seriously? This hasn’t been my experience at all.
Where are these gyms where adult males are struggling to overhead press the bar and bench 135?
We’re all obviously just strong as fuck here in Scotland.
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dude, it’s not a real thing here, trust me.
this is the problem with small sample sizes. I’ve been in commercial gyms where lifters generally suck. And I know that if I’d just been to one gym in the last year, it’s very possible I’d think the same thing ccf does.
But that isn’t the case. I’ve trained at… I’d say 30-40 gyms over the last decade, with about half being commercial gyms, half not. And I’m not seeing what he’s seeing.
Something else to consider is the number of folks who would have been at a commercial gym 10+ years ago, but now do crossfit. Crossfitters are not struggling to put a barbell over their head, or bench press 135. And that is a segment of the population that would have been training at commercial gyms in the 90’s, and before.
Another phenomenon I’ve noticed in commercial gyms is that a lot of guys are training as powerlifters and olympic lifters, but not competing. I didn’t see this much, if at all, 10 years ago. Powerlifting has gained a lot of traction in recent years through youtube and instagram. NOBODY was doing sumo deadlifts when I started lifting. Now you see guys doing it without ever having an intention of doing a meet.
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I don’t know what major cities you’ve been in, but I’ve regularly seen dudes bench 185-225. Are you training at a high school gym with freshmen or something? I’ve been at commercial gyms across the Northeast since 2009, and worked at one from 2011-2014. Outside of that, I’ve been to University Gyms where people are def stronger. I will admit my first locally owned but “commercial” gym that I first came to Portland wasn’t all too strong - but I there were still guys repping two plates and one older guy who was able to quietly deadlift 4 plates (weight room was above the Yoga studio and management would complain).
Agree with what @bulldog9899 said. Based on a lot of the new threads you see, more kids seem to be interested with having visible abs than being strong.
Also agree with @flipcollar where I do see lots of powerlifters, oly lifters training in commercial gyms. The crossfit guys who train at commercial gyms are annoying as hell though, especially when the crossfit box is a block away.
It’s Planet Fitness!!!
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I haven’t witnessed not being able to OHP the bar, LOL, but definitely not being able to BP 135.
It’s not a powerlifting gym, but not Planet Fitness, either. I’d say in the middle. Is it possible these results are skewed by a small sample size? Possibly, but you can’t tell me the typical young guy is as strong today compared to my day.
It’s really pretty simple. Kids don’t build the strength base they once did. The vast majority of today’s kids don’t get even a quarter of the physical exercise we did. I’m talking day-to-day physical play year after year. They’re in the virtual world the vast majority of the time & it adds up (negatively).
My son & I were talking about this the other day. You’d be shocked at the number of kids who’ve never climbed a tree. No question the typical young, healthy adult male is much weaker than in year’s past. And my generation was a little weaker than my father’s due to different dynamics.
I mean, we’re talking about a rather significant difference, especially with the latest generation.
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about .05% of the american population is active duty. Out of every 200 potential gym rats, 1 is away, assuming that 100% of active duty military are currently forward deployed (I am currently proof that is not the case).
There are definitely some jacked troops, but I would not go as far as to say that enough athletes join the military that it is robbing your local YMCA of its local talent. I think the Crossfit point is a better example, every town now has at least one crossfit gym where a lot of “hardcore” athletes go.
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OK. Do you agree or disagree that ccf has mischaracterized an entire generation based on a couple of hours a week?
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I don’t think a strength base developed as a kid is really that crucial.
I spent most of my childhood life sedentary in front of a computer and didn’t play sports till I was 14. By then I was pretty terrible at everything.
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I’d say that ccf is partly right, in that kids today are a lot more sedentary on average than they were 40 years ago. I was a ‘bookworm’, and I still spent a lot more time outside playing rough than most kids do nowadays. However, I’m not sure how right he is about how it correlates to strength of adults in the gym right now.
I do agree that the average non-gym goer is weaker now than they were 20, 40, 60 or 100 years ago, whether from lack of childhood exercise or from the fact that there are a lot fewer jobs nowadays that require physical labor of any substantial sort.
