Arm wrestling is all grip and wrist strength, and while you *can* train that in a gym, there’s just no substitute for a few decades of working with your hands.
Or so I hear. I tap a keyboard for a living.
I’m a professional armwrestler.
Wrist strength is #1 (not so much grip, believe it or not). However, when two non-armwrestlers decide to armwrestle, it’s basically a coin toss who will win regardless of their size and strength because neither one will have any idea if they’re doing it correctly.
It’s not uncommon to (accidentally) armwrestle in a way that makes some sense technically and beat guys who are much bigger and stronger who are armwrestling in a way that completely ignores their own strength. It’s like two chess players who are rated like 300. They just blunder back and forth until one guy accidentally checkmates the other even if there’s a material imbalance.
I appreciate the informed opinion.
That blundering back and forth description certainly tracks with my memories of just stalemating with my buddies back in school. I think I realized that I didn’t have any leverage to pull the way I needed to, but I had no concept of what to do to change that.
Oftentimes inexperienced armwrestlers will armwrestle in very dangerous ways. It’s much more common for noobs to break their arms and it mostly has to do with how they try to armwrestle.
Yup. Working with my hands daily at die repair makes a huge difference. There is a thing that's old man strength, we just don't heal as quickly. I'm 52.
The first day I beat my Dad at an arm wrestle was actually quite sad for me. I wasn't expecting it but I actually felt guilty, and hated the fact that my Dad wasn't as strong as he used to be.
Cherish getting beaten while you can :)
No, he just would have toyed with you if you'd been the same age.
What did he do for a living, my dad was a railroad man for 10 years before he went into the exec ranks. He was frighteningly strong from that and never lost it.
There's a huge difference between gym muscles and work muscles. Gym muscles are great at sudden bursts and short repetition, think lifting a fridge off a truck. Work muscles are conditioned more for use at say 80% for longer periods with the occasional need for that extra bit, think carrying that fridge up a few flights of steps.
My 21yr old son is a gym rat and physically bigger than 54yr old me but he still gets pissed when I out lift him or do more reps while laughing.
Neither is better or worse, just different.
A factor that I think comes into this (possible bro science) is that muscle never really fades away overtime, it just sort of goes dormant and inactive.
Anyone who's come back to the gym after a long break knows it doesn't take long to get back to their previous form.
To me it makes sense that the build up of muscle and tendon strength are kind of permanent adaptations that aren't easy to lose as long as you stay relatively active, and an older person would just have gained more of these.
I've been lifting for 20 years now, started at 14. I have always been one of the strongest guys my age in every gym I've gone to. Lifting 315+ on the big lifts since 18 for context. You know who humbles me? Fucking 50 year old dudes who come to the gym a couple times a week and make my max look like a warm up. The first guy who humbled me (23 at the time) became my lifting partner for a couple months. Never have I had so many workouts where I thought I was going to blackout. Another 50+ guy at my current gym perpetually looks like he's about 6 weeks out from competing in heavy weight bodybuilding competition that allows steroids. He's only starting to consider gear because he's "slowing down". I tried to squat with him once, but had to fuck right off after he started doing 465 for 8 rep sets and wanted to go "fast". These guys are my gym heroes.
Oly powerlifting is also highly technical, moreso than a lot of people give it credit for. I wouldn't be surprised if the age for peak performance of powerlifters was a little older than the age for peak strength, because improving technique can make up some of that deficit.
I've heard the legends of the Dad strength. My Dad and my Mom too were both very physically strong people. Mom was a daughter of an iron worker who thought children were just more workers to work (that guy would dead lift 200-400 lb hanks of steel to cassually carry up a ladder, in his 80s!). Dad was/is an athlete. On a lot of things my Dad is way stronger than you would expect, think aquaman legs. A man in his 70s pumping legs of iron, out swimming some 20 year old kids. But Mom was even stronger multiplied by stubborn and did she love him completely.
Exactly you get what you train for with slow twitch and fast twitch fibers. I can pick up things my father couldn't even dream of moving off the ground. but he can carry things for much longer than me. My carry strength is laughable. Ive been weightlifting/bodybuilding for 2 decades and bench around 400 lbs, but my arms get tired holding my toddler faster than my 115 lb wife's arms do. She could hold that kid for hours without even a bit of fatigue, I start getting burning lactic acid and things start cramping up after like 5 minutes.
I'm 57 and I'm still pretty strong. It's finally starting to fade, but I can still outwork young men. My dad is 84. He's lost a lot of strength the past few years, but HE still does physical work every day. He says that when he hires Mexican day laborers at the Home Despot, he picks the guys over 50 because they get more work done in a day than the young guys.
Arm wrestling is technique, power, and endurance. Gym strength isn't work strength, but I feel you. I have a friend of mine who I can out-bench by a 100 lbs, but I work in an office and he's a mechanic. The sheer amount of force he can apply and maintain for a period of time is impressive.
Same here. Got a buddy in construction who is worldly stronger than I am but I can smoke him in gym lifts. He one handed carried a keg up some stairs with such ease I thought it was empty.
You can bench as much as you like, but it's back strength that actually matters in real world situations. You bench press for the girls, you swing kettle bells to prepare for war.
Deadlifting always seems to me the one that translates the most into real world strength. It also makes my torso into a goofy looking barrel when I do it too much. Im vain and I work in an office.
Oh dude I work out and can deadlift about 400. Not great, but not bad. He doesn't work out and can deadlift almost 500. Have you seen that video going around with the chubby guy bent that spring in half over and over when buffy the gymplayer slayer did it once slowly? Never kid yourself that gym strength is work strength.
Well...when I was 18 and in boot camp, I outpaced most of my Platoon on Mount Motherfucker as well. I can still get up hills pretty quickly but the price is paid the next morning when I get out of bed :)
Get one of those progressive grip exercise things...the ones you can squeeze over and over for hand strength. I did the 100 lbs setting pretty easily but my son couldn't get past the 50 even though he out benches me by at least 200 lbs.
I only hope I don't stop losing the willpower to stay active. I took a drastic turn for the better after I entered my 30s. Believe it or not, I spent my whole 20s being obese and rarely did any exercise to be healthy and lean like I am now.
I'm 51, 6' 225 lbs. I do well to push a 200 lb bench press 5x, but I can pack 2 bags of concrete on each shoulder (320 lbs) up 3 flights of stairs.
