Wiry Strength, The How And The Why
There have been several instances in my life that have caused me to rethink this whole thing about health and fitness. One of the main ones was when I first moved to Okinawa, Japan. As part of the armed services, our stuff would be shipped from the States over to where we were living. On the Island, there were locals who assisted in getting our belongings off the truck and up to whatever room in the barracks we were going to be living in. Most were average Okinawa height and weight, 5’ 3’’ - 5’ 7’’, and in the range of 140 pounds. I was amazed at their ability to move around heavy boxes with ease better than I could. Believe me, I tried lifting up one of my boxes to help and fumbled. Luckily the only one who saw me was a woman of similar rank as I was.
Once I placed my box back down after that failed attempt here comes one of the movers down the stairs, placed his arms around the box, and quickly popped it onto his shoulder and preceded to walk up several flights of stairs.
Strength is more than muscle and barbells.
While I was on the island I for a short period of time engaged in some ground fighting with a peer of mine. Grounding fighting is pretty much wrestling/grappling. He was one of those guys you’d classify as, “Wiry.” He looks normal but has a great deal of strength to him. I had, in high school been involved in some grappling martial arts and I had maintained it here and there up till this point. But my friend was difficult to fight with not only due to his technique but his strength as well.
There were several more examples I can go into throughout my life. What Is it about a person that makes them, “Wiry?” How can power reside in a frame that from the outside looks unassuming?
What is Strength?
Strength is the ability to exert force on an object and move it through space and time. Important aspects of strength are coordination and the ability to get enough of your muscle fibers to activate. You see this at work in extreme cases such as a fight or flight situation. Where, due to an extreme need the individual needs to overcome a great force or object in order to survive and in some instances save a loved one. During these moments, all the limiters of the body are shut off and some amazing things can happen, but with this comes the likelihood of injury.
But every day we can tap into a little of this without injury. Train so that you have coordination and you can use effectively the muscles you do have.
When I was working for a concrete coatings company for a bit we had this huge grinder that weighed over 500 pounds.
Getting it out of the company truck was difficult enough. Sometimes we worked on the back patio and during these times we needed to get this hefty piece of equipment back there by placing large wooden boards down one after another creating a bridge as we go. If we were unlucky and there was some kind of a small hill before you got to the backyard then we had to go into Sisyphus Mode.
If I was moving this thing with another individual who was fit or a big-by-default/Paul Bunyan type then it was less difficult. I enjoyed parts of this job due in part to my experiences of witnessing the movers in Okinawa. This job helped me to develop and appreciate the strength that could be developed outside of a gym. Not large muscles but those that could be used efficiently. What some might call, “Farmers Strength.” We also had two generators we needed to pull/push around as well. If the grass was muddy then you’d get an extra leg workout for the day.
When moving these machines, if I or any of my teammates lacked coordination as well as the ability to generate force and cause a heavy object to move, we would not have been able to get started on our work. Same with those who are movers or involved in weight lifting/strongman competitions.
At the time of this job, I was around 160 pounds. The rest of those on my team weren’t overly muscular they were on a spectrum of average built to slightly muscular. The amount of muscle we had on our frame didn’t matter. What mattered was how we used it. My boss at this job was a very strong guy as well. Large muscles in the grand scheme of things will only take you so far.
How Can We Develop This Wiry Strength?
There are multiple ways to develop wiry strength. One way of the easiest ways is to work at a place where you’ll be moving around heavy objects. This can be as a construction worker, a farmer, at a concrete coatings company, at a moving company, and many more.
Outside of this, any kind of odd object lifting. Not everything in life is shaped like the bar of a barbell. Kettlebells, kegs, tire flipping, farmers walks, etc. Once my life settles down I will invest in some of this stuff and use it daily. If I ever move out to the middle of nowhere I’d like to have my own piece of land with a nice hill on it. Here, I will be performing weighed hill sprints. What I can also do is purchase a sled or a heavy punching bag, have a rope or strap from there to tie it around my waist, and from there I can proceed to forward or backward walk it up, or even bear crawl the object back to the top of the hill. But it's just a dream for now…
But for now, to train my coordination and the ability to activate higher and higher percentages of all my muscle fibers safely, I got Overcoming Isometrics.
Here I explain one of my typical Overcoming Isometric workouts. Instead of doing just one contraction per joint angle, I’m doing several now to better train my strength endurance. Because, when it comes to real life, either working a manual labor job or hiking with heavy weight on your back while fighting in a Banker War, that’s what matters.
What about progressive calisthenics? Can it get us to this goal?
If done right. If reps are always kept low and one’s grip is trained on a consistent basis I believe it can help. If while keeping the rep count low the exercise becomes too easy, like with a pistol squat, one can transition over to more explosive variations.
Lower Reps 3 - 7
Explosive Reps
Grip Strength
Why
Life experience has taught me that it is better to be able to get the job done than to look like you can get the job done. Additionally, when your training is focused more on strength and performance the calorie surplus and the need to break out the calculator and calculate your macros decreases. The work some put into developing their physiques is admirable. However, part of that is due to genetics when it comes to the myostatin protein. Click here if you want to learn more about it. For me, I can accomplish more by having my muscle building as a secondary priority. Training for strength and performance vice massI can save you
Time
Money
And Energy
Wrap Up
Muscles and barbells are not always required to develop great strength. Most times all you need is the ability to activate most of your muscle fibers around your body as well as have them work in synergy. I’m about having a high strength-to-weight ratio. I’m talking about that worker-ant strength.
Thank you for making it to the end and the comments are below
Until next time…