Their hypertrophy seems to have defeated their basic body mechanics. It seems counterintuitive to me that strength defeats basic functionality but I guess that’s why most people don’t look like that. I’ll take wiry farmer strength over a superhero physique any day. I mean, how do these guys even have sex with such limited range of motion?!?
My dad almost died 20 years ago and my mom had to do it. They're made for each other.
Physical therapy is a miracle and those therapists are miracle workers. Also my dad was an ac guy and he was built like a brick shit house and fucking ripped into his 40's.
Like an Abercrombie model but he could carry 100 pound blocks of concrete that the A/C unit goes on. Even after he learned to walk and talk and everything again he was still one strong ass old man.
Uhh what? These guys wouldn't even be able to attain that much muscle without insane calorie intakes. They shit way more often than once a week. Wouldn't be surprised if it's twice a day. Some of them literally get up in the middle of the night to have a protein shake just so they can intake enough protein.
Wow you must have watched one YouTube video… considering you think popping twice a day is a lot I would bet you’re not super knowledgeable about this subject but clearly I was joking
I did not watch a youtube video for this information. It comes from having a bit of understanding of the caloric intake required to maintain that level of muscle mass even with steroids involved. It is an outrageous amount of food, and this inevitably leads to lots of poop. That is kind of how it works, more food--> more poop.
but clearly I was joking
Even as a joke your comment makes no sense? Why would steroids make someone poop less?
Well steroid compounds mess up your bodies neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, reproductive and digestive systems. Considering their size they are probably using abusive amounts. In response to someone who asked how do they wipe, my response was so much “steroids” they prolly poop once a week meaning “ahaha they don’t have to worry about it because they take so much gear their bodies are fucked up”. I’m making fun of steroid users
But that doesn't make sense, no steroid user with that kind of muscle mass would poop once a week. Even jokingly the comment makes no sense. I am well aware of how bad steroids are for the human body, they have horrific long term side effects and those who really abuse them rarely make it into their 40's or 50's.
The caloric intake they have to manage to even maintain that kind of muscle is absurd.. Keep in mind that is just maintaining what they have.
I went and checked a thread about this topic because it has apparently come up in the past, and a lot of the responses were even higher than 2 a day. Some it was 4 or 5 per day.
You’re taking this so seriously…. It’s a joke I did not mean to insult you. Trust me I know how caloric intake works… and pooping. It’s not like you’re dropping earth shattering knowledge on me here. Ik the joke doesn’t make literal sense but it’s funny to make fun of how unhealthy they are. Also a healthy human should poop 2-3 times a day hope you didn’t shed any tears over this
I never implied that this is important. Or what I was upset. Please don't start with this utterly stupid shit as if I am upset over this. You said something silly, I pointed out why it was silly. I don't believe you 100% intended that to be a joke either but you can claim whatever you want after the fact.
Also a healthy human should poop 2-3 times a day hope you didn’t shed any tears over this
This actually varies a great deal. It can be a few times a week, up to 3 times a day. Would depend on each person. People who intermittent fast for instance are not likely going to need 2 or 3 bowel movements a day.
Also issues with being able to scratch yourself in some normal people places like your back and being unable to brush your teeth without having to change hands due to arm pump.
A body like that is very unnatural and you end up having issues because of it.
Your comment has been automatically removed.
As mentioned in our subreddit rules, your account needs to be at least 24 hours old before it can make comments in this subreddit.
Bodybuilder here, sitting at around 275 so as big (or bigger) as the guy in vid. I can wipe my ass normally, we’re not that immobile lol. The only things I can’t do which I believe most can is
1.touch my shoulder (which doesn’t affect my day to day life at all)
2.scratch the middle of my back (I have a designated back scratcher)
Bodybuilders can get pretty damn big and still have great mobility. Jujimufu was all about proving that. Many of them just don't care to do enough mobility work.
But in this case, the difference is technique. It's similar to Strongman as a sport - of course you have to be strong, but someone with no experience at a particular lift has a massive handicap and can lose to a much smaller competitor.
It's all about a few centimeters of finger placement and having a good sense for how to balance awkward objects. Once you have figured that out, you can move them into the right hold become way better at the lift. Give these bodybuilders a day to figure it out and they'll lift 4+ bags easily. They don't lack the strength, they just need some time to figure out the right grip and movements.
Shhh, you're going to ruin the umpteenth reddit circlejerk about show muscles/farmer strength/old man strength/whatever their insecurity is driving them to invent bullshit narratives about today.
