r/BeAmazed • u/Super_Steve117 • Feb 25 '25

Miscellaneous / Others Strength of a manual worker vs bodybuilders

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35

u/Spiceman_01 Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/Kingsolomanhere Feb 25 '25

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

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u/Jiannies Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

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

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u/Kingsolomanhere Feb 25 '25

I'm sorry that happened to you

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u/Jiannies Feb 25 '25

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

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u/Kingsolomanhere Feb 25 '25

Good luck in the future

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u/Lowelll Feb 25 '25

My grandpa smoked everyday and lived to 92 before dying in his sleep, so cigarettes obviously do not cause cancer.

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u/gooblefrump Feb 25 '25

not everyone in a car accident dies

Car accidents don't kill people

👏 👏 👍 😎

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u/Kingsolomanhere Feb 25 '25

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

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u/imonatrain25 Feb 25 '25

Oh they cause cancer, just not everyone.

That was their point.

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u/Lowelll Feb 25 '25

The person you replied to already specified that they will "most likely" have issues caused by hard manual labour

"Most likely" does not mean "absolutely everyone always"

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u/Bug-03 Feb 25 '25

This kind of pedantry is why Reddit exists

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u/Lortendaali Feb 25 '25

People are going through Reddit with mouths foaming to find something to be pedantic about.

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u/Lowelll Feb 25 '25

Fair enough, but the post I replied to already was pedantic.

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u/Lortendaali Feb 25 '25

If you notice I didn't single you out or anything like that.

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u/Useful_Milk_664 Feb 25 '25

Actually my mouth isn’t foaming it’s frothing

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u/Lortendaali Feb 25 '25

My nipples are hard. Does that count?

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u/Useful_Milk_664 Feb 25 '25

Can I lick them?

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u/biggiesmoke73 Feb 25 '25

And their “most likely” statement is based on what? What they think happens?

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u/Oneiroinian Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/Lowelll Feb 25 '25

That was my point.

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u/Oneiroinian Feb 26 '25

I suppose missing that is some mental shortcoming of my own 🙃

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u/Kennel_King Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/Lowelll Feb 25 '25

What is said was meant to be obviously ridiculous, so your answer is kind of beside the point, however you did make me curious.

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/16/science/gene-factor-discounted-in-smokers-lung-cancer.html

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.

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u/Kennel_King Feb 25 '25

was meant to be obviously ridiculous

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.

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u/PoorBrightSun Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/basicallyPeesus Feb 25 '25

They can atleast see their own dick lmao

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u/Magnanimous-- Feb 25 '25

Over their bountiful billowing pectoral muscles?

Doubt.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 26 '25

[deleted]

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u/Magnanimous-- Feb 25 '25

Both those seas and those pecs were HEAVING.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

I'm soaked, and the sea is not to blame 🤤

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u/BDiddnt Feb 25 '25

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

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u/Hoelle4 Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/BDiddnt Mar 06 '25

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 😅

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u/Spiceman_01 Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/Cloverhart Feb 25 '25

Hey this is a great idea for a reality show. Laborers vs. body builders.

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u/ChuckRingslinger Feb 25 '25

Aren't there a bunch of videos on YouTube doing that?

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u/BDiddnt Mar 06 '25

You'd be wrong probably. I mean assuming the trade guy is a hard worker at the upper echelon of fitness much like a body builder is in his profession

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u/bambu36 Feb 25 '25

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.

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u/Fmarulezkd Feb 25 '25

If food, shelter and water required this basic functionality, i.e repetitive moving of heavy weights of different sizes.