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Best test of strength?

PTC

Member
Chatting with a lifter from my gym, he observed at a recent comp that when the bar hit the flloor, a lifters true strength became evident.

This guy is good lifter at all 3 lifts, it was the first comp he'd watched, and he was very surprised to see lifters in the equipped section who were attempting squats 80kg higher than him deadlift less than him.

I explained thats because the equipment helps least on the deadlift.

So he answered back, is the deadlift the true test of ones strength?

He is assuming that we test someones overall strength with one lift.

Eliminate the technical lifts from OL obviously, just brute strength.

What do you guys reckon?

Is the raw deadlift (belt allowed) the best test of raw strength. We have guys on here who pull 300kg raw, interesting to hear what they think.
 
Not the deadlift (and deadlifts are probably my best exercise).

Its way too dependent on leverages and tends to suit gangly bastards like me.

Raw squats all the way.
 
i'm unsure if there is a cross the board 1 movement to measure somebody's strength. For a lifter with longer arms, deadliting is great. Squatting not so much.
 
two hand anyhow?

saxon.gif


i think deadlift.
squats can be shallow and use little upperbody
 
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Id agree with clean and jerk. Only problem is that has alot to do with technique.

Id say, to test strengh, you would have to deadlift and overhead press.
 
hmmm... turkish get up... cant really find a way around that one to make it easy.. but strongman events is the way to do it.
 
I think it is, I dead 300kg raw and hit 320 in a suit, so its only a 20kg carry over. My training partner can get 100kg out of his inzer canvas over a raw box squat. Andy bolton only gets around 20-25kgs out of his deadlift suit, so I think that somes it up there lol Deadlift reigns surpreme). In powerlifting anyway. Remember when Gary Frank hit a 420kg deadlift everyone thought it could never be done. Now Bolton is the big gun.

So yeah definately the deadlift and maybe a overhead press. A zercher squat comes to mind as well.
 
Good argument Skalawhatever, that was my point.

Strongman, but which event? Atlas Stones, Log Press?

Turkish get up. Love it. Best test of strength? Hardly. One of the weakest guys I know does it with a 40kg BARBELL, weighing 60kg. He is a forum member. I have girls at PTC deadlift as much as him. Is he strong? No. Is he good at TGU? Obviously.

I know there isnt ONE movement, but my question is if you HAD to pick one, which one?
 
Good argument Skalawhatever, that was my point.

Strongman, but which event? Atlas Stones, Log Press?

Turkish get up. Love it. Best test of strength? Hardly. One of the weakest guys I know does it with a 40kg BARBELL, weighing 60kg. He is a forum member. I have girls at PTC deadlift as much as him. Is he strong? No. Is he good at TGU? Obviously.

I know there isnt ONE movement, but my question is if you HAD to pick one, which one?

You don't have to pick one Markos.

It's a silly question, move on.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
If it has to be a single lift, I'd say the hip-crease-below-top-of-knee back squat.:p

Olympic lifts - because they are actually composed of a number of movements, you'd think they'd be a good measure of overal strength, but it also means they're too technical to be a useful measure. It's far more common for the strongest lifter to not win olympic weightlifting gold than it does for the strongest lifter to not win a powerlifting event. That, and the number of years it takes to perfect technique well enough to handle the big weights make it hard to measure strength for non-elite lifters.

Bench press and overhead press tend to favour the short armed, heavy lifters.

Deadlift tends to favour long armed spindly lifters (think Lamar Gant).

That leaves squat, which for me is the great evener-upper. Yes, there are some people that are built for squatting, but it's less obvious than other lifts. Look at record books for any federation, raw or equipped, and it just scales with bodyweight and across genders so proportionally compared to other lifts.
 
Tricep kickback... :eek:

Hard to choose, maybe an overhead squat.

LOL, funniest thing I've read all day :p


I am more inclined to say the squat over the deadlift.

Overhead squat relies on flexibility, wouldn't that rule out a lot of 'strong' people who aren't flexible?
An overhead squat is certainly a more impressive feat, I just think too many people might be out of the running from the word go if they can't pull their arms back.
Maybe because of that it's a good test to sort the real strength athletes from the rest of the crowd.
Any thoughts?
 
continental clean press perhaps?

Or an atlas stone pickup & farmers walk? .. That shit is ****ing hard...
 
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