all posts post new thread

Kettlebell Manual work Vs gym training

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)

Jamesjones

Level 4 Valued Member
Hi guys

Hope your all well during this god awful situation.

So I work as a building services Engineer my job involves manual labour, My colleague has been in the game for most of his life he is 58 and has the strongest grip and some pretty big fore arms. Now we work in gyms doing general maintenance and repairs so we know a few of the PTs.

The PTs are pretty strong guys but when we have to move stuff or hold things up I might aswell do the job myself as they can't keep up.

I train daily with my kettlebells aswell as occasional squat dead and bench sessions.

My question is how come a strong grip and big forearms and a strength endurance work rate higher than a PT who lifts and does CrossFit style training?
 
Loaded carries with a variety of odd shaped objects builds this odd casual workers strength. I have my own experience with this, a few years ago I worked in a grocery store were I constantly moved 45-50lb boxes, 50-65lb bags of potatoes/onions and wooden palettes for 8 hour shifts, nothing was well balanced, had handles or was packed with the idea that someone lifting the thing. as far a gym lifts went was weaker then (I could press the 24k near the end the 28kg) and these days I can press the 40kg. hears the thing though, I recently moved some lumber around and the casual movers strength/endurance was gone. It fatigued me in a way that I never got when working a the store. Loaded carries all day everyday makes you life strong not CrossFit strong.
 
I think for many, the purpose of strength training is to compensate for a sedentary lifestyle. Lifts try to replicate the effects of hunting gathering or manual labor. It seems like as long as you aren't beating up your body too much, it's difficult to beat the real thing.
 
Jamesjones said:
My colleague has been in the game for most of his life he is 58 and has the strongest grip and some pretty big fore arms. Now we work in gyms doing general maintenance and repairs so we know a few of the PTs.

The PTs are pretty strong guys but when we have to move stuff or hold things up I might aswell do the job myself as they can't keep up.
Click to expand...
Old man strength, built through decades of hard work can't be duplicated in any training program IMHO. I'm 61 now and have some decent limit strength still, but can go a long time doing work at medium loads.
My dad had a grip of steel his whole life and never touched a weight. One of the strongest guys I've ever known was a semi-retired mid fifties concrete contractor I worked for as a young man, he had forearms like stove pipes and a grip to crush walnuts.
 
You get good at what you do consistently be it a particular lift or manual labor.
I know a guy who was a tool and die maker.Weighed no more than 150 but had forearms like steel cables with a grip to match.Was able to pick up and carry 200 # objects like nothing.Never stepped foot in a gym.
 
Bret S. said:
Old man strength, built through decades of hard work can't be duplicated in any training program IMHO. I'm 61 now and have some decent limit strength still, but can go a long time doing work at medium loads.
My dad had a grip of steel his whole life and never touched a weight. One of the strongest guys I've ever known was a semi-retired mid fifties concrete contractor I worked for as a young man, he had forearms like stove pipes and a grip to crush walnuts.
Click to expand...
Same here, as I mentioned before. My old man also had a vice like grip and forearms like Popeye. Farm work, milking cows, construction, WWII, will do that to the right kind of fellow. He also never touched a 'weight' or stepped in gym in his life. (He also smoked like a chimney, and drank like a fish... but he did live to 94)
 
offwidth said:
Same here, as I mentioned before. My old man also had a vice like grip and forearms like Popeye. Farm work, milking cows, construction, WWII, will do that to the right kind of fellow. He also never touched a 'weight' or stepped in gym in his life. (He also smoked like a chimney, and drank like a fish... but he did live to 94)
Click to expand...
It's really amazing what some people do and still live a long life, my dad passed at 82 years old in his sleep, 363 days ago. He liked to drink, mostly on weekends I remember, when he was a younger man. Spent his whole life wrenching on cars in the shops he owned. He smoked a bit as a teenager but that was it.
I miss him still, and sometimes forget he's gone, sometimes I dream we're talking normally.. then, in the dream I realize he's gone and tell him so.. that ends the dream. Weird how the brain works.
 
offwidth said:
Same here, as I mentioned before. My old man also had a vice like grip and forearms like Popeye. Farm work, milking cows, construction, WWII, will do that to the right kind of fellow. He also never touched a 'weight' or stepped in gym in his life. (He also smoked like a chimney, and drank like a fish... but he did live to 94)
Click to expand...
I just hope I can live old and be strong still your old man sounds like a hero
 
You get good and strong at what you do most often. Manual labor isnt the healthiest way to get stronger. Neither is doing loaded carries daily. I think i reaches a personal new height previous summer in terms of overall strength and grip strength. When i lifted 80kg boilers at work and double bw farmer carries for strength training. With additional DC&P and C&J in 2 week blocks. On the downside. My neck and back got tight and noisy. ?
 
