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

Miscellaneous / Others Strength of a manual worker vs bodybuilders

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

51.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

207

u/Spiceman_01 Feb 25 '25

Functional muscle for this particular job and lift yes

The body builders would be way way stronger on a broader spectrum of strength tests.

This is one specialised lift

50

u/ILikeLimericksALot Feb 25 '25

I suspect correct.

You get match fit for what you do and only what you do. 

Now get the labourer to bench the gym goer's max. 

I renovate houses and am functionally very strong for the things I do but I'm not really 'barbell' strong at all.

14

u/HarshilBhattDaBomb Feb 25 '25

It's also practice and technique imo. Give the bodybuilders a couple of weeks and they'll do better than the labourers.

You'd also be better at the barbell than an average person once you practice more.

2

u/Solanthas_SFW Feb 25 '25

Agreed, it's a completely different kind of strength because different muscle groups are being used

4

u/cthulucore Feb 25 '25

This is just it. I'm a lifter, albeit strength focused, not bodybuilder focused. When I was working in a warehouse, after about 2 years my regular bag carry was 4 x 50# bags on my shoulder. Dozens of times a day for a hundred yards at a time.

I got really good at just heaving 200 lbs from the floor and rolling it on my shoulder.

Fast forward 5 years, and I'm stronger than I've ever been, but I won't push more than 100#. 150 for funsies once in a great while.

"Functional" strength, in this context is just very specialized strength, and it's very temporary.

2

u/the_windfucker Feb 25 '25

Does this apply even for the above head lift of 1 bag at the end of the video? I don't see many cases where the worker would need that specific lift/motion, it is possibly even something closer to some gym excercies..

4

u/aneditorinjersey Feb 25 '25

But the laborers probably move a lot of heavy things in a variety of motions. Would it be the bodybuilders who are doing only a handful of specific motions to train?

6

u/PopeGucciSofaVI Feb 25 '25

As someone who did a lot of labour growing up and has been bodybuilding for 12 years since I was 16, the bodybuilder is 100% stronger overall, and the labourer has more efficient strength having trained muscles that would otherwise be neglected doing particular movements in the gym.

2

u/Acceptable_Candy1538 Feb 25 '25

When I worked in construction, I would still weight train after work. You sort of have to if want to get well rounded strength.

Like how many times are you actually working your lats in construction?

3

u/dismal_sighence Feb 25 '25

Body builders do a variety of lifts, with a variety of motion ranges, and generally higher range of motion leads to better muscle gains.

It's impossible to say what two random individuals are doing, but the most popular lifts are generally compound lifts that use a variety of muscle groups in large motion ranges (squats, deadlifts, rows, etc.)

1

u/aneditorinjersey Feb 26 '25

Thanks for all the info! I don’t really know much about construction or bodybuilding.

1

u/Modo44 Feb 25 '25

As long as the strength tests are spaced out in time, because bodybuilders have zero stamina.

1

u/Stellewind Feb 25 '25

Yeah, body builder will like 30% stronger on broader spectrum, but he did it with 200% more muscle mass.

1

u/mikeyfireman Feb 25 '25

But if you compare body builders to strongman competitors body composition is totally different. Those guys are way stronger in a functional capacity.

1

u/SukottoHyu Feb 25 '25

You are missing the point, it is not about what they can or cannot lift. A bag of cement is about 25 kg, so 4 bags are 100 kg. He is half their size and can lift 100kg very easily, and can easily hold 25 kg above his head with one arm. They are way bigger than him so they should be able to lift anything he can lift. Pound for pound the worker is stronger, if they all weighed the same and had a score-based lifting competition, the worker would win.

When you lift weight you have to think about it in terms of how much it weights relative to your own bodyweight. If you weigh 160 lbs and can lift 230 lbs above your head, that means you can lift 143% of your own bodyweight. If someone who weighs 210 lbs can lift 294 lbs, while 294 lbs looks more impressive, it is only 140% of their bodyweight. You are therefore stronger because you are lifting more relative to your own bodyweight. If you both weigh the same, you will be able to lift 3% more than the other guy. To put that in perspective, if the other guy's max deadlift is 440 lbs, then you, being 3% stronger could deadlift an extra 15 lbs. That's very significant and it can take months of training at those weight levels just to add an extra 15 lbs.

1

u/Acceptable_Candy1538 Feb 25 '25

But that’s not what they care about. Like, you’re right in powerlifting and wrestling.

In bodybuilding they are going for maximum raw lean mass and aesthetic. That’s it. There’s zero reason they would care about strength to weight ratios. And a heavy object doesn’t care about your strength to weight ratio either

1

u/insecure_about_penis Feb 25 '25

There is no doubt that the bodybuilders could deadlift 100kg, that's quite "light" in terms of deadlifts. What they don't have here is the technique and grip strength to lift it - you can even see in the video how they're adapting by bending their arms to get more under it because otherwise their grip would slide off.

0

u/LimpAd5888 Feb 25 '25

Yes and no, I think also proper lifting techniques are another thing here.

0

u/Altruistic_Chemist12 Feb 25 '25

The funny thing about your comment is that body builders only train with weight on a bar. They are also only good at specialized lifts. In real life, things are bulky and uneven and awkward to lift heavy.