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Kettlebell Farmboy strength

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In the summer, I went living for at least three months in my nearby country house. My "uncle" (which I'm not related to, but I call it so out of affection) was a hobby farmer and had job that involved daily, somwhat heavy manual work. My grandmother was a teacher in the first post WWII period in Italy, which, at the time and for matters that I'll explain in another post if anyone is interested, was a very physically taxing job. Her husband was a constructions worker and had is own Company (local and small). All these three people could (or can, as my uncle is still alive) easily perform feats of strength most bulky guys in a gym couldn't even start to understand. Just so you understand: one of my grandfather employes could lift a wheelborrow loaded with 100 kg of material to chest level, keep it ther and walk up seven meters of steep stairs, come down and repeat for hours. Each and every day. He was physically "destroyed" in his last years, though.

Smashing an apple while holding it with just two or three fingers is now considered a respectable feat of strength by most people: at the time, around where I live, almost every farmer or construction worker could perform it.

That said, is safe to say that they would be laughed at at a power or olympic lifting meet and their cardiovascular conditioning was questionable.

I think it's a matter of adaptation to what you are doing: you'll never be "farm boy strong" in a way, while he'll never be "strong man strong" in another if both of you won't adventure in the other's territory.

The best example I can give you is this one: some years a go, in Italy, we had a reality television show called "La Fattoria" (The Farm). Male partecipants were all farmers. At one point, production let in a "star" which was a very fit, handsome guy which was very visibily training for bodybuilding or aesthetics anyway. He couldn't perform ONE job the farmer were consistently doing. One evening, during the show, there was a push up contest between one of the farmer and the fit guy. The fit guy SMASHED the farmer. I think it sums up very well what I meant above! ;)
 
I should also add that, based on my experience, a "farm boy strong" person will become "gym boy strong" easier and quicker than the other way around. I, as someone said, attribute that to the fact that "farm boy strong" is a lifestyle, while "gym boy strong" is (in the majority of cases) just a hobby.
 
Darren Best said:
Grip, grip is the defining characteristic of manual labor types. Do towel hangs for time, thinner towels with a hand on each end is easier. When you can hit a minute, use a thicker towel. After that, use a thin towel and go one hand at a time holding both ends in the same hand.
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This is so true. Want to know why ag states like Iowa, IL, OH, and MN have the best wrestlers? Hand strength and work ethic. When those boys grab ahold of you on the mat you know where the term hands like vise grips comes from.

OneBunke said:
But you should see them as they aged, broken down, in rough shape, stubborn as hell so the work still gets done. Not how you want to age.
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Best advise my Dad gave me, "get a job that isn't killing you to do when you're in your 50's". Those men generally were in tough shape by their 50's. Knees were shot and sometimes their backs. But they didn't take very good care of themselves on the other hand. My maternal Grandfather died in his forties. I ask a man who knew him about the Grandfather I never had the pleasure to meet. He looked at me and said, "Carl Harris worked himself to death."

So what's the metrosexual man do to become farm boy strong? High volume KB swings, they'll work your core and when you get up in weight they'll build hand strength like nothing else I've ever done in the gym. They're also the closest thing to labor that I've found for toughing up the hands. Add some deadlifts and some clean and presses and your in business. When you've advanced in the swings add snatches. Carries will work too but if you can DL twice your weight and KB press half your weight I think you'll have no problem carrying anything that you'll ever come across. Then go buy yourself a pair of overalls, Key brand, they're the best.
 
