For a good cause...

[PatCNJ]

Tested my strength this past weekend. Newark Airport, Continental Airlines and the Special Olympics had one of their annual fundraisers...the airplane pull. It's a 93,000 lb. jet pulled by teams of twenty for a distance of 12 ft. 40 teams entered. My team came in 4th with a pull of 6.84 seconds, almost a second faster than last year. This also interesting because a number of teams had much larger pullers....powerlifters. My team was mostly martial artists.

Not a very scientific study of strength increases, but part of that improvement came from all team members, myself included (not said out of ego but in truth.)

Will look for a more individual test of strength in the coming weeks. For now I have graduation to worry about.

For the record, over $87,000 was raised for the Special Olympics. No matter who came in first, the kids won.

[Andy62]

That's great!

[gruntbrain]

Indeed, pulling "immovable" objects is a test of near total body strength. Next year try an airplane push for a worthy cause

[PatCNJ]

Kind of difficult to push the plane. Attaching a rope to the nosegear is easy. Finding a place to push from is not. Have done pushes with smaller objects in the past. Used a car with the engine running and a driver to step on the break (believe me, you need one).

Still a little beside myself thinking about all the powerlifters and strongmen that were there. My team was small compared to them. Still managed to beat most of the teams. Also interested to see how many of them showing signs of 'busted up weightlifter syndrome'.

Like I said, this was hardly a scientific study of strength increases. Short of lifting weights, I am not sure how to set up a controlled study, I also have other goals I have set for myself.

[Greg Newton]

Hey Pat,

Sometimes that is the problem. Functional or real world strength can be experienced and is observable, but it is not always measurable. You know you feel different. You know you move different. And, you know things move when you put a hand to it. Weight training is different. In many ways most lifts represent a static strength. Mainly I am talking about conventional lifts like bench presses, squats, etc. You move a weight from point A to point B fighting gravity; up and down. The strength is developed through one pathway and the musculature is strengthened and developed in one plane of motion. There can be applicability to other tasks, but movement can be inhibited in other directions because of the one direction the strength was built. Some muscle fibers are not strengthened and others are over strengthened.

Gosh, I am starting to sound like those psuedo-intellectual armchair trainers I get so irritated at! Anyway, you and your team should be congratulated and I don't think your observation was amiss. Your team of martial arts practioners had the ability to move their strength in multiple planes of motion whiile some of the other teams couldn't translate their strength because it had only been built through one range of motion.

Or to give another example, one time I watched a 400+ bencher try to press a 135 pound barbell overhead. The strength was there, but the muscles weren't used to moving in that direction. He shook and quivered all over the place and could barely press the bar. The cells and nerves of his muscles were locked into one pathway.

Congratulations again and thanks for helping a very important and neglected part of our society.

Greg Newton

[gruntbrain]

Pat
Exergenies & other rope friction devices offer 1 way to measure strength. Thrift Stores are a good resource for such overpriced gizmos. Forum member bennyb has performed many feats of strength where he moves "immovable" objects; bending rebar is one such strength demo

[John Peterson]

Hey PatCNJ,

Congratulations are in order. The Special Olympics is definitely a worthy cause.

I'm curious Pat, how many people were allowed on each team? And was there a total combined 'weight limit' of the participants involved? The reason I mention this is because 35 years ago there was a Sunday afternoon program on ABC sports called "Super Stars" that included athletes from a wide range of sports competing in sports outside of their specialties. One team event they had was the 'Tug of War' in which they had the World Series Winning Baseball Team against the Super Bowl Winning Football Team. What they did was to allow a total weight limit for each team competing. At first everyone thought that it was a forgone conclusion that the football players would win this event with great ease. After all, the football players were so much bigger. But because there was a 'total combined weight limit' rather than a total number of men limit, the baseball players actually had two more men on their team pulling and if memory serves me right, the baseball players won the 'Tug of War'.

In any event. Congratulations my friend.

---John Peterson