r/BeAmazed Feb 25 '25

Miscellaneous / Others Strength of a manual worker vs bodybuilders

51.0k Upvotes

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

113

u/crevettexbenite Feb 26 '25

Ever heard of old men strength?

Shits fucking real mate. It humble you like nothing else.

68

u/dogfacedponyboy Feb 26 '25

Strongest dude I ever saw was this stonemason who built a stone wall at my house. Dude had to be 65 years old, weathered, wrinkled, sun-beaten, constantly smoking a cigarette, and he would pick up a giant stone with one hand and a hammer in the other and chisel it like it was a piece of Styrofoam. All day… He was Albanian.

4

u/lisiate Feb 26 '25

I'm mates with a 56 year old British mason, who aside from the age and nationality fits this description perfectly. Absolutely crushing grip strength as well.

1

u/HexoManiaa Feb 27 '25

The only important thing is that he was Albanian, that’s the only reason why he’s strong

25

u/jazzcabbagea2 Feb 26 '25

Used to work in an appliance warehouse with a couple of guys in their late 60s that could move anything and make it look easy.

2

u/Fun-End-2947 Feb 28 '25

I shook the hand of a French farm owner

Nearly pulverised the bones in my hand.. it was like being gripped by a chain smoking cyborg
Honestly the naturally strongest person I've ever met, and he was about 5 foot 6, and wiry lean

2

u/2shack Feb 28 '25

A guy I used to work with told me a funny story about that. He was young and a had a few drinks at the bar and was being perhaps a little rowdy. An older gentleman came over and politely asked him to tone it down. He got all cocky and challenged this older guy to a fight. He figured that since he was younger and a carpenter in good shape, he’d win no problem. The older guy was fairly slight and a little shorter than him. This old guy one punched him and knocked him on his ass so fast that he didn’t even know what happened.

2

u/RobotWantsPony Feb 28 '25

My small granny would destroy my huge husband in a contest of squeezing the water out of a towel any day

2

u/yotamush Feb 26 '25

There's no such thing, after around the age of 40 your strength peak is reduced as time passes. What you really think about is what Pavel Tsatsoulin (the kettlebells guy) is calling "greasing the groove". It's a way of strength being developed just by frequent repeated physical work without necessarily high effort. Very amazing how it works very contrast to how most think improving strength works. For more information you can just google "greasing the groove".

1

u/Sav-P-is-Sav Feb 28 '25

So you saying a guy who had a desk job his whole life and never excersized will still have this old man strength you talk about?

1

u/crevettexbenite Feb 28 '25

It migth not be has much as someone who worked moderetly tho, but still will be stronger then a 30 yo whom have done the same work, 100%.

1

u/Sav-P-is-Sav Feb 28 '25

I dunno you lose quite a bit of strength and muscle being inactive. So I would think the guy who has been inactive longer will be weaker.

-6

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

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/unequalnuthangage Feb 26 '25

You've obviously never worked with old people. I've worked assisted living facilities, acute psychiatric care, prisons. Like OP, I've experienced it personally.