It's always someone who's never been in a gym trying to convince themselves that they're probably not even that far off from those big, bloated bodybuilders
You guys need to stop. Sure, there's not a direct correlation between strength and size especially when you compare them to powerlifters, but I assure you, those really big guys are strong as shit. You dont get that big with light weight
You can notice how important technique is in bouldering. My little brother and I are pretty equal strength wise. He might even be a bit stronger. He struggles when climbing. Stuff that is really easy for me is hard for him. I'm also heavier than him. If he just gets better technique he will do so much better and I notice the same is true for me. Boulder problems gets easier as I unlock new technique.
It’s also the fact they are so big the bags are much further from their center of mass than when the worker lifts it. The bags probably feel twice as heavy to them because of this
I'd guess it's also about grip strength/finger strength, as well as finger roughness, in this case. Bodybuilders tend to train mainly with lifting straps, as grip, which is mostly tendon-strength, gives out before muscles on many exercises. Both of them were bending their arms to get further under it, and lifting it with bent arms shows extreme strength - probably more of a display of raw force than how the manual worker was doing it. They're simply not able to exert the level of grip the worker was able to.
You don't get that big while having such huge weaknesses. Even with straps, you would have to actively design a training routine to get their size of forearms and hands without having good grip strength.
It's true that manual labourers tend to have specific strengths in which they're much closer to bodybuilders, and grip is a typical one of those. But in most cases it's more like "the bodybuilders have +100% strength in isolated biceps lifts, but only +10% in grip strength" than having an actually weaker grip.
The bodybuilders lack experience with how these bags flex and how much friction they will have against their fingers, so it slipped and they ended up with bad grip positions. While the worker knows exactly how to jam his fingers in there and how to deal with the flex to get a very strong and efficient grip.
It's skill specific, a guy who handles these bags all day is better at handling them than a guy who doesn't. No idea what you're talking about with the "limited range of motion"
Reddit showing their ignorance on basic human anatomy and fitness. As a bodybuilder since I was 15 and someone who grew up doing tons of manual labour in forestry and construction, I can tell you that manual labour strengthens a lot of muscles that bodybuilding does not. I can also tell you that having large muscles does not make you less flexible or efficient than anyone else, and you can still do all the same shit. Basement dwellers on this website will have you thinking otherwise because they’re too fat and lazy to wipe their own ass.
my cousin was into bodybuilding for like 10 years before he got married and I remember one time when he come to the village and out uncle who was like 45kg lighter(10cm taller too) was lifting more hay than him and everyone made fun of him for years
Most people don't look like that not just because they don't want to but because it takes a ridiculous amount of work and dedication, even with the copious amounts of steroids these guys are on.
Most people are also not as strong as the labourer, not because they don't want to be but because they don't want to put in the work required to achieve that level of strength.
This is not a notion of work. They have their own work that is different and that the laborer would struggle to do most likely.
The point is your body and brain adapt to your activity. It can be writing software, drawing, working in the fields, selling stuff...
One is not better or worse than the other. Just different. And all will be good as what they do every day. This is not about putting more or less work. More that the work is different.
Guy in the video is super strong, and has big muscles, he is in no two ways "wirey". You get as strong as him, and you’ll probably be getting compliments on your muscles. The perception is just distorted since he's next to a bunch of guys on roids, no natural body builder will ever look like that.
That's a lift that the construction worker has done probably thousands of times, his body is used to it, he's still really strong but he has an advantage over them. You give the bodybuilders that exercise and time to practice it without building any additional muscle, and they would quickly improve at it
This is it exactly. Their muscles and the work they put in will help them much more easily adapt to new lifts and carries. The muscles arent just for show, but there can always be room for improvements.
This is the explanation, the human body is extremely capable of specialization. There's no such thing as """functional""" strength or """aesthetic""" muscle, it's all about acclimatization to stimulus.
The results here are answered by a lack of experience rather than strength. It wouldn't even take a few days to develop the proper form and technique. The bodybuilders are much close to lifting the bags than the manual laborers are to lifting the corresponding exercise weights. And the bodybuilders will be enjoying much better quality and quantity of life thereof.
You have nothing but jealousy to make such baseless conclusions when the health benefits of muscle mass and regular exercise are almost antipodean to the health forfeiture of manual labor, certainly far more than all but the tiny number of outlying cases of negative health effects from steroids.
None of those sources reference my core point that their health benefits of muscle mass are negated by the harmful effects of the steroids those bodybuilders are clearly on.