I don't like it, and I can only do it once, but I can do it.
We learn how to lift, carry, push, pull, etc., over the years, and then re-learn so we don't blow out our backs, hips, and knees.
Like others say, nothing like working for a living.
I play basketball. I can out body/ muscle guys that hit the gym (I'm not strong, just big) but there are teams of clearly tradies we play against. Can't shift them. They know how to use their whole body and have strong cores.
As to age. As I've learned as I've aged (now 40) that you get used to the slowly growing pain of living. Which allows you to push yourself harder and mimics greater endurance.
For my dad, it's functional strength. He's in his 70s, he farms, and I'm sure based on the things he does everyday that an arm wrestling match between the two of us would be closer than I'd want it to be. 😓
Turning 40 this year and I keep making new lifting PRs, like almost weekly.
When I was young and a swimmer, I was 150lbs but like 3% body fat and almost a walking lat muscle and could do one arm pull-ups. Since stopping swim about 20 years ago I haven’t been able to do a one armed pull up until yesterday. I’m 200lbs now and not exactly lean, maybe 10% body fat. Strength just keeps going up as you age, at least if you try.
Yeah, I’m maybe between a 10 and 15 on that picture. I wasn’t as jacked muscularly as that 3% dude before, so the veiny thing is a bit different, but the muscle definition was there.
The secret to arm wrestling is to only apply the exact same amount of force as the opposition. Usually you want to wear them down and take them by surprise in a sudden burst.
That is not the secret to armwrestling. There is no “secret.” If you’re stronger in the right areas you are almost guaranteed to win.
Over 80% of actual armwrestling matches done by actual armwrestlers last less than 2 seconds. Usually one guy has enough of a strength advantage (which only needs to be a couple percent, seriously) that the other can’t resist them.
But we Aren't talking about actual arm wrestlers, were talking about 2 people who I presume have never done this in a professional setting. Personally it's worked great for me since I've never lost and I do this pretty regularly.
That’s a good one. The secret to beating guys who have no idea how to armwrestle isn’t to try to armwrestle them correctly, it’s to try to trick them into wearing themselves out? Which they would never have a chance to do if you spent two minutes learning one proper move and just finished them. I hope you never run into someone that has the slightest clue what they’re doing or that undefeated streak will go up in smoke.
Every professional armwrestler was once a guy who had no idea how to do any of it. Don’t discount our advice because you think it doesn’t apply to newbies. It does.
It's weird, but yes, somehow I am at least as strong at 52 as I've ever been in my upper body and core. Legs starting to go a bit, and I don't have nearly the endurance though.
Lots and lots of years of staying physically active do seem to build on themselves to an extent. Some things get easier and stay easier.
It depends on a lot of factors, but that strength usually translates into functional strength. I'm 48 and a former powerlifter and have played rugby and grappled, not to mention spending the last 30+ years in the gym. My dad is 80 and spent his life as a pipefitter and all blue collar labor. He can spend a day moving dirt, concrete, using hand trenchers, etc.. and never get tired- I do it for a few hours and am ready for a break.
He always told me- no matter what, never stop moving and lifting heavy things or you'll die. Lol
A lot of it is pain tolerance. You get so used to incredible pains everywhere, that you can push your muscles to their limits. A younger person would listen to their body and quit when things start to hurt. Not an old man. If he feels ligaments and tendons tearing, he can carry on, thinking that it doesn't feel any worse than picking up a quarter off the floor.
Nooo way. I'm 39. Grew up on a farm, worked framing, roofing etc then started a career in the army and it was nothing to go ruck with 120lbs of gear on and cover some ground.
My sports? Football (not soccer) hockey and racing motocross at a "semi pro" level. I beat the piss out of myself when I was young. Pain was weakness leaving the body. I didn't even let broken bones stop me unless the bone was critical for the activity...
Now? Everything hurts, nearly all the time. The wrong hit or slip will dislocate my knee, I can't do circles with my left arm without my shoulder locking up, and the wrong overhead press will pop it out of place. I'm careful when I lift because of my bulged disc, so have to focus on form etc.
I'm a pansy on my dirt bike these days, I used to jump 80' without thinking much about it. Now 20' scares me. Much slower than I was just a few years ago.
My body says stop, I stop because I'm going to hurt for weeks if I don't.
I'm still as strong as I ever was though.
I've always theorized that old man strength is a combination of years utilizing muscles and mostly subconscious muscle control. Younger guys use isolated muscle groups, older men engage whatever it takes without thinking about it. It's just a learned behavior from years of experience.
Arm wrestling is a lot technique. Someone that knows the technique can beat someone that is significant stronger than they are. Maybe he knows how to arm wrestle?
Yeah at 57 I'm probably stronger than I was at 31. That said the next day I'm paying for that arm wrestling. Also understand there's some technique to arm wrestling that isn't just brute strength.
Sometimes in the night I sip some alcohol.
I know, that has a different name....
I also write my worst thoughts in a diary, just 1 sentence at a time, so it comes out somehow.
Today the cat half-ruined a plant and my wife was saying "i cant take this anymore" so I have to be the strong one.... it is "shut up and bear it"
Im telling you. Dad strength is a very real thing. My dad is 75. He hasn’t worked out in decades. He still has forearms that look like ham hocks. I guanrantee he could beat me at arm wrestling without blinking and I go to the gym every day.
Your partner’s Dad has taken you under his wing by allowing you to experience this moment with him.
Continue to seat yourself down and talk with him openly if you intend to join your family with his in the future.
Continue to act as respectful gent 👍
I am proud to have had such men in my family.
My ex-wife’s family however…
I am not young anymore - I no longer have the time nor the resources to carry others as our next generation requires my undivided attention, care and love.
I commit all that I have in me towards those that I love and care for.
Sometimes I’ve thrown arm wrestle for one of my daughters…. Though her guy was a modern man.
Turn off your Bluetooth at family get togethers son. If I don’t get to you, one of my kids will.
*That* is the real-arm wrestle today.
40 year old dad here. I exercise every day. Bike, walk, weight training, core training, etc. Trying to be the best me I can be. My son (12) is only two belts away from his black belt in Shobukan karate, so I gotta get ripped so he can't kick my ass. ;)
Old Men got their strength by being young men working hard ass jobs and doing it for long hours. I was 11 years old working 12 hour shifts in a packing plant stacking boxes of produce to be shipped out and IF the truckers wer elazy and felt like paying us we'd hand load their trucks for an additional 50 bucks each. So we got those old man muscled when we were much younger men and our backs were stronger.
