how do you judge strength? by total lifted or by bodyweight/amount lifted?

[JLowe02]

let me ask you a question..

If you saw a 45 yr old man weighing 215 lbs, and 20% bf.. bench press for 5 reps 525 lbs.. would you be impressed??

Or would you be more impressed with that same man at 9% bf and 180 lbs...

I've done and been both.. i prefer the 185 lbs.. after all, i'm not there to impress a bunch of meat heads, now the Ladies, that's a different issue..

not saying i dont believe you, but a vid of you doing this with someone holding and elite fitness sign with your user name on it would work wonders....

 

[lanny]

LOL!! Zzzzz just cuz he can bench dun mean we need proove, at the age of 45, why would someone lie like tat?

 

[james629]

I checkout the Powerlifting USA mag every now and then. The numbers these guys are puting up now at low body weights are incredable. The body weight/ weight lifted ratio is what impresses me. Yeah a 500 raw bench is impressive no matter what but someone doing it at 198 versus 350 of slop looks much better.

 

[artificialaspirations]

weight lifted/body weight. Huge 200-300 lbs will always fall back on the 'its easier for little guys' excuse. Big guys have bigger muscles so what's the problem?

 

[silver_shadow]

weight lifted/body weight. Huge 200-300 lbs will always fall back on the 'its easier for little guys' excuse. Big guys have bigger muscles so what's the problem?

the relation between size increase and strength increase isn't linear, it flattens out as you get bigger. bigger muscles is a very simplistic way of looking at something (namely strength) which is a little more complicated than that.

and this says that from a physics point of view:
http://motivate.maths.org/conferences/conf23/c23_project2.shtml

 

[silver_shadow]

and another: scroll down and there are 2 graphs which talk about the same thing.... we are talking about olympic athletes - that is the best in the world....

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/publications/technique/1996/8/strength-training.html

(figures 5 & 6)

 

[Scotsman]

weight lifted/body weight. Huge 200-300 lbs will always fall back on the 'its easier for little guys' excuse. Big guys have bigger muscles so what's the problem?

Then how come in powerlifting it's always the little guys bitching? They are the ones who are always bringing up the coefficient.

Like silver said and linked up strength isn't linear compared to weight. Just because someone weighs twice as much doesn't mean their joint structure it twice as strong.

Also another property of physics people seldom factor in. Work equals force over distance. So the taller person does more work at the same weight than a shorter person. Now add a bunch more weight and suddenly you are doing multiple times more work. This is part of the diminishing returns of size vs strength.

Another thing to consider is like the first article SS posted we are all made of the same stuff. Bone has a certain amount of strength, as to tendons, and ligaments. Granted they do become stronger to aid in lifting more weight over time but just because you weigh more doesn't meant they get stronger proportional to that extra size.

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[lanny]

confused, but i think i get it! i agree with scottie!