Firstly, that's not true, you very obviously did not read everything in 15 minutes.
Secondly, if that was true then this would be the juncture in which you provide your own sources substantiating your argument.
Thirdly, steroid use is not necessary for bodybuilding and isn't relevant to the original point of contrasting health impacts from bodybuilding vs manual labor.
The issue is that the "functional strength" farmers are doing a lot more wear and tear per function because they lack strength, or have massive weak spots from repetitive use.
I know lots of old farmers...many can barely walk because they used their spine as a springboard for years to do tasks they probably should have asked for help with.
We lift rebar and wall forms all day long many days, and I can tell you that dead lifting and squatting regularly has done more to keep my back safe than anything else.
Pushing 40 I've started doing higher volume stuff and more isolation work to build/maintain size, and it's done nothing but help improve strength.
Bigger muscles are stronger muscles, then you need to work the skill aspect of physical labor. Get both is the correct answer.
Is this not the sorta reason why they are recommending things like "farmers walk" (especially water due to live looads) as it trains more complete muscle groups rather than individual ones?
My old man's grip strength is fair and my mum still carries water buckets to sheep and they both 70.
The amount of humans on this planet that would not receive a positive benefit from doing things like farmers walks, lunges or squats is vanishingly small.
I think the climbing in and out of the tractor can't be ignored for mobility as whilst not lunges it does cause you to stretch and I notice it in my legs when having not walked with site boots for a while let alone through mud.
they do though. these guys just haven't say there and picked up bags. give them a day and they would carry that load with ease. It's not function it's the ability to know how. Aesthetic muscles are muscles and I have no idea how anyone doesn't understand that. Bodybuilders are strong
The bodybuilders in weeks could do the guys job just as easily, the other guy and more specifically you will never be able to do any of the physical feats they can
If these guys worked in my field, they absolutely would be able to eventually do the common tasks I’m thinking of. But they would also experience atrophy, compacting their frame which would further their functionality. These muscles they have aren’t particularly useful at their current size and seem to be more of a hindrance. I work with plenty of big guys who are absolute workhorses but their real strength comes from good leverage and a solid range of motion. The lats on these bodybuilders alone would make their shovel work less efficient.
My comment above was more about the ability to do basic things like scratching your back or fitting comfortably in a car.
It's possible to have high sex drive but be unable to perform when it comes time. High estrogen can cause this, common with bodybuilders who use large doses of testosterone. Some steroids are also known to cause sexual dysfunction (deca dick).
Basic functionality? Brother how on earth is this sandbag lift basic functionality? This man has trained his CNS to do this day in day out and this is not good for the body, he'll most likely be in a bad bad way once he's a bit older.
Not necessarily. I built houses and remodeled for 35 years and up until about 50 I could still carry two 90 pound bags of mortar or 4 or 5 fifty pound sheets of plywood. I'm 68 today and have no arthritis or any disabilities. I do love being in A/C in the summer and the heat in the winter instead of working outside year round
I think you got really lucky- I’m 28 and after six years of the rigging electric department in the film industry, chucking around 100’ pieces of 4/0 power cable for 12 hours a day, i ended up with a bulging disc, sciatica, and now one of my hips is like two inches higher than the other one. Most of the old timers in my industry have fucked up knees, backs or hips as well
Lifting smart and with good form goes a long way but eventually the repetition adds up
Thanks man, I got the cortisol injections about a year ago and they helped with the sciatica pain tremendously. I loved the work so I’m trying to work back up to being able to do it healthily
I’m glad you were able to make it out without any lingering shit- that’s like the dream in these lines of works i know
Oh they cause cancer, just not everyone. I knew a lady who drank and smoked up until pneumonia caught up to her at 97. My dad smoked for almost 50 years and never developed cancer. I was just anecdotally mentioning that hard labor doesn't always mean your body will break down
This is a logical fallacy. Anecdotal fallacies would be like if someone once tried to set wet wood on fire and said that wood doesn't burn because it didn't work for them. You just don't know the equivalent "wet" condition of your gramps.
There's a lot of science and evidence against you, also a lot more anecdotal fallacies that contradict yours.
It's called Genetics. The people who smoked every day of their lives and never got cancer, and then lived to a ripe old age are just genetically superior to the rest of us.
It's an old article so I'd love for someone to chime in with more info, but this study found that genetically identical twins who both smoke are not linked in their chances to develop lung cancer.
So at the very least it seems that it is more complicated.
I understood that, But even an obvious statement can spark legitimate debate.
