Defining Strong

Recently it came to my attention that many people think that I hate anything that isn’t lifting heavy things and, preferably, sticking them over my head. They seem to think that I ‘only’ make people stronger.

Being stronger does have some terrible side effects:

  • Easier to pick up stuff
  • Increased muscle mass
  • Live longer
  • Look hotter

Being ‘strong’ is the entry point to doing whatever else it is you want to do, whether that is to look better for the beach, perform better in your sport or live a better quality of life.

But what is ‘strong’? What do I mean when I say things are easier when you are stronger?

The Oxford dictionary defines ‘strong’:

  • Having the power to move heavy objects or perform other physically demanding tasks
  • Able to withstand force, pressure, or wear
  • Very intense

Individually, strong is a very relative term. What is considered ‘strong’ for an elderly lady in her twilight years would be considered nothing for an athletic man in his early 20’s. When I say that things get easier if we make you stronger, we have to consider what your entry point is.

Meanwhile

The idea isn’t to make Mrs Brady deadlift twice her bodyweight and do muscle ups on her 70’s birthday. Strong for the average 70 year old lady would be giving her the strength to get up off of the floor without having to use any assistance like a chair, etc.

For a pregnant lady, though of course this is background specific, we want to give her a strong core to reduce back pain during pregnancy and increase her strength-endurance to make labour less distressing (many studies have shown that ladies who strength train tend to report that labour was easier than those that don’t, but this is purely a subjective measure by the individual). Post birth we want that lady to be strong enough to pick up her child and come off of the floor holding the child with as little assistance as possible (notice a trend?).

For a lady in her 20’s who wants to look ‘rockstar hot’ we want her to be deadlifting her bodyweight for a least five reps (and I’d ideally want one rep at one and a half bodyweight), three proper dips and three to five deadhang chin ups. Why these for a body composition client? Because then we know that the muscle is there to be ‘rockstar hot’ and anything else is ‘just diet’.

I’ve got dozens of strength standards for many different goals, and they all depend on the client/student/athletes age, entry point and goal.

But before we can be strong, we have to move well. There’s no point putting a V8 in a mini cooper, it won’t fit (unless you only want rear wheel drive and no back seat). Even if you somehow got it to work you’d end up bouncing all over the place and end up in a ditch. Sometimes beginning the process of moving well is also the beginning of the process of making you stronger.

How strong do you need to be?

/by