My grandad was a coal miner in the Rhondda valley in Wales my dad always said he was strong as an ox I just think doing work day in day out will build a real strength and tendons to match
 
I remember reading about the great Welsh rugby team of the 70's - all steel and coal workers - all as strong as oxen.
I once met a guy when doing judo - he was a road worker and spent all day digging up tarmac and breaking stuff up - he was not a big guy but had that powerful grip that never gave out. In terms of big lifts not that strong but when he got a hold of you he made you work,
 
The strongest I ever felt was when I moved furniture for a year and a half. So many fireproof cabinets.... I also felt the most beat up.
 
Hello,

My grand-father was a carpenter. When he was 16 years old, he was able to pick up 2 bags of sand from the ground, putting them on his shoulders and then climb a ladder with them. Of course, this implied some sort of "carries" because the bags were not necessarily close to the ladder. It also implied grip.

He always told me that to be strong, basically, very few things were necessary: pick up from the ground, putting OVH and then walk. He also teached me how to climb rope for grip and upper body pulling strength.

In "fitness" terms, it would be something like Clean, Press, Carry, Pull (row, pull up, etc...), and...walking. Nowadays, I'd just add some light clubbell training

As far as StrongFirst goes, this is why I consider S&S or RoP extremely powerful because they transfer so well to this kind of daily manual labour for those of us who have a more "desk-oriented job"

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Ian V said:
I remember reading about the great Welsh rugby team of the 70's - all steel and coal workers - all as strong as oxen.
I once met a guy when doing judo - he was a road worker and spent all day digging up tarmac and breaking stuff up - he was not a big guy but had that powerful grip that never gave out. In terms of big lifts not that strong but when he got a hold of you he made you work,
Click to expand...
Pontypool front row were known to be done tough fellers and strong to scrummage back then. I always find judoka have a weird strength that resembles a sort of animal
 
Jamesjones said:
Pontypool front row were known to be done tough fellers and strong to scrummage back then. I always find judoka have a weird strength that resembles a sort of animal
Click to expand...

Yes they were at the front of my mind when I wrote that - I think it was Charlie Faulkner who said something on the lines of if they are tired in the gym now they have a rest but if we stopped shoveling coal we got the sack. Interestingly he was a good judoka.
And yes weird strength has been used to describe me by certain people.
 
Ian V said:
Yes they were at the front of my mind when I wrote that - I think it was Charlie Faulkner who said something on the lines of if they are tired in the gym now they have a rest but if we stopped shoveling coal we got the sack. Interestingly he was a good judoka.
And yes weird strength has been used to describe me by certain people.
Click to expand...
IV been told the same thing myself do you think that's down to the kettlebell training
 
Jamesjones said:
IV been told the same thing myself do you think that's down to the kettlebell training
Click to expand...

I was competitive in judo long before I had heard of kettlebells (over 30 years ago - I've just turned 60) but I used odd things for training when I was at an army unit with fairly limited facilities. I had a kit bag filled with sand and stone up to about 70 kg which I used to shoulder and squat and carry and throw etc. I had a shot put which I would throw around and pass hand to hand. I would walk / jog about 1-2 miles cross country throwing the damn thing as I went. So I had this sort of strength a good while ago - I think using kettlebells and other "odd" training methods has maintained this as well as the fact I continue martial arts training in the form of traditional ju-jitsu.
 
Ian V said:
I was competitive in judo long before I had heard of kettlebells (over 30 years ago - I've just turned 60) but I used odd things for training when I was at an army unit with fairly limited facilities. I had a kit bag filled with sand and stone up to about 70 kg which I used to shoulder and squat and carry and throw etc. I had a shot put which I would throw around and pass hand to hand. I would walk / jog about 1-2 miles cross country throwing the damn thing as I went. So I had this sort of strength a good while ago - I think using kettlebells and other "odd" training methods has maintained this as well as the fact I continue martial arts training in the form of traditional ju-jitsu.
Click to expand...
Good on you for keeping training were are you from ?
 
You get efficient and strong - in a contexutal way - in things you do a lot, I guess.
People moving furniture for a living will have one hell of a lot more practice in moving furniture than even the fittest crossfit-guy with a desk job. My grip strength is quite OK, but there are people in my extended family, aged 85 and 90, who can crush my hand i painful ways during "polite" handshaking.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom