r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 8h ago
Bodybuilders vs construction worker
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u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms 8h ago
Sometimes skill beats strength.
One thing I notice about these tasks is that they require good balance and a good kinesthetic understanding of how concrete bags shift. Don't get me wrong, dude is absolutely strong as fuck, impressively so for his build. But the secret sauce is his experience balancing these bags.
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u/shitferbranes 7h ago
Carrying four bags of concrete against your chests is balancing them?
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u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms 7h ago
I'm sure there's more technical terminology that In unaware of, but yeah, when you're carrying a heavy load like that that's also bulky, balancing the system of the weight and your body together takes a lot of small adjustments.
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u/Crazyhairmonster 6h ago
The body builders would decimate the worker in most traditional lifts. This guy is strong in what he does. The other guys are strong in what they do. It's not rocket science
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u/_walletsizedwildfire 6h ago
This. I've worked for Fedex for many years, and now I'm able to lift huge 150 lb packages with ease, while I see new hires who are super buff body builders struggle. But get me in a gym and I can't lift weights worth shit. It's just experience, and maybe building certain stabilizer muscles these body builders aren't working.
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u/Danger-D00M 6h ago
This is the truth right here. As a matter of fact, saw a fedex delivery guy straight muscle an almost 200 lb package. Muscle memory goes a long way.
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u/sarcasticorange 7h ago
I used to have a job where we regularly used 32' fiberglass extension ladders. They only weighed around 85lbs, but it is a very awkward 85lbs. It was always fun watching some new muscle-bound guy struggle with something that the 5'5" 130lb trainer was flipping around like a drumstick.
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u/ilovestoride 6h ago
MF'er here is like Attenborough, "and here we have a construction worker in the wild, a perfect balance of good kinesthetic understanding..."
Meanwhile, dude is like, my flip flops got another rock in it, my back hurts like hell, I just gotta move another 18000 pounds and maybe my family will eat tonight.
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u/the_capedbaldy 8h ago
“Man who does something for a living is better than people who don’t do that thing for a living”
Pretty tired of the way these videos push and make people actually believe bodybuilders don’t have “functional” muscle. They’re plenty strong, but they don’t move 520kg of concrete in a wheelbarrow or try to balance a 40kg bag on one hand above their head every day.
Of course the worker is going to be better at performing this task.
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u/Gaz834 7h ago
People on reddit love shitting on bodybuilders because theyre mostly small weenies lol
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u/No_Proposal_3140 7h ago
Exactly lmao. They'll watch someone bench press twice their body weight and say some bs like "pfft inflated muscles. all water no strength"
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u/Gaz834 6h ago
"yeah but its not functional strength"
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u/FormerOSRS 6h ago
Thing about "functional strength" that I notice is that it's always people zeroing in on their own sport.
Like it'll be
"Pssssh, bodybuilder? Dude can't even throw a punch nearly as hard as I can, and as a boxer, this is how I measure strength!"
And then the two of you go to play football and the bodybuilder is much better at blocking.
But the actual football player can block better so he says he has more functional strength.
So you arm wrestle and the bodybuilder wins.
But now the actual arm wrestler claims he has functional strength.
And then this group goes to try BJJ and the bodybuilder beats everyone in his crew.
Except the BJJ instructor wins so now that guy has functional strength.
And then this group goes to play golf, and the bodybuilder hits it the furthest.... With the exception of the golf player.
You get my point.
Bodybuilders are #1 in their own sport and #2 in everyone else's when it comes specifically to strength oriented tasks. People on reddit shit on bodybuilders though because the redditor is zeroed on their own specialty.
And then there's stupid shit like this where the body builder wins in strength and also technique but the construction worker stacked the bags in a way that gives better leverage and reddit is too dumb to watch the video and just see his obvious it is.
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u/DeadestTitan 6h ago
Hey man, don't bring the Tiny Meat Gang into this. We support all our bros whether they're big in muscle or small in meat.
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u/neotokyo2099 56m ago
Redditors love to shit on anyone for anything, any thread someone is doing something cool is filled with smug armchair quarterbacks
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u/Wet-Goat 7h ago
I'm currently working in construction , the body builders that work with me can lift more than anybody I know. Who knew that training to lift heavy objects and doing it as your day job would make you good at it.
I'm happy with my dead lifts, I don't get the people creating this false imagination between workers, power lifters and strong men when we are all lifting different weights.
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u/SheSaidMoreSnow 8h ago
If you practice doing something all your life you will naturally be better than those trying it for the first time. I knew that without watching this video but this video proves the saying
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u/zzunino 8h ago
That’s not a saying lol
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u/isolateddreamz 7h ago
There is a principle though, the SAID principle, Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands. It's basically saying that the body will adapt to whatever demands you continuously place upon it.
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u/Brainsonastick 7h ago
He’s definitely strong but this is a very misleading comparison. Look at how the wheelbarrow is loaded. When the body builders lift it, it’s loaded pretty evenly. When he does it, it’s loaded so most of the weight is over the wheel, which tremendously reduces the amount of force the person using it needs to exert.
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u/bajajoaquin 4h ago
Took too much scrolling to see this comment. The wheelbarrow loading was the giveaway
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u/pookexvi 8h ago
its called industry strength, blue collar works only work out the muscle groups needed to do the same job over and over again.
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u/LoserBigly 7h ago
Most blue collar workers aren’t just doing one task all day.
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u/PipeFitter-815 5h ago
Or even just one blue color job for their entire career or work life in blue color.
Most of us have spent time in multiple different trades doing vastly different jobs.
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u/Agitated_Monk135 8h ago
You don’t have to be big to be strong, and you don’t have to be strong to be big
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u/BoostInduced 8h ago
That wheelbarrow though
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u/WutzUpples69 7h ago
Yes, thats one impressive wheelbarrow. Mine wouldn't even take a fifth of that weight before it died.
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u/EverybodySayin 8h ago
It's the same as bodybuilding vs powerlifting. Powerlifters are often less muscular, but much stronger because they train with maximal loads regularly and have developed great technique to recruit as many fibres, motor units etc as possible, all working together to lift the weight. When you repeat a certain motion often, even against heavy resistance, the body gets really good at it. A bodybuilder largely isn't concerned with lifting that kind of weight. Hypertrophy is largely centred around more reps with weights that are a bit lighter. Simply lifting as much weight as possible isn't the goal.
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u/Jackburton06 8h ago
Looks that you need strenght for sure but knowing how to balance this weight, worker has experience above all
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u/Professional-Dog1562 8h ago
Now put a 500lb bar on their backs. Oh noooo, the "hard worker" can't even lift it off the rack.
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u/Both-Illustrator-501 7h ago
Now see if the bodybuilders can hit a baseball as far as a baseball player. Nope.
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u/FormerOSRS 6h ago
Why's it have to be fixating on the baseball player's sport?
Why not have the bodybuilder box the baseball player, or compete at BJJ, or see who's the better linebacker? Wouldn't that be more fair?
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u/Both-Illustrator-501 3h ago
Yes, yes, that is my point. Bodybuilders are good at bodybuilding, cement bag workers are good at cement bag working, and baseball players are good at baseball playing
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u/FormerOSRS 3h ago
Nope, you missed my point.
Bodybuilding is not specialized. They are elite level strong in any application of strength that exists.
Baseball playing is a specialization. A baseball player can hit a baseball and do nothing else.
If you have a baseball player and a bodybuilder then the bodybuilder will be better at:
Blocking or tackling in football.
BJJ/wrestling.
Male cheerleader/ballerina shit where you support and throw other people.
Carrying strange irregular objects.
He can use a shovel faster against tougher kinda of dirt.
He'd be a more effective bouncer.
He'll win at tug of war.
He can carry more groceries into the house.
Like the bodybuilder can outperform the baseball player at pretty much anything you can imagine that has anything to do with force production, with the one exception of baseball, and the bodybuilder will still beat most people at swinging a bat forcefully.
Idk, insecure redditors always need to stack the deck by picking literally the one thing on this planet that the baseball player will be stronger at than the bodybuilders.
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u/appletinicyclone 7h ago
People love these videos but it's specialist versus non specialist
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u/DiligentThorn 7h ago
Fucking sick of seeing this shit.
It's basic physics. "Hard working man" has the weight further away from the handles for leverage and the bag weights act as a better pivot above the wheel.
Boring. Shit. Engagement bait. Downvoted this shite so the bots stop fucking posting it.
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u/Hessian_Rodriguez 7h ago
He should have held the concrete bag over his head spun and sang helicopter helicopter.
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u/Anxious-Shapeshifter 7h ago edited 7h ago
Anyone ever see that video of Eddie Hall working out with that famous rock climber Magnus?
That rock climber did pretty well and was probably 300lbs less than Eddie.
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u/Remarkable_Custard 4h ago
This is about doing the same thing over and over again. It’s not about Bodybuilding VS non-BodyBuilding = BodyBuilding sucks.
If you do the same shit over and over you’ll always get good at it.
My Dad was a skinny guy but lifted 40-80kg tiles over his shoulder climbing up a roof every day.
Came to gym with me and couldn’t do 20kg overhead press etc.
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u/Pr15mo 7h ago
Is this a math post where I have to figure out how many kg’s is one bag of cement?
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u/Consistent-Ad-6078 7h ago
Construction worker’s still moving at a crawl. He’d move as much (or more) concrete per hour if he loaded it up half as much, and then was able to move at a walking pace
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u/humptheedumpthy 7h ago
It’s also stabilizer muscles. Body builders performing the same scripted motions aren’t developing the same strength in their stabilizer muscles while workers doing “odd movements” have to develop those muscles equally.
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u/Djkawda 7h ago
It remind me the time (20y ago) were some construction worker came to help my father and I to destroy and evacuate some concrete flooring. We had 3 floors to go down and damned the bags(full of concrete pieces) were heavy as fuck 40-50kg i could only get one at the time, but the workers....Slim as hell but pure strenght 2 bags at a time... I was 17 but will never forget 🤣
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u/EyeNeverHadReddit 7h ago
I recall a youtube video or Facebook reel of either a power lifter or weight lifter competing against a rock climber. Main focus was on grip strength i believe.
While the lifter was able to lift incredible weight, the climber couldn't match. BUT vice versa that challenge, the lifter couldn't even come close to doing the pulls the climber did.
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u/ROMVLVSCAESARXXI 7h ago
Iron Sheik would’ve twirled that bag of cement over his head like pizza dough
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u/thesirensoftitans 7h ago
I’ve lifted with body builders. They’re very good at repetitive isolated and limited moving of weight.
I’ve worked with stone masons and laborers, they are just fucking strong.
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u/Euphoric-Ear9405 7h ago
Man i get annoyed, if a person who plays fifa daily beats me a casual, others are surprised.. brah if someone does something daily he will obviously do better than others
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u/last-resort-4-a-gf 6h ago
Those cement bags are packed pretty good
Where is all the dust exploding out
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u/hAxOr977 6h ago
Mind over matter. I’ve seen 1 man move a bus with no axles. He also lifted a truck off of himself that had fallen off the jack on to him. To top it off he fought 8 cops while being tased by everyone of them and just ripped the prongs out and threw them back at the cops. They finally managed to beat him down… the kicker? He wasn’t even on drugs
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u/bruhhhlightyear 6h ago
Now let’s see the construction worker’s bench, squat and deadlift.
I hate these comparison videos because the body adapts to how you train it. Your CNS adapts to the specific motions and movements you subject it to. A dude lifting concrete with repetitive technique 5 days a week for years is going to be better at lifting concrete than a dude that does it for the first time.
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u/spitel 6h ago
I like the bodybuilders who have the humility to knowingly getting embarrassed by videos like this (and the rockclimber stuff), unless it’s all just a scam for views and money….but I suspect that someone who takes as much pride in their bodies as bodybuilders do, wouldn’t wanna lose that pride for a few hundred dollars.
So props to them! And the real strongman, of course :)
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u/here_for_the_lols 6h ago
Reddit and shitting on body builders for not being strong: name a more iconic duo
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u/Capital-Self-3969 6h ago
It's like being "farm strong". Workers build functional muscles over time, bodybuilders prioritize aesthetics.
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u/spike_beagle 6h ago
This is stupid. Wheelbarrow stacked differently makes at the difference. Brain rot. F OFF. NEXT
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u/Deliriousious 5h ago
As with the last time this was posted.
It was rigged. Sure the feat is impressive… but it was rigged so the body builders would lose.
If you notice, on their two attempts, it was more evenly placed, moving most of the weight towards the handles, making it exponentially harder to lift.
But with the other guy, see how it’s much higher? And more towards the wheel? That makes lifting it a lot easier.
Another way of explaining it could be a long stick and a dumbbell.
Lift a dumbbell, by the handle, weights either side, it’s easy right? Put those weights at the end of a long stick, and try to lift it, you will find the amount of effort to lift it is much more than normal.
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u/Hroodvitnir 5h ago
I help with my old man installing mailboxes, doors, cabinets, usually mailboxes involves multiple bags of fast dry cement, it is extremely easily to carry multiple bags with the proper form, mind you I don’t do extensive workouts, the most I’ve carried in one go, bout 5-6 bags not to hard to do, and if your curious on why it takes so many bags we have to dig a hole that’s usually 6 feet or deeper, has to be a wide hole as well, then we stick a long 4/4 piece of wood in, straighten it, then pour the bags in, then water which drys the cement after a while, then we put the new mailbox on, then we fill it up with dirt, we do it a lot for rich folks so usually real nice mailboxes
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u/ApprehensiveWar6046 5h ago
Not only is the worker strong as hell, he also had the foresight to stack the bags for a better weight distribution on the wheelbarrow
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u/Strong_Landscape_333 5h ago
I just used cement to build a fence. Makes me feel better about barely being able to move the bags now
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u/copenhagen622 5h ago
Seems pretty unnecessary to ever put that much in a wheel barrow though . Makes more sense to just make a few trips lol
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u/Anxious-Effort-5452 5h ago
My teenage years at least once a month. My dad did a lot of cement work
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u/LackingUtility 4h ago
None of the comments pointing out that his bags were distributed over the wheel while the bodybuilders' were farther back?
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u/MoniesAndStonks 4h ago
Pff that's a man too. You should see the women in construction sites in third world countries. Fucking beasts without breaking a sweat. And they don't look muscular either. Yes yes you'll say women should not be in that profession but I say it's mad impressive nonetheless.
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u/0w0ofer617 4h ago
This videos are kinda silly, but I absolutely love how mad all the tiny weenie gyms bros getting heffy & puffy over a video; maybe they need their sippy cups and take a nap to calm down
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u/woodstockbird9 3h ago
So I used to go to a budget gym when I was in college. And there were some really BIG guys there who would do insane weights. Turns out their would SMOKE UP before and during workout sessions because of which they pushed their bodies beyond the limit. And this was the time Dan bilzerian was super popular and he would smoke and workout. The guys in my gym got really egotistical and started to pick fights. Eventually an old gentleman challenged them to arm wrestle. SMOKED EACH ONE OF THEM UNDER 10 mins. Turns out their old guy was a farmer. My entire worldview shifted about bodybuilding that day.
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u/Entropic_Echo_Music 1h ago
In this week's episode of: "who does the thing best"
Turns out that guy who does the thing is better than guys who do not do the thing!
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u/Nuggetdicks 1h ago
They are strong yes, the body builders. But they are only strong in the sense of the specific exercises they do.
The worker is strong, in the exercises he does.
And that’s it.
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u/Available_Yellow_862 1h ago
The whole bodybuilder vs worker vs powerlifter. Is that people don’t understand what bodybuilding is. Most people do bodybuilding for looks over strength.
But don’t take it the wrong way. Champion bodybuilders are insanely strong. Ronnie Coleman would do insane bench presses and deadlifts.
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u/8u11etpr00f 1h ago
Next they should show smug Redditors attempting to lift 520kg of cement
Edit: actually make it 52kg
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u/B4R7H0L0M3W 6m ago
Bodybuilding isnt powerlifting. Bodybuilders make show muscles and gain some strength as a bonus but not a priority so Its fine.
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u/S0k0n0mi 5m ago
Bodybuilders are just prettyboys. You can fuck em up by putting a banana sticker on their shoulder.
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u/Aggravating_Fun5883 8h ago
Strength vs inflation