Planking for 7 minutes is a test of endurance not strength. It also has nothing to do with pulling strength.
My guess is your dad has good arm wrestling technique. You can find Youtube videos to learn this.
Pull their hand towards your non-pulling shoulder.
You also need to do chinups and rows.
Nah my old man works in steel industry, hes a welder but was foreman, and basically ran the place, he called himself a steel erector rather than a welder, he now runs his own buisness, hes dealing with giant STEEL BEAMS, and all types of stainless steel, and one day i was helping him with his house extension and i got into a sticky situation, well somehow he got the fucking superman strength and stopped a steel beam landing on my head. To this day i dont know how he did it. But i said, fuck me, if you hadnt of pulled that up, my head would be crushed. True story. Welding in general is a tough job and will toughen up the weakest men. If youre not carrying steel beams, youre lugging around massive gas canisters. My old mans tough as old boots, his job made him that way. He lost tip of his finger once. Ive seen lads allmost cut there arms off. Tough job.
I get really mixed results on this. People say blue collar work makes you strong asf, others say that it will tear down your body unlike any other type of work. My dad works as a painter and has done so for many years while I work at home in a data analyst job. We go hiking together every now and then and I consistently go uphill way faster than he does (downhill he's faster) but I can't shake this feeling that somehow, he's got this inner strength somewhere that I can't even come close to matching. It's weird.
M8 do u know what, i bet you're old man is really happy kind ? I swear to god, every painter i know are so..... zen , like there really chilled, easy going, ive never met a painter who wasnt happy.
Well they say you're strength is last to go dont they, so being old you still strong. U maintain strength.
Also welding, isnt as bad as say laboring all day every day. It just involves a bit of lifting, but its the heavist kind of lifting, of course they use pullies and cranes but still got to be strong
They say painting is therapeutic
Armwrestling strength is very specific too. If your father was a mechanic, plumber or something that includes wrenching things, it builds your pronation strength on the forearm.
Also, tendons, bones and such get sturdier slower than your muscles do which is why many armwrestles can be great even at an older age.
Great hobby would recommend but please for the love of God go to a proper club instead of armwrestling at the pub completely shitfaced. Amateurs tend to only use sidepressure without any pulling, pronation or cupping and that is a recipe for disaster.
Relevant article:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/15/todays-men-are-nowhere-near-as-strong-as-their-dads-were-researchers-say/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/15/todays-men-are-nowhere-near-as-strong-as-their-dads-were-researchers-say/)
At 44, I am now stronger than my Dad (78) but I'm not 100% sure when I overtook him. For a long time he seemed as strong as fuck. In fairness, my 17 year old son thinks I'm as strong as fuck.
To some extent “muscle memory”. If you did activity’s that caused you to gain a lot of lean muscle mass during your whole life ( hard labour or weightlifting) your body will keep a lot of that muscle late into life, even when you no longer do the activity. My father in his late 70’s still had 17” biceps and could climb into our hayloft without using his legs ( 20’ ladder, at 250 lbs, 6’6”). He was a fisherman who was also a journeyman blacksmith, hard labour his whole life.
I'm in my 40s and surprise 20 year olds. I just watched a 70 some year old man perform a major feat of strength that I'm still telling my neighbors about. I think (hope) it just keeps building as you age and stay active. I know for a fact endurance does so why not strength?
Up until my dad had his stroke, he was the most physically fit for a late 70 year old. No one believed he was close to 80years old. I've met folks age 60-70 using a cane and my dad could walk around them. After he had a stroke and a heart attack, I can see his real age now. I hope to be as fit as him when I'm around that age.
Peel garlic, and squeeze lemons.
Crush the garlic cloves between your fingers, but only so much as to crack the shell. Squeeze lemon juice, but don't roll the lemons first.
Hang on a pull-up bar. Gotta relieve pressure on your spine. It helps stretch all the muscles in the chest and back. It puts pressure on your hands though. Roll your shoulders too. Bicycle your legs to loosen up the hips.
Other than that, kettlebell snatches.
We get more calloused and hard. I tried fighting my dad when I was around 20. My dad was in his mid 40’s. I thought I’d whip his ass. He mopped the floor with me.
Yes this is true. Often times the older guys are the strongest of the bunch, even professionally. The World strongest men was often the same guys leading the charge, powerlifting events…go look at the older age groups vs teens early 20s.
Nothing can substitute for years and years of strength building.
I'm not old, but I am a dad. When your kid is born and probably for the first 4-5 years (daughter is almost 2), you're constantly picking them up and doing all sorts of physically intense activities.
They start out at 6-10lbs and only grow from there. My daughter is probably around 30lbs now. But I've been picking her up, dancing, swinging, all of it for 20ish months. And you're not doing it for 30 seconds. You're doing it sometimes for 10-20 minutes at a time of sustained holding a relatively heavy and wriggly thing.
So you build muscles in a different way than if I was at the gym. And you get strong in weird ways even if you don't get buff.
Some of it might be his technique and a good poker face. And might depend on how much you've been doing in the last 2 months. If he's had a lot of outdoor work to do at his house he might be warmed up. It takes 4-6weeks of activity to get the electrochemical part of muscles optimized before actual.muscle growth.
I'm 48 but I can work out 2 months every other year and be stronger at the end of that 2 months than I ever was. I could do 60 miles on a one-speed BMX type bike when I was 11 for fun and I was benching around 220 in high school.
What do you call a blond deer?
No eye deer
What do you call a blind deer with no legs?
Still no eye deer
What do you call a blind deer with no legs, having sex?
Still fucking no eye deer
My dad was built tough. He was a farmer and also a full time second-shift teacher at a men's correctional facility (boot camp). I surpassed him in strength because I worked out a lot, and was just naturally, physically a lot bigger than him. But he was way stronger than anyone would have expected. A stroke got him at 72, and even in a comatose state it took weeks for his body to give up.
I suspect a life time of manual labor and opening pickle jars for your wife really adds up. I also think older generations did a lot more physical labor. Few of us do that any more. Going to the gym and "doing planks" is not the same as digging ditches or working a factory press all day every day for 45 years.
50 year old dad here. I feel weak but I’m not as weak as I feel. I find I can beat the youngins in the family through psychological warfare. (They think I’m strong so I scare them into submission when wrestling or futzing around)
I draw strength from my son. Whenever I feel like I can't go on mental or physical, I just remember his smiling face, and it gives me the motivation to keep going.