For people who are motivated to go to the gym, though, at least those who stick with it for any substantial amount of time, the available options for where to train and the massive amount of good (and even not-so-good) training information available, there is a lot of potential for growth, and some of the best of the best are stronger than ever before because of the sheer # of people doing it, and the training and nutrition advances that constantly happen. Of course, I’ll add a caveat to that: pound for pound, the old time strongmen were ridiculous. A youth spent doing heavy labor builds tendon and ligament connections most modern men can only dream of, and that’s something that it’s hard to go back and gain later in life, regardless of how hard you work in the gym.
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Oh, completely agree. In high school football, you weren’t a man until you could bench two plates. This was freshman year! Granted, I grew up in a small town where most of us worked on the ranch/farm all day when not in school, so hell maybe that is why we could lift, but I doubt our generation is inherently week.
EDIT: Also fun fact, everyone shamed you for not benching two plates, but no one blinked an eye if your bench was equal to your squat…
Until junior year when coach had us all start 5-3-1. still need to thank him for that.
I don’t know if people realize how much of a difference growing up like this makes. My dad was a farmer, so even though I was a geek/bookworm, I still went out and did what I had to do, and I also worked at for my uncle picking peaches all summer. Granted, this wasn’t pitching 50 lb hay bales like some kids had to do, but it wasn’t nothing. The % of kids who grow up like this is steadily decreasing, though.
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As someone who did bail 50lb hay bales for hours on end, I am tremendously disappointed that I do not have those “farmers forearms” that strength coaches always reference.
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My dad had a landscaping business. I laid a lot of sod. We used the stuff that was cut into 2’ x 3’ pieces. Grabbing one in each hand worked grip strength. I’d also just grab the grass if it was strong enough to hold.
I don’t have Popeye forearms but they’re decent. I never thought anything of that work until a new guy would come help us and I’d run circles around them. I guess I got decent at using a shovel, pushing a wheel barrow and throwing sod.
Thanks, Dad.
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I know many here aren’t impressed with such numbers but a somewhat-lean man who achieves those standards has likely gotten all the health benefits of strength training that he needs. Yes, strength training lends to health and some strength is healthy for well-being, but I think people highly overestimate just how much damn strength a person needs to be “functional and healthy”. Although I was never outrageously strong, I am think I am decently strong for my frame and for the aforementioned reason, I don’t pummel myself in the gym anymore. Like, for what? I do train relatively hard, but I just don’t kill myself and I am completely unworried about exceptionally high strength standards.
A barbell row of 185 for ten with strict or somewhat-loose form is actually better than 99% of people I’ve seen doing barbell rows, including some pro bodybuilders.
I like John Rusin’s strength standards.
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I remember when I was just starting training. After about 6 months, this guy walks in and benches 225lbs for 12.
I was completely blown away by this at the time (lol) because everyone else I had ever seen (who wasn’t a lardo) in the flesh topped out at 1 plate - including myself.
That was an entire plate and 2 - 4 reps more than I had seen. This seemed an impossible feat (lol again).
I have sons, strength is important to young boys. I know that the world is different todat and they’ll see lots of ordinary guys benching 500lbs on the interwebz before their first week of lifting is out.
Still, I’d like them to see something that makes the impossible seem possible in the flesh. If I’m not a cripple by then haha
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I’d like to Deadlift 600 lbs but I think Lee Boyce is right when he says it won’t benefit my quality of life any more than 315 lbs.
I think it’s just the way the brain works for those of us who train for strength. If I’m not trying to get stronger then what am I doing?
The reality is that I spend a lot of time trying to regain my strength on specific lifts because nagging joint pain will force me to stop for a while.
Case and point - my bench press. I finally trained it and hit or matched my PR of 305 and then I quit doing it because my shoulder hurt. When I can do it again then I’ll spend a few months just trying to get back to that point.
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I am in the same boat. A year ago I stopped benching altogether. 6-8 months ago, I stopped back squatting and just front squat. I’m going to stop deadlifting too. I’m going to transition to *gasp * bodybuilder style training with a focus on health and aesthetics. I might even curl and do abs.
I’m just tired of the pains of my youth causing me to be in pain or take weeks off.
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I’ve done that multiple times in my life. That’s part of the reason I haven’t reached my bench and squat goals. I’d pursue strength until it hurt and then I’d switch to hypertrophy only training.
I wouldn’t grow (because I didn’t want to lose my abs) so then I’d switch back to trying to get stronger at my current weight. I’ve been going back and forth for a decade.
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You should get an axle bar
For bench?