cause “manual labor strength” is also ass-kickin’, family-protecting, life-saving strength. Who wants to be “big and bad” only to get his ass kicked all over the parking lot when some dumb-ass starts shit with you?
I’ve personally ended a 4-on-1 and a 5-on-1 brawl before they started 'cause I ran after the car(s) (and caught them) in a parking lot and smashed the passenger window with my hand on one occasion and broke the back window out of another on a different occasion.
Both instances occured while protecting my family from harm. "ya think I could’ve done that being “weak”? I also normally carry a firearm (legally) and hate the idea of using it when I can end the fight by picking the perp off his feet and slamming him on the pavement.
Gotta agree with Herbert. Some folks may have a hard time understanding why you are “wasting” your youth in the gym, but it really pays off when you’re older. I’m 47 and have been lifting for a long time (walked into my first weight room in '83). And to be honest with you I have no genetic predisposition for the sport, but I love it and do it anyway. Because I have stuck with it I am now a very healthy and strong middle aged woman instead of being an overweight depressed middle aged woman. Menopause is gonna be a walk in the park - and no osteoporosis here pal. I’ve got bones of steel. And I disagree with your Dad to a degree but only with respect to women. Women are so brainwashed that they are these weak delicate little things, that they never have any idea of how strong they truly are. I think women who weight lift have much better functional strength because they’re not afraid to unload that 400 pounds of duck chow and therefore use their strength more often.