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Other/Mixed Unpopular Opinion: Upper Body Strength > Lower Body Strength in Life

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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As far as overly large and strong legs inhibiting performance all that is needed is to watch the Crossfit Games for a day and I think we can put that disagreement to rest. Those men and women are beasts and can go all day. I might not agree with all their training but they get crazy, sick results both in being built and performance.
 
I was thinking about something like this today when I was carrying an older tv up a few flights of stairs. I felt my weak links were in the arms, grip, lower back and "cardio".

@OP: Perhaps training my upper-body strength has more real life application after my tv experiment, simply because the legs are just that much stronger than the arms.
 
I was thinking about something like this today when I was carrying an older tv up a few flights of stairs. I felt my weak links were in the arms, grip, lower back and "cardio".
One of my big fitness "lessons" was similar to this. At the time I had been focusing on lifting heavy, had my deadlift up to double body weight, was repping 315 in the back squat, and was feeling strong and awesome... But I also bought into the whole "elevated HR from lifting counts as cardio" model. So I barely did any conditioning. Maybe some intervals once every couple weeks, certainly never any steady state aerobics (I also bought into the "it will kill your gains" dogma from the time period).

Fast forward a couple weeks later.

Hunting season. My dad shot a not a very large buck in the bottom of a ravine and texted me to help him drag it up the hill so he wouldn't, in his words, "die of a heart attack in the woods".

I show up and start helping him drag it. I'm so de-conditioned that we both think I'm going to be the one having the heart attack dragging the deer up the ravine. On top of that, my grip got super weak after a few minutes of dragging. I had never trained heavy carries before that, so I had zero strength endurance.

The legs were willing, but my conditioning and grip were so weak I couldn't transfer it to anything.
 
The biggest overall feel of carryover that I got was from barbell squats.

Yes! Upper and lower body. As well as mental toughness too.

Just how prevalent or relevant do you think the chafing thighs are in reality? How big would the legs have to be or how much you would have to run or ruck?

I have fairly large legs and I walk a fair amount and play sports (basketball, softball). This is a non-issue. Maybe under very high mileage, in hot and humid weather, I can have an issue if I wear boxers as and get sweaty. With boxer briefs I could go all day long.

When I read these types of Pavel comments "squats cause leg chaffing..." I assume it is his satirical humor coming through, similar to the "dont do curls, or will have to use a straw to drink your beer" or the whole "evil Russian" schtick. Maybe it is true for extremely large folks who specialize in the squat... 1000 lb squatters for example... I mean, I could understand why a mountain climber might not squat heavy, but that is a very specialized group.

Regards,

Eric
 
My two cents. I have recently started working for a moving company and leg strength hasnt been a limiting factor. Strength/endurance of grip, elbow flexion, and spine/hip extension is taxed the most. The occasional heavy mattress gives your shoulders and chest a burn when you have to squeeze and carry for several yards without putting it down.

Definitely do what you need to have a strength reserve so the job is at a submax work load and most importantly keep that spine healthy.
 
My two cents. I have recently started working for a moving company and leg strength hasnt been a limiting factor. Strength/endurance of grip, elbow flexion, and spine/hip extension is taxed the most. The occasional heavy mattress gives your shoulders and chest a burn when you have to squeeze and carry for several yards without putting it down.

Definitely do what you need to have a strength reserve so the job is at a submax work load and most importantly keep that spine healthy.
The old Chest n Curls could help move furniture? blasphemy!
 
I think this all comes down to "you can't fire a cannon from a canoe".

For most folks, if you have enough leg strength to allow you to express your upper body strength, there may be no need for more lower body strength.

That said, if I can I still want to be strong enough to kick a man through a wall.
 
For upright blue collar type strength my general thoughts in order of importance:
- abs and obliques
- rotator cuff muscles
- biceps
- grip
- glutes and erectors
- everything else
this isn't to say that big legs aren't important, or lats, or pecs for that matter. Big legs are a reservoir of fatigue resistance that can make a notable difference over the course of a long day.
But the ones on "the list" are the muscles that will limit what the other muscles can do when manipulating tools or loads in less than optimum positions.

When it comes to sport-specific or MA then this isn't as applicable.
 
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