There are really too many variables to make generalizations about carryover. How much lifting weights carries over into one's life is going to be different for different lives. My jobs aren't physical at all. I can say with certainty that going from not lifting weights to having a deadlift 1RM that's over 2x bodyweight is a game changer - literally everything is better. I feel better, I am able to do tasks like moving furniture much better - that and just about anything else I wasn't prepared for is better after getting stronger, and my getting stronger has mostly been by picking a heavy barbell.
-S-
We just talked about this sort of idea in my first exercise science class. There is definitely improvement in one’s ability to perform “activities of daily living” (their term for stuff like getting dressed, bathing, getting off the floor, etc) when aging populations are given appropriate strength training. Strength training certainly makes daily life “easier.” I don’t think anyone here would argue against that.
The idea I was getting at with earlier post was that “odd object lifting” is not always improved as much as we might think by say, doing barbell work. I think there’s improvement; I just don’t think there’s as much as we might expect.
Watchnerds post about the frying pan feeling heavier than it was is what got
me thinking that even if you can press a lot overhead, it doesn’t mean you can hold something heavy
out in front of you. That’s all. As a thought experiment: Imagine if you were like Superman and you could pick up a 48kg kettlebell and throw it like a baseball. That’s a lot different than bracing your core, packing your shoulder, keeping the same side hip under bell, etc…..
On the note of all that, another thing that popped into my head was this:
Many of us here are familiar with the idea of “child like strength” from Original Strength. That is, when we were kids we didn’t need things like a “proper hinge” to pick something off the floor. We just bent over and picked it up. With age however, it seems like some of us might say something like “I can’t bend my back that way without pain.” I would call that something like a “reduction of movement options.”
So without making this too long, I’ll just say this. I think that for me, healthy physical aging would be defined as having the widest range possible of physical capability as I grow older. That is, maintaining the widest range possible of movement
options.