@banzaiengr : my father's cousin (sorry to mention all these relatives) which is a retired doctor, highly regarded in its field of competence and with decades of experience, pointed out that Italian farmers or labourer from the period I mentioned, let's say born between 1900 and 1930, tended to be particulary strong and healthy since short before death. Their physical capabilities were (and are, for those still alive) almost unmatchable for "normal", younger sedentary people, even with age differences that could exceed 20 years, than they would abruptly weaken (sometimes it's a matter of one day to another, litteraly): this usually means they haven't got much left.
I keep talking of them because it's what I knwo and have direct experience with. Good example, ANOTHER relative! She was a woman which lived over 90 years of very productive life. Some incredible feats of strength and toughness of hers were:
  • pulling egg pasta with wooden rolling pin until age 80something : it may seem nothing, so I dare any sedentary woman to do so to one single sheet of pasta big enough to feed 6 to 12 people for multiple days. It's spine shattering and arm ripping and would make a lot of supposed strong men feel silly, trust me;
  • raking leaves whenever one fell until age 80something: all of us would kindly make fun of her because she couldn't stand a yard with leaves on, and would go out and rake even three or four times, some days;
  • the most unbelievable thing I've ever heard of: when she was between 70 and 75 years of age (I was a kid and can't remember exatcly), an evening during late fall when it is already quite cold outside she heard noises in my "uncle" garden (the guy I mentioned in the first post), so she went inspecting... Only to find out it was being destroyed by wild boars... Now... Wild boars around the Appennino Bolognese are quite numerous and, most importantly, pretty aggressive... This didn't stop her from beating them with A FREAKING BROOM and put them on run! Her son and her daughter were frightened when she called them minutes later to tell this story (she lived alone in a small town). It was an episode so big that has grown to become almost legendary.
Where I live, there is a vast culture of "farmboy strength", it's almost part of the local culture because people at the time hadn't the choice to be slackers, and so very strong people were able to do more work and be remembered. I lived my childhood sorrounded by them, and kept hearing about people that could do this and that could do that. Ah, I love my lands... :)
 
Frank_IT said:
the most unbelievable thing I've ever heard of: when she was between 70 and 75 years of age (I was a kid and can't remember exatcly), an evening during late fall when it is already quite cold outside she heard noises in my "uncle" garden (the guy I mentioned in the first post), so she went inspecting... Only to find out it was being destroyed by wild boars... Now... Wild boars around the Appennino Bolognese are quite numerous and, most importantly, pretty aggressive... This didn't stop her from beating them with A FREAKING BROOM and put them on run! Her son and her daughter were frightened when she called them minutes later to tell this story (she lived alone in a small town). It was an episode so big that has grown to become almost legendary.
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That is a great story, and yes you have much to be proud of. Why if the boars had been even domestic pigs it would be a great feat, but wild boars, legendary!
 
Isn't the answer for a city person who wants to have "farmer" strength pretty much to take up strongman training. Super grip and handling awkward objects- farmers walks and atlas stone work
 
Thank you, @banzaiengr ! :)
It's so incredible people find it hard to believe it. I myself would be skeptical if someone else told me something like this!
 
@Glen, my problem is that people seem to want the moon; you don't need the moon, you need to be strong, and if you have a desk job, you don't have to try to have all the physical attributes of a farm hand. Understanding strength training and practicing it, in whatever form, is already more than 99% of the population with sedentary jobs is doing; the details are, IMHO, relatively unimportant so long as you are training for strength in a safe and effective manner. Our job here at strongfirst is not only to provide the most effective strength training but also the strength training that takes the least out of you while giving you great results. S&S is a wonderful example of this, and the book takes several paragraphs to explain that if, e.g., you want to press a heavy kettlebell, S&S by itself isn't going to get you there. But S&S or PTTP will take you a long way if you're starting as a person who doesn't exercise and isn't strong.

-S-
 
What @Steve Freides said. Plus always keep in mind the environment where these two types of strength are developed:
  • Farmers or manual labourers' strength is constantly used by them under different, uncontrollable and sometimes very harsh conditions, whereas physical training as we intend it is most of the times carried out in spaces that are somehow the best CHOICE for the individual in particular: this alone makes a big difference, as I think it's one limiting factor because one cannot be sure his muscles and CNS will work in the exact same way when brought out of their own "comfort zone" but, on the other side, it's a lot safer and healthier than working concrete outside during the winter (for example);
  • Tools: we all have our fancy and nice equipment we almost love and often take care of it better than of ourselves, the other way around might not be (and often times isn't) so pretty, and work callousses (or skin damege) are very, very different from workout callousses;
  • Havinga a choice: if one day you don't feel like working out it's fine, you just take the good old "day off" or "off day" and the worst thing that could happen will be that you'll go to bed crying a little because you feel lazy and haven't ripped the gainz, your husband/wife/partner will hear you and think it's his/her fault and in the morning will cook breakfast for you and tell you he/she loves you - you win every time. On the other hand, if you just don't feel like it but physical stress is a good part of your work, you'd better find a way out of bed because that hay is not gonna harvest itself or these bricks are not going to line up and make a wall on their own.
What Steve said is personally very true: just stick to a good work out, make the most out of it for your health first and whatever other reason you might have, but don't try to simulate something completly different in so many aspects (sometimes way beyond pure physical preparedness) because the benefits will be minimal and you'll almost always be far behind where you wanted to be.

P.s.: I'm really liking this thread, props to you @Marino ! I hope it will live on for a really long time!
 
