Farmer Strength

[TrevorRoss]

I grew up on a farm doing farmer things, like unspeakable acts with livestock. I always loved wrestling with the gym bros and manhandling them before I even touched a weight. Some arrows point to hard manual labor trumping weightlifting. Discuss.

 

[Hognoxious]

There is something to be said for working outside and doing things like chopping wood and stacking hay bales. It is hard to compare though. I personally find that my weight training helps me in these tasks on my farm.

 

[TrevorRoss]

There is something to be said for working outside and doing things like chopping wood and stacking hay bales. It is hard to compare though. I personally find that my weight training helps me in these tasks on my farm.

I completely agree. It does the same for me.

 

[JabToucher]

I grew up on a farm doing farmer things, like unspeakable acts with livestock. I always loved wrestling with the gym bros and manhandling them before I even touched a weight. Some arrows point to hard manual labor trumping weightlifting. Discuss.

Is your surname Hughes?
Do you enjoy a country breakfast?

 

[TrevorRoss]

Is your surname Hughes?
Do you enjoy a country breakfast?

No.
Yes I do.

 

[wufabufa]

Becoming coordinated/efficient at certain tasks and developing work capacity is definitely important. Bailing hay might not make your squat go up or improve your 40yd dash time but it may help you with performing throws, trips, and take downs in wrestling/judo. You gotta look at what those tasks mimic and what carryover is possible to the athletic endeavors on which you are focusing.

If you gave me the choice to do hard manual labor for a year to build an athletic base OR to participate in a well structured strength and conditioning program for a year, I'd pick the latter every time. Hard manual labor just isn't specific enough. Loading trucks, mixing mortar, and commercial painting certainly kept me lean, but it didn't seem to do a whole lot for my athletic performance.

 

[JabToucher]

There's a certain strength that comes with activities. Some activies more than others I guess.
I had a friendly play fight with a kid the same size as me in my early teens. He rag dolled me. I was shocked how much stronger he was given he was the same size/build.
I found out he had brothers which he would get in to scraps/wrestle about with, while I never even played sports or used my body for anything particularly.

 

[corpse]

there was even a site called farmstrength.com iirc. they did dino training with some grip stuff.
check out brooks kubik and his odd object videos.

 

[TrevorRoss]

If you gave me the choice to do hard manual labor for a year to build an athletic base OR to participate in a well structured strength and conditioning program for a year, I'd pick the latter every time. Hard manual labor just isn't specific enough. Loading trucks, mixing mortar, and commercial painting certainly kept me lean, but it didn't seem to do a whole lot for my athletic performance.

Tell that to old school stevedores, after you get ragdolled.

 

[TrevorRoss]

I grew up swinging axes, sledgehammers, carrying five gallon pails of water for long distances, pushing and pulling round bales, throwing square bales, shovelling wet & heavy shit, chasing and manhandling cows, moving random heavy shit, fixing machinery, and much more.

Not only was I strong, I was in good shape. I see these strength and conditioning gyms / gurus doing their own version of my childhood chores. Not to mention the high quality of food I had access to. Garden vegetables, beef, pork, eggs, milk, chicken, potatoes.

Now I understand that muscular imbalances are an issue, combine that base with 2-3 days a week at a gym.

 

[TrevorRoss]

The strongest guy I’ve ever encountered was my Dad. Built like a fireplug, he could take a small block 350 longblock (including exhaust manifolds) pick it up off the ground, and walk it across the shop like it was nothing.

 

[wufabufa]

Tell that to old school stevedores, after you get ragdolled.

Lol you mad

 

[TrevorRoss]

Lol you mad

Fuck no, I’m just pointing out how freakishly strong and conditioned those old bastards were. Who gets mad on Sherdog lol?

 

[ThunderL1ps]

Even the strongmen of years gone by often had a history of farm strength before they got into weight lifting.

For myself, carrying things like sandbags for 15 minutes straight does things strength wise you'll never strengthen in the gym. Ever. Time under tension with no rest. What a novel concept.

People are too caught up on reps and sets.

 

[Dougall]

I think its the consistency that gives manual laborers their strength. The average person might go to the gym for a combined 5 or 6 hours a week. But a farmer, brick layer, mechanic, builder etc is doing atleast 8 hours a DAY(often more especially with farm work) of intensive strength work. Yes it may not be the same as going to the gym and lifting very heavy for a few reps, but I think it strengthens you in a different way.
As already mentioned its the time under tension and extremely high reps that give the "farm strength". I also think that this sort of lower weight, time under tension, high rep training is better for strengthening connective tissue such as ligaments and tendons. Mainly because the varied work requires differing motions that may not be found in the gym. Kinda in the same way those big indian clubs are meant to be great for strengthening shoulders; odd rotating motion+ high reps of rotation+constant tension of holding them up+doing them daily....just something to think about

 

[Contra-dictator]

There is something to be said for working outside and doing things like chopping wood and stacking hay bales. It is hard to compare though. I personally find that my weight training helps me in these tasks on my farm.

I think doing heavy and intense farm chores and labor from early developmental through teen years potentiates a level of strength that wouldn't have othwise been attainable.

 

[TrevorRoss]

Even the strongmen of years gone by often had a history of farm strength before they got into weight lifting.

For myself, carrying things like sandbags for 15 minutes straight does things strength wise you'll never strengthen in the gym. Ever. Time under tension with no rest. What a novel concept.

People are too caught up on reps and sets.

How about old school roofers before zoom booms? 12 hours of trucking bundles of shingles up and down a ladder daily. Then there’s Drywallers, some of those scrawny alcoholics can carry 2 12’ sheets!!

 

[TrevorRoss]

I want you guys to try something. Take two five gallon pails of water in each hand, and see how far you can walk. I used to feed and water this scrawny old cow that we should have just shot and fed to the dogs, It was roughly 500ft from the barn to the hayyard. After awhile I could do the whole shot with no rest. Not too bad for a 14 year old kid.

 

[TrevorRoss]

I think its the consistency that gives manual laborers their strength. The average person might go to the gym for a combined 5 or 6 hours a week. But a farmer, brick layer, mechanic, builder etc is doing atleast 8 hours a DAY(often more especially with farm work) of intensive strength work. Yes it may not be the same as going to the gym and lifting very heavy for a few reps, but I think it strengthens you in a different way.

It may go against exercise science, but farm kids are explosive also. We’re built for track and field lol. We used to hate going to track meets, but always came home with ribbons lol.

 

[Grenz]

Probably really good for a man under 25 years of age, after that there's way too much volume. The kind of work you're describing I'm basically picturing as 100s of reps each week of compound movements. No way that's good for 35 year old, but an 18 year old? Sure

As I typed this, I just remembered my friend's dad - a farmer - who was like 60 and had massive forearms and never lifted a day in his life (wouldn't have had time for that "bullshit" lol). So I'm absolutely willing to believe that farm work is great for building strength.