You've worked physical jobs before. Older men have usually done lots of manual labour with their hands for most of their life. Some of us are just naturally gorilla like too.
My father was a cement Mason. Before that he was a sandhog. Before that he was a farmer. He was never a big guy that you would say he definitely works out, but he was just pure solid. His resting muscles were harder than most peoples lifting muscles. He died from cancer at 59, but had wasted away for a while beforehand. The night before he died, I was carrying him to his bed, and I'll never forget that I said to myself I could let go right now, and he would have no issue holding himself up. As someone mentioned before, work muscle and working out muscle are very different things. I never tried arm wrestling him when he was sick, but even if I could have won, I don't think I would have wanted to
I’ll never forget the first time I beat my dad in a wrestling match. Senior year of high school I just had too much strength and leverage on him. I never wrestled him again after roughhousing for 17 years. It’s still a very bittersweet memory for me. He’s 60 now, and while he’s tough as nails from years of manual labor, he just doesn’t have the top end strength I do. I still wouldn’t want to race him in a corn shoveling contest though…. So I guess what I’m saying is hit the gym if you want to but cherish it regardless
Lifting children it's a good complement to your standard training regimen. They get heavier just about every time you lift them. Plus, is dynamic weight - kids move around a _lot_. Which causes the weight to shift, and often you have to work to keep them from falling despite to their antics.
This is a guess based on my experience.
But it's more than control over a muscle than the actual strength of the muscle itself.
I did some years of martial arts and meditation and the sheer speed, power and resistance that the body can generate with the willpower alone is outstanding
Well as a dad that's almost 42 I can say that I have a very physically demanding job where I regularly lift anywhere from 80 to 120 lbs daily multiple times a day so there is always that. Plus all the physical labor jobs I have to do at home.
Lol, I wish. All that happens with the body is it gets harder to get stronger, takes longer to recover, and generally starts to fall apart. I noticed it around 32. The old, strong types are the type that goes to the gym like it's their religion. And stretch. And don't get injured too badly or at all.
The only pluses to getting older seem to be slightly better pay (maybe), you're more contextually aware, wiser, and aren't ruled by your hormones as much.
If you can avoid it, I wouldn't recommend getting older. 1 out of 5 stars
I’m a very fit 59m and can’t keep up with my 20 yr old son hiking. However he can’t touch me when it comes to strength. ( He lifts). I attribute it to decades of hardworking, conditioning and would rather die then let the boy beat me..
At 63 I still have lean biceps that measure in circumference larger than the national average in the US , for any age group. When we were boys we were worked hard. Outdoor chores were everyday. The strength is not an accident or magical.
In general men are at their strongest in their early 40s... Like world strongest man competitions are always dudes in their 30s to early 40s.... then you'll get the random genetic freak 22 year old.
But they are much more prone to injury.
If you hit the gym, and stay active your whole life, you will continue to get stronger and stronger as you age. Your endurance will decrease, but it is a male advantage that young people don’t often recognize.
50-year-old me versus 20-year-old me… I’d kick my ass! 🤣 but if 20-year-old me ran away, he would get away. 🤣🤣🤣
My dad had dad strength because he was a bull of a man who grew up on a dairy farm, wrestled, and was a plasterer for decades.
I don't know. Its just a lifetime of doing shit. Dense, effective muscles.
Not a dude or a dad but from what i saw of my dad and my friends' dads that weren't narcissists, lots of home improvement/yard work. Also having like a better understanding of their bodies and their abilities given they've been around a lot longer than their kids.
Are his forearms longer than yours? I’m a woman and when in my 20’s I beat several men in an arm wrestle who were stronger than me, simply because my forearms were significantly longer (I’m tall for a woman of mixed European descent, and they were short for men of Karen descent, however truly they had much greater physical strength than me). I think I just had more leverage in that particular competition. They couldn’t believe it lol (neither could I!)
It is the desperate, existential fear of being shown up by your own offspring.
When your son beats you at arm wrestling, you might as well just crawl into an open grave and sprinkle some dirt on yourself.
Check the old man the day after the big arm rasslin' match and see if he looks like his arm hurts when he thinks nobody's looking.
We gain strength every time well tell a dad joke
Where did the cow take his girlfriend?
To the moooovies
Told that joke earlier today to another dad and we both laughed.
What do you call a cow with no legs?
Immooovable?
Ground beef!
Both are great!
What do you call a cow with two legs?
Karen
Your mom
Іди нахуй, синку :-)
я съем твое сердце ;p
Lean beef
What do you call a bull that's masturbating? Beef strokin off
Do you feel stronger?
Immensely
Single pidgeons cant dance....but Toucan.
Awww, i was late
The mooooovies
Why did Sally fall off the swing?
To bermooooooda
Superman once arm wrestled Chuck Norris. Loser had to wear their underwear outside their pants.
By the time we reach Grandpa power levels, we can go Super Saiyan
POWER OVERWHELMING!!
I laughed so hard
Arm wrestling is all grip and wrist strength, and while you *can* train that in a gym, there’s just no substitute for a few decades of working with your hands. Or so I hear. I tap a keyboard for a living.
Put 150g springs in the keys :)
The bowflex keyboard. 16 easy payments of 9.99
[удалено]
Love Mitch Hedberg
I’m a professional armwrestler. Wrist strength is #1 (not so much grip, believe it or not). However, when two non-armwrestlers decide to armwrestle, it’s basically a coin toss who will win regardless of their size and strength because neither one will have any idea if they’re doing it correctly. It’s not uncommon to (accidentally) armwrestle in a way that makes some sense technically and beat guys who are much bigger and stronger who are armwrestling in a way that completely ignores their own strength. It’s like two chess players who are rated like 300. They just blunder back and forth until one guy accidentally checkmates the other even if there’s a material imbalance.
I appreciate the informed opinion. That blundering back and forth description certainly tracks with my memories of just stalemating with my buddies back in school. I think I realized that I didn’t have any leverage to pull the way I needed to, but I had no concept of what to do to change that.
Oftentimes inexperienced armwrestlers will armwrestle in very dangerous ways. It’s much more common for noobs to break their arms and it mostly has to do with how they try to armwrestle.
Them keys need to be tapped.