I think this is a slightly grey area on this forum anyway - the type of training and training programs employed are much more suited to producing the end result of a person who is well rounded and developed enough physically to handle most tasks put in front of them.

If you compare any of the training logs on here to the average modern city dwellers 'training' plan you'll find a massive difference. Comparing swings, presses, deadlifts and pull ups against 20 mins on an elliptical trainer followed by three sets of fifteen on the lifefitness hydraulic circuit machines - one will produce closer to the initial desired request.
 
Glen said:
I think this is a slightly grey area on this forum anyway - the type of training and training programs employed are much more suited to producing the end result of a person who is well rounded and developed enough physically to handle most tasks put in front of them.

If you compare any of the training logs on here to the average modern city dwellers 'training' plan you'll find a massive difference. Comparing swings, presses, dead lifts and pull ups against 20 mins on an elliptical trainer followed by three sets of fifteen on the lifefitness hydraulic circuit machines - one will produce closer to the initial desired request.
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Great point. I think we lost the initial question in all the great stories. I think it's all been hit among all the posts though. I think the main things are:
  1. The ability to be strong everyday throughout the day: My understanding is that this is one of the main purposes of S&S and it delivers. I attended a 2 day workshop recreationally with professional trainers and I was one of two people not wiped out the second day. My only training at the time 1 year of S&S.
  2. Uncommon grip strength and finger/palm toughness: again S&S goes a long way here. You might add some bar or towel hangs, or some towel swings. I like to do heavy rack pulls with fatgrips. Throw some snatches in to toughen the skin.
  3. The ability to project power in awkward positions: the Getups ability to knit the body together will take care of a lot of this. It will give you some of the nessecary core stability. The mobility from Goblet squats are also huge, as you need the ability to pick up something low to the ground and get under it. After that you need to pick up some heavy awkward things off the ground (where the center of mass is not nicely above your feet but way out in front and maybe of to one side) and walk with them and or throw them. A lot of this comes down to learning the technique, which takes practice. It can be sped up by watching people who specialize.
 
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BTW: This Podcast might be interesting to people. It is not about the OP's question of how to get farm strong. But it's more a discussion of the topic we've been dancing around, but which is how very contextual strength can be.
 
For my job, I have to be ready to go all out on a moments notice, every day, all the time. This encompasses a huge amount of physical variables, ranging from carrying heavy things, violent physical encounters, navigating rural terrain, etc. I am not the young buck anymore, and have tried just about all the different fitness genres out there along the way. NOTHING has been as relevant and accommodating to my needs as S&S and other Strongfirst movement/programming principles. I am as good now in my late 30's, despite high mileage and injuries along the way, as I ever was in my younger years. I would even argue that I'm better, because I have learned proper movement, and now train for durability instead of numbers or ego. I have always been more "farm boy" strong than "weight room" strong, and S&S seems to continue to cultivate that. Thank you Pavel, Al Ciampa, and the rest of the Strongfirst community for keeping me in the game.
 
No training can replicate "farmer strength". The strength endurance you develop from a life of hard work on your feet almost all day almost everyday is unlike anything else.

I grew up in outport Newfoundland were hard work, and long hours was a part of daily life from a young age. The commercial fishery, forestry work, building, and subsistence farming, hunting, and gathering were necessary to get by. I had to fulfill my family responsibilities while progressing in my training. It was a great way to grow up, and instilled a strong work ethic.

Everyone interested in hard work, and training should read "Rock, Iron, Steel" by Steve Justa.
 
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Rambro1* said:
NOTHING has been as relevant and accommodating to my needs as S&S and other Strongfirst movement/programming principles.
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This has been an interesting discussion. I was a farm boy and at the age of 18 went to a university. There was a requirement to take physical education classes the first two years and I signed up for weight lifting the first term. I recall very little from the class except we had to bench press a weight I don't remember and rack squat body-weight + 100 pounds. I passed but I don't think the weights would impress anyone. Based on mu results is there isn't much carryover either way and other people will have different results. Weight lifting is a sport with rules on how to lift a weight and in any manual labor the only rule is move the weight to where it needs to be.

I agree 100% with Rambro1*. S&S at the simple standard combined the StrongFirst body-weight program are the most relevant for meeting the needs of most people with active careers and/or those with GPP as a goal. The StrongFirst body-weight program adds additional tension principles of strength to what is learned with kettlebells and pull-ups as a practical task. Those with different needs or goals will have to adjust accordingly.
 
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