The problem with that test is it's too short. And it's really old, As we have gotten better at identifying genes we have found that maternal twins are not nearly as identical genetically as we once thought.
As you can guess from my username, I breed dogs, specifically German Shorthaired Pointers. We test for the following breed trait issues.
ACRAL MUTILATION SYNDROME
CONE DEGENERATION
DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY
EURONAL CEROID LIPOFUSCINOSIS
VON WILLEBRANDS
But in the last 8 years or so I have gone down a DNA rabbit hole
The DNA test we use checks for 274 markers. I now look for other markers when breeding.
One of those is Shedding (MC5R) I like dogs to have the TT marker which means light shedding. Ziva has this marker, The first male Gunner that I bred her to had it. Her first litter was DNA tested and 6 out of the 8 pups all had the TT marker. I initially kept two males out of that litter, I keep in close contact with my clients. It was confirmed that the 6 with the TT marker are light shedders while the other two shed heavily.
There are 6 other markers I look for but for the sake of brevity I won't get into that
We also do echocardiograms for the heart and x-rays of the hips and elbows.
My point is genetics are a fickle bitch. to get consistency takes decades. The human genetic one is so polluted with bad DNA it would take centuries to clean it up. With dogs, we have a much smaller gene pool and it goes faster. But with selective breeding, it could be cleaned up.
I’ve worked in landscaping for 30 years so maybe my idea of basic functionality is different than most. But seriously, can they scratch their own backs? Wipe their own butts? Shit, even drinking a coffee looks like it would be awkward.
I gotta politely disagree.
Just because it's a bag of cement doesn't mean to doesn't translate to what i call "real world strength"
Loaders for ups and fedex … The ones that load the trailers much more than the pre-loaders… Have a real world strength that bodybuilders just can't hope to match.
And delivery drivers are pretty healthy as long as they don't fall down and twisted knee or something like that they tend to be pretty healthy for a long time now
I work for UPS. I can agree only to an extent. If someone does the same repetitive motion then he is only strong using the muscles that require said motions. Many drivers are overweight even though their work isn't as easy as it seems. Loaders tend to have joint, back and knee issues as the most common health problem. Their cardio may be good as well but a complete body workout is needed to stay relatively healthy. The body gets used to the same motion and thus there isn't many healthy improvements one can do.
For sure. I completely agree with what you're saying, but I'm comparing the hard working, disciplined workers who are in the top tier of strength and fitness in their industry (much like a bodybuilder is in very top percentile of hard working, disciplined and healthy who work out (bodybuilders at the gym and trades people at work, by treating it like a workout)
Those guys at going to be stronger at a level the bodybuilders can't fathom. Check out magnus and check the body builders genuine reactions
But as far as drivers being fat.... so i put on a measly 45 lbs the year i became a driver. Big whoop
😅
Yes I agree that people who lift certain things for jobs are always going to be functionally better at that than body builders or the average joe,
But people write of body builders strength as useless and just for show and while it is for show technically, if you put a trade guy against a body builder in a series of "functional lifts and tests" I think the body builders would come out on top.
For sure. I could carry 2 90 lbs bundles of shingles up a ladder when I was 17 but fuuuuck that these days. At some point around that time I hurt my back and it has stayed that way. It never healed and has slowly taken more of a toll year after year. Also the guy in the video is particularly strong. Not every laborer can lift 4 of those bags. Not even close.
Bodybuilders can lift heavy (and then suffer like Ronnie Coleman who squatted 800lbs for reps and was bound to wheelchair), key difference between manual worker and bodybuilder here is a grip strength, which latter is training essentially whole day, while bodybuilder has no focus on that.
Where did you see functionality limitations or limited RoM? What I see is bodybuilders without the neural adaptations (i.e. strength conditioning) that the manual worker has in those specific lifts, trying to do a specific lift with specific heavy weights for the first time. Give them a couple of weeks and they would be good at it. Or bring that manual worker in the gym and he likely wouldn't be able to lift as heavy as the bodybuilders in any other RoM than the ones he's used to by manual work.
It just looks like it would a challenge for them to put their hands in their pockets. I have no doubt they could learn to do this work. Hell, when I started construction at 19 weighing 125 lbs soaking wet, I quickly adapted to the loads required. I just don’t see how their body mechanics and size makes general day to day stuff any easier. But I’m not one to judge people’s hobbies. Be big if you want. I’ll just take my more compact frame over theirs any day.