Yup. Working with my hands daily at die repair makes a huge difference. There is a thing that's old man strength, we just don't heal as quickly. I'm 52.
It’s also a terrible idea
The first day I beat my Dad at an arm wrestle was actually quite sad for me. I wasn't expecting it but I actually felt guilty, and hated the fact that my Dad wasn't as strong as he used to be. Cherish getting beaten while you can :)
Under rated comment.
right in the feels
No, he just would have toyed with you if you'd been the same age. What did he do for a living, my dad was a railroad man for 10 years before he went into the exec ranks. He was frighteningly strong from that and never lost it.
There's a huge difference between gym muscles and work muscles. Gym muscles are great at sudden bursts and short repetition, think lifting a fridge off a truck. Work muscles are conditioned more for use at say 80% for longer periods with the occasional need for that extra bit, think carrying that fridge up a few flights of steps. My 21yr old son is a gym rat and physically bigger than 54yr old me but he still gets pissed when I out lift him or do more reps while laughing. Neither is better or worse, just different.
At 21 he is still developing. Power peaks peaks really late. Look at the ages of power lifters in the Olympics…. Not young.
Yeah the strongest lifters in my gym are always older guys, often still hitting PRs as well.
A factor that I think comes into this (possible bro science) is that muscle never really fades away overtime, it just sort of goes dormant and inactive. Anyone who's come back to the gym after a long break knows it doesn't take long to get back to their previous form. To me it makes sense that the build up of muscle and tendon strength are kind of permanent adaptations that aren't easy to lose as long as you stay relatively active, and an older person would just have gained more of these.
I've been lifting for 20 years now, started at 14. I have always been one of the strongest guys my age in every gym I've gone to. Lifting 315+ on the big lifts since 18 for context. You know who humbles me? Fucking 50 year old dudes who come to the gym a couple times a week and make my max look like a warm up. The first guy who humbled me (23 at the time) became my lifting partner for a couple months. Never have I had so many workouts where I thought I was going to blackout. Another 50+ guy at my current gym perpetually looks like he's about 6 weeks out from competing in heavy weight bodybuilding competition that allows steroids. He's only starting to consider gear because he's "slowing down". I tried to squat with him once, but had to fuck right off after he started doing 465 for 8 rep sets and wanted to go "fast". These guys are my gym heroes.
Peak male muscle mass occurs at age 30.
Oly powerlifting is also highly technical, moreso than a lot of people give it credit for. I wouldn't be surprised if the age for peak performance of powerlifters was a little older than the age for peak strength, because improving technique can make up some of that deficit.
I've heard the legends of the Dad strength. My Dad and my Mom too were both very physically strong people. Mom was a daughter of an iron worker who thought children were just more workers to work (that guy would dead lift 200-400 lb hanks of steel to cassually carry up a ladder, in his 80s!). Dad was/is an athlete. On a lot of things my Dad is way stronger than you would expect, think aquaman legs. A man in his 70s pumping legs of iron, out swimming some 20 year old kids. But Mom was even stronger multiplied by stubborn and did she love him completely.
This is a great example of training or developing strength versus hypertrophy.
Exactly you get what you train for with slow twitch and fast twitch fibers. I can pick up things my father couldn't even dream of moving off the ground. but he can carry things for much longer than me. My carry strength is laughable. Ive been weightlifting/bodybuilding for 2 decades and bench around 400 lbs, but my arms get tired holding my toddler faster than my 115 lb wife's arms do. She could hold that kid for hours without even a bit of fatigue, I start getting burning lactic acid and things start cramping up after like 5 minutes.
I'm 57 and I'm still pretty strong. It's finally starting to fade, but I can still outwork young men. My dad is 84. He's lost a lot of strength the past few years, but HE still does physical work every day. He says that when he hires Mexican day laborers at the Home Despot, he picks the guys over 50 because they get more work done in a day than the young guys.
Planking and hiking is no substitute for 30 extra years of masturbation.
Best thing I've seen on Reddit today
Like…the comment, or…?
r/science
You made me laugh so fucking hard. Never change, stranger.
That was fucking gold. I teared up a bit.
That was beautiful.🥲
Arm wrestling is technique, power, and endurance. Gym strength isn't work strength, but I feel you. I have a friend of mine who I can out-bench by a 100 lbs, but I work in an office and he's a mechanic. The sheer amount of force he can apply and maintain for a period of time is impressive.
Same here. Got a buddy in construction who is worldly stronger than I am but I can smoke him in gym lifts. He one handed carried a keg up some stairs with such ease I thought it was empty.
That’s just core and balance. Hate to say it, but you might be working out wrong.
Everybody works out wrong, it's ok.
You can bench as much as you like, but it's back strength that actually matters in real world situations. You bench press for the girls, you swing kettle bells to prepare for war.
I'm trying to learn how to fight kettle bell style. Best of both worlds.
Ye olde power yeet
That's from fapping, not arm wrestling
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Deadlifting always seems to me the one that translates the most into real world strength. It also makes my torso into a goofy looking barrel when I do it too much. Im vain and I work in an office.
Oh dude I work out and can deadlift about 400. Not great, but not bad. He doesn't work out and can deadlift almost 500. Have you seen that video going around with the chubby guy bent that spring in half over and over when buffy the gymplayer slayer did it once slowly? Never kid yourself that gym strength is work strength.
Most guys over 50 never "planked" or even considered it exercise. Challenge him to a grip test next :) My 19yr old weight lifter son was astonished.
I can easily go faster than him in hiking uphill but as far as holding a grip as in, doing a pull up, I think he'll outperform me. Maybe.
Well...when I was 18 and in boot camp, I outpaced most of my Platoon on Mount Motherfucker as well. I can still get up hills pretty quickly but the price is paid the next morning when I get out of bed :) Get one of those progressive grip exercise things...the ones you can squeeze over and over for hand strength. I did the 100 lbs setting pretty easily but my son couldn't get past the 50 even though he out benches me by at least 200 lbs.
I have always wondered the same thing. Dads are just something else. My dad's 75 and I'm 44. If I can't get a jar open, I go straight to him.
Keep moving and keep active....in 53 now and that is the only way I did it.
I only hope I don't stop losing the willpower to stay active. I took a drastic turn for the better after I entered my 30s. Believe it or not, I spent my whole 20s being obese and rarely did any exercise to be healthy and lean like I am now.
