Useless gym strength on the job site?

[Skate67]

I work out steady when class is in which is usually september to the end of april. I gain size and strength in the gym using proper diet/lifting techniques (hopefully haha). I'm always training for size and never training for strength or cutting.

This summer i started framing houses for a construction crew. In the beginning you start out as the "bitch" cuz you dont really know anything. Youre hauling lumber/studs/sheets of plywood/drywall etc. When i started i was all "oh this should be easy if been lifting weights for about 3 years now".... Yeah right. I could barely even carry 3 sheets of sheeting at first. When it came time to lift the drywall i only made it about half way to my destination before i gave up carrying only two sheets (for your info one sheet of 8x4 sheet drywall is approx 100lbs). One of the other guys from a partner crew carried 3 and hes about the same size as me without working out (obviously not as defined tho ) although he has 2 inches on me.

Man you should have seen how badly i got ridiculed because of how built i was compared to them in perspective. To this day they still call me "show muscle", and say things like "what, those melons on your chest are just for show?!" haha.

So my question is, if i switched my routine to a more strength orientated routine would i have had a better experience trying to carry that drywall? or is it maybe just conditioning a labourer ie. framer recieves that makes them so strong? or what is it??

 

[min0 lee]

P-funk spoke about this.

My old friend who introduced me to weights 25 years now calls body building non functionable. He got into martial arts 3 years ago and now lifts weights with sand bags and water filled jugs. He still does Deadlifts, bench presses and squats though.

 

[The Monkey Man]

Like anything, it requires technique

I find the olympic lifting has made me stronger in other things much
more than BB lifting

 

[The Monkey Man]

I think Bruce Lee coined the phrase... "REAL WORLD STRENGTH"

And for a guy his size, was incredibly strong and able to accomplish
insane unusual acts of strength

 

[Squaggleboggin]

That's why I lift for functional strength and not size. Why be huge if you can't lift anything? Seems like the perfect waste of time to me.

 

[min0 lee]

To have a nice looking body for the beach.

 

[LAM]

the majority of the time lifting in the gym only provides a small advantage when doing manual labor type of work. the movements are just not the same and the shapes of things that you are typically picking up are akward and unbalanced.

 

[Machher]

well its like saying..

just because i have nice hand writing i can score better on written tests..

related but unrelated.

 

[The Monkey Man]

So from now on you should only do strongman style training...

Why don't you show those asswipes you work with,
by gradually increasing the amount of wood you carry,
so you get super construction strength

 

[Mudge]

If I could get away with only carrying 100 pounds versus 300 on the job site, multiple times a day, I'd do it. You are young, enjoy your virility while it lasts. If you abuse what you have you are going to pay for it later.

Unless you are using 2 people at a time, I also dont see myself folding 300 pounds in 4 feet under my armpit anyway. My arms are not 4 feet long.

Poliquin cited 3 pro bodybuilders who could not bench 3 plates for more than 6 reps. You can train for strength or strongman, but bodybuilders ego lies in how they look not what they lift.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

To have a nice looking body for the beach.

I'm more of the practical type than the superficial type.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

the majority of the time lifting in the gym only provides a small advantage when doing manual labor type of work. the movements are just not the same and the shapes of things that you are typically picking up are akward and unbalanced.

While it is true that objects are often awkward and imbalanced, I have to disagree. Since starting my strength training, I have found many things easier to do in everyday life. Doing the normal lifts can have a very big transition into carrying strange things. I do agree with what I've heard you say before though: in order to get good at something, you have to do it. In other words, practice makes perfect and the easiest way to get better at Exercise A is to do Exercise A and keep training until you reach your goal.

 

[Mudge]

I agree, things dont often carry over but I carried a straight 6 shortblock up 4 flights of stairs and there is no way I could have done that without lifting weights.

One side being heavier than another, no nice handles and such, make things in real life different.

 

[min0 lee]

I would like to have both functional strength and look good.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

I would like to have both functional strength and look good.

As would I, but I much prefer functional strength over looks.

 

[P-funk]

what you do in the gym is not specific to what you do on the job site. Gym strength is not neccessarily "real world" strength (if that makes any sense?).

 

[min0 lee]

what you do in the gym is not specific to what you do on the job site. Gym strength is not neccessarily "real world" strength (if that makes any sense?).

It does make sense.

 

[P-funk]

It does make sense.

why thank you darlin'.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

Yes it does, but I feel that there are still many things you can do in the gym to develop that real world strength. Farmers' walks are something you can do in the gym, but have real world strength applications for anything that involves carrying something.

 

[P-funk]

Yes it does, but I feel that there are still many things you can do in the gym to develop that real world strength. Farmers' walks are something you can do in the gym, but have real world strength applications for anything that involves carrying something.

sure, except that in the real world things wont be like a DB....ie, even amounts of weight placed on both sides of a handle which is nice a thin to allow for better grip. No what I mean? I am not disagreeing though. Exercises like that are excellent.


I think that strongmen have the best training for enhancing real world strength since most of the events are centered around odd lifting of sorts.

 

[Squaggleboggin]

Yeah I definitely see your point. I agree that strongman stuff has the most real world application. That's why I've started incorporating some of it into my routine. I'm thinking about putting car pushing in there somewhere, but I won't be able to do it in the winter.

 

[min0 lee]

My friend uses alot of sand and water for weight lifting. Very unstable objects to lift sort like a human body.

 

[The Monkey Man]

The hardest exercise I have done for Grip strength so far
has been

Heavy DB rows 100+lbs with no straps at a slow tempo -

 

[Skate67]

its great tho i love my job. Ive noticed moving things around home how much stronger i have gotten... now i wonder if, conversely, after this 4 month break from training is over, i will go back to the gym and have gotten stronger or at least maintained my "gym" strength.

 

[The Monkey Man]

I'm sure some of it won't be hard to get back, if it has decreased -

 

[P-funk]

its great tho i love my job. Ive noticed moving things around home how much stronger i have gotten... now i wonder if, conversely, after this 4 month break from training is over, i will go back to the gym and have gotten stronger or at least maintained my "gym" strength.

you may find that you have better overal strength after this job. Don't be surpirsed if your lifts have decreased a little bit though because they lifts are specific to themself. So it may take a week or two to get back into the bench press and retrain that movement. After that you should be able to blast past the weight your were previously using.

 

[Skate67]

are there any "real world strength" exercises you can do in the gym?? if not ill just haul some heavy things around my back yard a couple days a week to get strong haha

 

[P-funk]

are there any "real world strength" exercises you can do in the gym?? if not ill just haul some heavy things around my back yard a couple days a week to get strong haha

sand bag lifting
deadlifts
overhead presses
barell presses with water filled barrells
chain dragging
static holds
farmers walks (with implements)

 

[Skate67]

what exactly is a farmers walk?

 

[P-funk]

hold weight in each hand (either a DB, implement, sand bag, buckets..etc...) and walk.