Sure, that's your personal preference, which is similar to mine. I just don't make factually incorrect statements because I personally don't like how a body looks or wouldn't want to have that body look.
You can do both im an hvac contractor and a natural bodybuilder. Climbing ladders and carry heavy stuff at work and I train at night in my gym. The cross over only works when you learn how to move for both jobs.
I do both as well. And I often have to navigate HVAC components on NYC rooftops. Can you imagine trying to contort yourself into the awkward positions needed for hvac installs with this kind of bulk? That is more what I’m looking at. There are diminishing functionality returns with these kinds of muscles.
Being buff doesn’t limit your range of motion. Look up stay flexy on YouTube, there’s a buff guy that can do the splits, hold his hands behind his back, flat palm the ground when bending over, etc.
They do not train exclusively for strength. Body builders train to get the best possible physique. That means having all your muscles bigger and more visible, because they are scored on how they look, now how strong they are.
It is interesting to see someone who has a much more basic physique exhibit a greater level of strength, but that also has a lot to do with the fact that he does this type of work every day, so he is quite literally trained to be able to handle those bags like he does.
I think this video actually does a good job showing the difference between strength training and bodybuilding. They are different. But the bodybuilders are still very strong as a byproduct of their bodybuilder training.
Bodybuilders train muscle groups to look good and which only are needed in their respective exercises. If the guy in the video carries cement all day, he's training all the needed muscle groups for this task over and over again. This doesn't only include his arms and legs, but countless tinier muscles at his stomach and back to stabilize the whole body and are usually not included in exercises bodybuilders do.
Just look at bodybuilders from before of the steroids era; there are plenty of old time photos from the 1900s, 1920s and so on. They look fit and jacked, without the cartoonish proportions you can find today.
Yeah - it's crazy! I mean, they look like regular folks if we lifted weights seriously. And changes in supplements or protein powders, etc., can account for some difference, but jfc, the bodybuilders of today are nothing normal. I had seen early bodybuilding pictures recently and I don't recall why, but it surprised me. Like pictures of early boxers. They look like un-chemically-enhanced people.
It because manual labor doesn't just strengthen the big muscles that look pretty. It also strengthens supporting and stabilizing muscles as well as builds tendon strength. This is why wrestlers are so strong as well.
So, i believe this is similar phenomenon to the "old man strength".
You'll see this with these old souls doing strength feats that young jacked guys cannot do.
But essentially what it comes down to, is muscle memory.
Essentially, your putting less mental effort to make the entire system of muscles put the work in, because you've lifted the bag/things like the bag hundreds of times.
You have less muscle, but all your muscles involved are working, and theyre just working together on their own without you really thinking about it.
Throw those big guys on a set of bicep curls vs the labor guy, and im sure he'd have trouble out lifting them.
one other reason why "survival of the fittest" does not mean "survival of the strongest". There could be situations where this type of physical form is disadvantageous for some of the required tasks.
It's also crazy what a poor fighter a body builder would make in boxing wrestling and MMA. Their bulk is like moving with aesthetically pleasing benign tumors.
It's not really that. You get better at the movement you do repeatedly. Lifting weights is limited. Stablising muscles are teh limiter here. A super controlled lift in a gym, and a solid, stable predictable weight, it just doesnt' work the smaller stabilising muscles as much. When you give them a different movement the stabilising muscles are the ones failing, not the biggest/strongest muscle.
That worker won't be as good put on a bike, or running vs someone who does that. When you do the same movements day in day out, your muscles become optimised for that.
Also the more time you spend specialising in one movement, the less time you have to spend doing other movements.
If these guys lifted those bags for a month, they'd likely adapt, improve those specific muscle groups that are failing before the experienced dude and suddenly seem a lot stronger.
It's probably because they don't have as good form, too. They're trying to brace all the weight at once, rather than leaning on their legs and then prepping their muscles.💪💪💪 🏋️♂️Lifting🏋🏿♂️ is both FORM & STRENGTH & they're rawdogging it, like a set at the gym
Why are you so weird about bodybuilders? It's obvious that the worker simply has better technique, look how he supports the bags on his thighs. If they lifted bags for a week, I'm sure they would do just as good
1.3k
u/PoorBrightSun Feb 25 '25
Their hypertrophy seems to have defeated their basic body mechanics. It seems counterintuitive to me that strength defeats basic functionality but I guess that’s why most people don’t look like that. I’ll take wiry farmer strength over a superhero physique any day. I mean, how do these guys even have sex with such limited range of motion?!?