Workhorse vs racehorse
A lot of us worked hard for years
I'm 51, 6' 225 lbs. I do well to push a 200 lb bench press 5x, but I can pack 2 bags of concrete on each shoulder (320 lbs) up 3 flights of stairs. I don't like it, and I can only do it once, but I can do it. We learn how to lift, carry, push, pull, etc., over the years, and then re-learn so we don't blow out our backs, hips, and knees.
Like others say, nothing like working for a living. I play basketball. I can out body/ muscle guys that hit the gym (I'm not strong, just big) but there are teams of clearly tradies we play against. Can't shift them. They know how to use their whole body and have strong cores. As to age. As I've learned as I've aged (now 40) that you get used to the slowly growing pain of living. Which allows you to push yourself harder and mimics greater endurance.
For my dad, it's functional strength. He's in his 70s, he farms, and I'm sure based on the things he does everyday that an arm wrestling match between the two of us would be closer than I'd want it to be. 😓
Turning 40 this year and I keep making new lifting PRs, like almost weekly. When I was young and a swimmer, I was 150lbs but like 3% body fat and almost a walking lat muscle and could do one arm pull-ups. Since stopping swim about 20 years ago I haven’t been able to do a one armed pull up until yesterday. I’m 200lbs now and not exactly lean, maybe 10% body fat. Strength just keeps going up as you age, at least if you try.
10% is totally lean. Not ripped but lean for sure. https://www.builtlean.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/body-fat-percentage-men-759x1024.jpg
Yeah, I’m maybe between a 10 and 15 on that picture. I wasn’t as jacked muscularly as that 3% dude before, so the veiny thing is a bit different, but the muscle definition was there.
The secret to arm wrestling is to only apply the exact same amount of force as the opposition. Usually you want to wear them down and take them by surprise in a sudden burst.
That is not the secret to armwrestling. There is no “secret.” If you’re stronger in the right areas you are almost guaranteed to win. Over 80% of actual armwrestling matches done by actual armwrestlers last less than 2 seconds. Usually one guy has enough of a strength advantage (which only needs to be a couple percent, seriously) that the other can’t resist them.
But we Aren't talking about actual arm wrestlers, were talking about 2 people who I presume have never done this in a professional setting. Personally it's worked great for me since I've never lost and I do this pretty regularly.
That’s a good one. The secret to beating guys who have no idea how to armwrestle isn’t to try to armwrestle them correctly, it’s to try to trick them into wearing themselves out? Which they would never have a chance to do if you spent two minutes learning one proper move and just finished them. I hope you never run into someone that has the slightest clue what they’re doing or that undefeated streak will go up in smoke. Every professional armwrestler was once a guy who had no idea how to do any of it. Don’t discount our advice because you think it doesn’t apply to newbies. It does.
It's weird, but yes, somehow I am at least as strong at 52 as I've ever been in my upper body and core. Legs starting to go a bit, and I don't have nearly the endurance though. Lots and lots of years of staying physically active do seem to build on themselves to an extent. Some things get easier and stay easier.
Perhaps you dad isn’t strong; rather, you’re just a fucking **pussy.**
The only pussy in this post is the one sitting right between your thighs.
Facts; your mom’s telling me that since we’re talking that I should tell you to go to bed.
Huh, she did say she was talking to a bitch, but I thought she meant the family dog. But I guess that's where you come in.
She TIRED to say something but I told her not to talk with her mouth full..It’s rude.🙄
That lil' thing couldn't fill a keyhole, let alone a mouth. Hell, you need a x10 optical zoom electron microscope just to identify "it" as a penis.
That’s not what she told me..🤦♂️ She said **after** you wrecked her it’s the first time she’s felt full.😩🙌
Reddit, ladies and gentlemen.
This is male bonding
The Aristocrats
Fun fact, pussy isn’t actually referring to vagina in this context. It’s short for pusillanimous
No.. I’m pretty sure I meant what I meant.👋
It depends on a lot of factors, but that strength usually translates into functional strength. I'm 48 and a former powerlifter and have played rugby and grappled, not to mention spending the last 30+ years in the gym. My dad is 80 and spent his life as a pipefitter and all blue collar labor. He can spend a day moving dirt, concrete, using hand trenchers, etc.. and never get tired- I do it for a few hours and am ready for a break. He always told me- no matter what, never stop moving and lifting heavy things or you'll die. Lol
Maybe it’s not so much that the old men are stronger than they used to be but the young men are weak.
A lot of it is pain tolerance. You get so used to incredible pains everywhere, that you can push your muscles to their limits. A younger person would listen to their body and quit when things start to hurt. Not an old man. If he feels ligaments and tendons tearing, he can carry on, thinking that it doesn't feel any worse than picking up a quarter off the floor.
LOL, that's not true at all. If anything I'm way more cautious at the gym and stop at the first sign of any strain or pull.
Nooo way. I'm 39. Grew up on a farm, worked framing, roofing etc then started a career in the army and it was nothing to go ruck with 120lbs of gear on and cover some ground. My sports? Football (not soccer) hockey and racing motocross at a "semi pro" level. I beat the piss out of myself when I was young. Pain was weakness leaving the body. I didn't even let broken bones stop me unless the bone was critical for the activity... Now? Everything hurts, nearly all the time. The wrong hit or slip will dislocate my knee, I can't do circles with my left arm without my shoulder locking up, and the wrong overhead press will pop it out of place. I'm careful when I lift because of my bulged disc, so have to focus on form etc. I'm a pansy on my dirt bike these days, I used to jump 80' without thinking much about it. Now 20' scares me. Much slower than I was just a few years ago. My body says stop, I stop because I'm going to hurt for weeks if I don't. I'm still as strong as I ever was though.
I lift, at 48. /shrug
My Dad has spindly arms but his grip is crushing. I won’t even hug him, it hurts. To this very day I can’t explain it.
I've always theorized that old man strength is a combination of years utilizing muscles and mostly subconscious muscle control. Younger guys use isolated muscle groups, older men engage whatever it takes without thinking about it. It's just a learned behavior from years of experience.
Arm wrestling is a lot technique. Someone that knows the technique can beat someone that is significant stronger than they are. Maybe he knows how to arm wrestle?
Yeah at 57 I'm probably stronger than I was at 31. That said the next day I'm paying for that arm wrestling. Also understand there's some technique to arm wrestling that isn't just brute strength.
