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By
Phil Stevens |
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I often find myself thinking
on the subject of strength, and of course the whole relative
strength concept, or more so fallacy (fallacy in My Opinion,
and remember my opinion is one that’s has seen me as
heavy as 320 and light as 165 at 6’1” so it’s
pretty damn diverse where I have been) comes to mind.
In reality, reality meaning
the real world, there is NO such thing as relative strength,.
There is ONLY strength. Relative only comes into play in a
contrived situation such as a weight classed sport such as
power or Olympic weight lifting. In the real world, the one
that 99.9% of the population lives in, aside from us athletes,
there is NO relative factor to strength. (HMM so why is the
relative fad such a highly sought and contrived pinnacle when
most people are not in a competitive situation that demands
it)
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In the real world if there is a task
to be done, the task does not care one iota how much the person
doing it weighs. The one and only factor is that the job must be
done. In such a case, a case that is a many and very much so the
majority, strength is the most residing factor to your ability to
compete such a task. A factor that by far and large most lack including
those that seek and triumph there supposed superior relative strength.
So lets bring the relative world in
to the real world. Of course the situation is going to still be
contrived, it’s a story, and any story will be, But we’ll
make the tasks these two have to complete as real world as we can.
So we have Carl. Carl is a self proclaimed
stud. He is a jack of all trades and pretty damn good at pretty
much any sport he trains. He’s 6 foot 190. He can run a 6 and
a half minute mile, run a 4.3 40, has completed a half marathon,
can do 20 dead hang chins, can press 225 (1.18 x bodyweight), bench
275 (1.44 x bodyweight) , squat 475 (2.13 x bodyweight) , deadlift
570 ( 3 x bodyweight)and is Ripped at 8% body fat with HOT Abzz.
Those are damn good numbers in relative terms, and dude is Hot and
mean he has Abzzz.
Now we have his polar opposite Abbot.
Abbot is the same 6 foot but he is 280. He hasn’t ran a mile
in ? god knows how long, can still run a 5 second 40, gets sick
thinking about running a half marathon hell even walking a half
marathon, can do 8 dead hang chins, can press 275 (.98 x bodyweight),
bench 345 (1.25 x bodyweight) , squat 490 ( just 1.75 x bodyweight)
, deadlift 600 ( just 2.15 x bodyweight) Abbot is over fat with
a 23% body fat with not a hint of abs and some killer love handle.
He’s strong but his numbers aren’t great. He’s no
elite athlete by any means he dabbles in strength training pretty
good at making it 2-3 times a week and just trying to get Strong
when he does make it. He thinks about some day maybe getting serious
and being a power lifter or Olympic lifter but who knows.
Again polar opposite one jacked ripped
pretty down strong stud and one guy that’s again has a good
level of strength but in relative terms not that great and his capacity
for distance is likely crap as he hasn’t done any. What happens
when we put these two in a simple real world situation? Meaning
a situation that like life doesn’t care what you weigh just
that a task MUST be completed?
Abbot and Carl are dropped on an island
( told you contrived but stay with me here remember the definition
of real world) They are told you each have 24 hours to do two things
or you will face death on this island which has no food and no escape.
You have to first cross the island. It is 30miles then you must
lift a 580 lb lead weight off of a trigger that will then send the
alarm to have the chopper come save you.
OK GO. Carl smokes it he paces himself
and to conserve energy and still makes the 30 miles in 6 hours.
Abbot on the other hand, he is over fat and not “fit”
he slugs along at 30 minutes a mile, takes the time to take in the
scenery etc. and makes the trip in a piss pour 15 hours.
What does Abbot find? He find Carl
laying on the ground next to his weight to move crying his eyes
out knowing he faces certain death even thought he kicked the hell
out of Abbots travel time, even though he has HOT abuzz and is a
superior physical specimen. Despite the fact his relative strength
in as high as three times body weight a HUGE feat in any sports
realm he just can’t move the weight, it is 10 lbs more then
his best ever effort.
Abbot smiles then waddles his fat
as over to his lead weight. He takes a big breath expanding his
bowl full of jelly, grunts turns 16 different shades of red as his
blood pressure shy rockets due to his over stressed heart but he
moves the weight and he lives, While his relatively stronger competitor
is destined to die.
What’s the moral of the story?
Abbot was relatively less “fit” ( an abused and over used
term) but when the rubber hit the road he could do everything his
counterpart could and more. It may take him longer at some things
that required endurance but he could do them. While Carl even though
he was a human freak and had great relative strength when face with
one task vs. a seemingly lesser opponent in all ways except one
(maximal strength) LOST.
In the real world, on the field of
life. What matters most is your ability to DO the job, not so much
how long it takes. If you cant do it, it will by default, take you
forever. More times then not in life the reason someone cant do
something, be it a chin up, to carry an injured soldier or co worker
off the field. The ability to push your car off the street. To beat
down an oncoming attacker. Or simply be a useful man and have the
ability to move your old washing machine out of its basement home,
and move a new one in its place is limited by your lack of maximal
strength. All of the other strength qualities, as Mark Rippetoe
has a very unique and entertaining way of explaining and I urge
you to hear in person by attending one of his seminars, relies first
on maximal strength. For example before you can have strength endurance
you better damn well simply have the strength. You cant endure without
the base level of strength to do one.
This is not me proposing you to become
an over fat, un-conditioned but fairly strong slob. It me telling
you to wake the hell up and realize you live in a real world, and
the real world doesn’t care how much you weigh. If you care
about real world ability one of the main things on your mind should
not be your Abzz and if you can fit in your skinny jeans and still
knock out 25 chins, but that you have the ability to DO the tasks
that are asked of you, with no regard to how you look doing it.
More times than not that will mean getting bigger, and adding a
bit of healthy body fat to get stronger. A healthy focus on performance
instead of aesthetics and you’ll find out an amazing fact that
if you do so, your form will follow your function.
I’ve had visible abzz myself
and I’ve still never seen an ab do a damn thing in this life
in the real world. Now go ponder these words and ask yourself really
how useful are you, in real, not relative terms.
About The Author
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Coach Phil Stevens is an accomplished
strength athlete with considerable experience in both powerlifting
and strongman competition. Phil is the 2007 APA World Champion
in the 242-pound class (total). He currently holds the APF
275-pound class raw National bench, squat, deadlift, and total
records. Phil’s marquis lift was his 700-pound raw deadlift,
performed on February 14, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Phil has been ranked in the “Top 10” in the deadlift Nationally across all powerlifting federations, also serves as the Arizona State Chair for the North American Highlander Association, as well as the founder of Lift For Hope, an annual strength-competition
with proceeds donated to Charity (www.Lift4Hope.org).
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