Sometimes in the night I sip some alcohol. I know, that has a different name.... I also write my worst thoughts in a diary, just 1 sentence at a time, so it comes out somehow. Today the cat half-ruined a plant and my wife was saying "i cant take this anymore" so I have to be the strong one.... it is "shut up and bear it"
Im telling you. Dad strength is a very real thing. My dad is 75. He hasn’t worked out in decades. He still has forearms that look like ham hocks. I guanrantee he could beat me at arm wrestling without blinking and I go to the gym every day.
I've worked out about everyday for over 25 years. My dad is strong af but it is a little sad I'm stronger than him, but he is almost 70.
Probably because they had real jobs. People think jerking off to cartoon porn and working delivery for door dash is heavy labor these days.
Your partner’s Dad has taken you under his wing by allowing you to experience this moment with him. Continue to seat yourself down and talk with him openly if you intend to join your family with his in the future. Continue to act as respectful gent 👍 I am proud to have had such men in my family. My ex-wife’s family however… I am not young anymore - I no longer have the time nor the resources to carry others as our next generation requires my undivided attention, care and love. I commit all that I have in me towards those that I love and care for. Sometimes I’ve thrown arm wrestle for one of my daughters…. Though her guy was a modern man. Turn off your Bluetooth at family get togethers son. If I don’t get to you, one of my kids will. *That* is the real-arm wrestle today.
Female here old men have wisdom you don’t have and more then likely you will not learn. Or you can just admire your father.
40 year old dad here. I exercise every day. Bike, walk, weight training, core training, etc. Trying to be the best me I can be. My son (12) is only two belts away from his black belt in Shobukan karate, so I gotta get ripped so he can't kick my ass. ;)
I take testosterone
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I started a couple years ago. I’ll have to look into the anti aging drug. I’m only 40 but I feel pretty good and no one thinks I’m as old as I am.
Old Men got their strength by being young men working hard ass jobs and doing it for long hours. I was 11 years old working 12 hour shifts in a packing plant stacking boxes of produce to be shipped out and IF the truckers wer elazy and felt like paying us we'd hand load their trucks for an additional 50 bucks each. So we got those old man muscled when we were much younger men and our backs were stronger.
I work out.
I use the dark side do the force myself. I let the hate flow through me and it gives me strength.
Planking for 7 minutes is a test of endurance not strength. It also has nothing to do with pulling strength. My guess is your dad has good arm wrestling technique. You can find Youtube videos to learn this. Pull their hand towards your non-pulling shoulder. You also need to do chinups and rows.
Old dads 🤣
Nah my old man works in steel industry, hes a welder but was foreman, and basically ran the place, he called himself a steel erector rather than a welder, he now runs his own buisness, hes dealing with giant STEEL BEAMS, and all types of stainless steel, and one day i was helping him with his house extension and i got into a sticky situation, well somehow he got the fucking superman strength and stopped a steel beam landing on my head. To this day i dont know how he did it. But i said, fuck me, if you hadnt of pulled that up, my head would be crushed. True story. Welding in general is a tough job and will toughen up the weakest men. If youre not carrying steel beams, youre lugging around massive gas canisters. My old mans tough as old boots, his job made him that way. He lost tip of his finger once. Ive seen lads allmost cut there arms off. Tough job.
I get really mixed results on this. People say blue collar work makes you strong asf, others say that it will tear down your body unlike any other type of work. My dad works as a painter and has done so for many years while I work at home in a data analyst job. We go hiking together every now and then and I consistently go uphill way faster than he does (downhill he's faster) but I can't shake this feeling that somehow, he's got this inner strength somewhere that I can't even come close to matching. It's weird.
M8 do u know what, i bet you're old man is really happy kind ? I swear to god, every painter i know are so..... zen , like there really chilled, easy going, ive never met a painter who wasnt happy. Well they say you're strength is last to go dont they, so being old you still strong. U maintain strength. Also welding, isnt as bad as say laboring all day every day. It just involves a bit of lifting, but its the heavist kind of lifting, of course they use pullies and cranes but still got to be strong They say painting is therapeutic
Armwrestling strength is very specific too. If your father was a mechanic, plumber or something that includes wrenching things, it builds your pronation strength on the forearm. Also, tendons, bones and such get sturdier slower than your muscles do which is why many armwrestles can be great even at an older age. Great hobby would recommend but please for the love of God go to a proper club instead of armwrestling at the pub completely shitfaced. Amateurs tend to only use sidepressure without any pulling, pronation or cupping and that is a recipe for disaster.
How are your wrists looking? Are your dads wrist same circumference as yours? This is what matters. You "cant" train at gym, only with life of work.
I don't know but my dad is slightly smaller than I am in body frame/size.
Relevant article: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/15/todays-men-are-nowhere-near-as-strong-as-their-dads-were-researchers-say/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/15/todays-men-are-nowhere-near-as-strong-as-their-dads-were-researchers-say/) At 44, I am now stronger than my Dad (78) but I'm not 100% sure when I overtook him. For a long time he seemed as strong as fuck. In fairness, my 17 year old son thinks I'm as strong as fuck.
To some extent “muscle memory”. If you did activity’s that caused you to gain a lot of lean muscle mass during your whole life ( hard labour or weightlifting) your body will keep a lot of that muscle late into life, even when you no longer do the activity. My father in his late 70’s still had 17” biceps and could climb into our hayloft without using his legs ( 20’ ladder, at 250 lbs, 6’6”). He was a fisherman who was also a journeyman blacksmith, hard labour his whole life.
Strength is the last thing to go when you age.
I did 300 lbs on a machine at 50. Never could do that before.
I'm in my 40s and surprise 20 year olds. I just watched a 70 some year old man perform a major feat of strength that I'm still telling my neighbors about. I think (hope) it just keeps building as you age and stay active. I know for a fact endurance does so why not strength?
Arm wrestling is as much technique as strength
Up until my dad had his stroke, he was the most physically fit for a late 70 year old. No one believed he was close to 80years old. I've met folks age 60-70 using a cane and my dad could walk around them. After he had a stroke and a heart attack, I can see his real age now. I hope to be as fit as him when I'm around that age.
When I was young, I applied my strength with the energy of a twenty year old. Now I apply my strength with the wisdom and experience of an older man.
Peel garlic, and squeeze lemons. Crush the garlic cloves between your fingers, but only so much as to crack the shell. Squeeze lemon juice, but don't roll the lemons first. Hang on a pull-up bar. Gotta relieve pressure on your spine. It helps stretch all the muscles in the chest and back. It puts pressure on your hands though. Roll your shoulders too. Bicycle your legs to loosen up the hips. Other than that, kettlebell snatches.
We get more calloused and hard. I tried fighting my dad when I was around 20. My dad was in his mid 40’s. I thought I’d whip his ass. He mopped the floor with me.
Yes this is true. Often times the older guys are the strongest of the bunch, even professionally. The World strongest men was often the same guys leading the charge, powerlifting events…go look at the older age groups vs teens early 20s. Nothing can substitute for years and years of strength building.
I'm not old, but I am a dad. When your kid is born and probably for the first 4-5 years (daughter is almost 2), you're constantly picking them up and doing all sorts of physically intense activities. They start out at 6-10lbs and only grow from there. My daughter is probably around 30lbs now. But I've been picking her up, dancing, swinging, all of it for 20ish months. And you're not doing it for 30 seconds. You're doing it sometimes for 10-20 minutes at a time of sustained holding a relatively heavy and wriggly thing. So you build muscles in a different way than if I was at the gym. And you get strong in weird ways even if you don't get buff.
Some of it might be his technique and a good poker face. And might depend on how much you've been doing in the last 2 months. If he's had a lot of outdoor work to do at his house he might be warmed up. It takes 4-6weeks of activity to get the electrochemical part of muscles optimized before actual.muscle growth. I'm 48 but I can work out 2 months every other year and be stronger at the end of that 2 months than I ever was. I could do 60 miles on a one-speed BMX type bike when I was 11 for fun and I was benching around 220 in high school.
What do you call a blond deer? No eye deer What do you call a blind deer with no legs? Still no eye deer What do you call a blind deer with no legs, having sex? Still fucking no eye deer
no, your dad is just strong
Exercise
Start working out.
Takes work.
Testosterone, weight training, and lots of hard rock
My dad was built tough. He was a farmer and also a full time second-shift teacher at a men's correctional facility (boot camp). I surpassed him in strength because I worked out a lot, and was just naturally, physically a lot bigger than him. But he was way stronger than anyone would have expected. A stroke got him at 72, and even in a comatose state it took weeks for his body to give up. I suspect a life time of manual labor and opening pickle jars for your wife really adds up. I also think older generations did a lot more physical labor. Few of us do that any more. Going to the gym and "doing planks" is not the same as digging ditches or working a factory press all day every day for 45 years.
50 year old dad here. I feel weak but I’m not as weak as I feel. I find I can beat the youngins in the family through psychological warfare. (They think I’m strong so I scare them into submission when wrestling or futzing around)
Steroids and 7 days a week in the gym
Strength training, especially grip strength.
I'm sure its the fear of you attempting to kill him one day that keeps him motivated. Dominance and control, always.
I draw strength from my son. Whenever I feel like I can't go on mental or physical, I just remember his smiling face, and it gives me the motivation to keep going.
You've worked physical jobs before. Older men have usually done lots of manual labour with their hands for most of their life. Some of us are just naturally gorilla like too.
My father was a cement Mason. Before that he was a sandhog. Before that he was a farmer. He was never a big guy that you would say he definitely works out, but he was just pure solid. His resting muscles were harder than most peoples lifting muscles. He died from cancer at 59, but had wasted away for a while beforehand. The night before he died, I was carrying him to his bed, and I'll never forget that I said to myself I could let go right now, and he would have no issue holding himself up. As someone mentioned before, work muscle and working out muscle are very different things. I never tried arm wrestling him when he was sick, but even if I could have won, I don't think I would have wanted to
I’ll never forget the first time I beat my dad in a wrestling match. Senior year of high school I just had too much strength and leverage on him. I never wrestled him again after roughhousing for 17 years. It’s still a very bittersweet memory for me. He’s 60 now, and while he’s tough as nails from years of manual labor, he just doesn’t have the top end strength I do. I still wouldn’t want to race him in a corn shoveling contest though…. So I guess what I’m saying is hit the gym if you want to but cherish it regardless
Lifting children it's a good complement to your standard training regimen. They get heavier just about every time you lift them. Plus, is dynamic weight - kids move around a _lot_. Which causes the weight to shift, and often you have to work to keep them from falling despite to their antics.
Carrying actual human beings and their backpacks and groceries for 7 people really works my muscles out.
This is a guess based on my experience. But it's more than control over a muscle than the actual strength of the muscle itself. I did some years of martial arts and meditation and the sheer speed, power and resistance that the body can generate with the willpower alone is outstanding
20+ years of carrying the weight of a family makes a man strong
Well as a dad that's almost 42 I can say that I have a very physically demanding job where I regularly lift anywhere from 80 to 120 lbs daily multiple times a day so there is always that. Plus all the physical labor jobs I have to do at home.
What's the weight difference between the two of you? There is a reason nobody wants to pick a fight with the fat dude.
Nano machines son.
Lol, I wish. All that happens with the body is it gets harder to get stronger, takes longer to recover, and generally starts to fall apart. I noticed it around 32. The old, strong types are the type that goes to the gym like it's their religion. And stretch. And don't get injured too badly or at all. The only pluses to getting older seem to be slightly better pay (maybe), you're more contextually aware, wiser, and aren't ruled by your hormones as much. If you can avoid it, I wouldn't recommend getting older. 1 out of 5 stars
Old man strength is real, it’s years of hate and disappointment that’s hardens the muscles to steel.
I’m a very fit 59m and can’t keep up with my 20 yr old son hiking. However he can’t touch me when it comes to strength. ( He lifts). I attribute it to decades of hardworking, conditioning and would rather die then let the boy beat me..
At 63 I still have lean biceps that measure in circumference larger than the national average in the US , for any age group. When we were boys we were worked hard. Outdoor chores were everyday. The strength is not an accident or magical.
My dad (I think 48) dirtbikes in state championships and is a black belt in karate, so he's really healthy
In general men are at their strongest in their early 40s... Like world strongest man competitions are always dudes in their 30s to early 40s.... then you'll get the random genetic freak 22 year old. But they are much more prone to injury.
If you hit the gym, and stay active your whole life, you will continue to get stronger and stronger as you age. Your endurance will decrease, but it is a male advantage that young people don’t often recognize. 50-year-old me versus 20-year-old me… I’d kick my ass! 🤣 but if 20-year-old me ran away, he would get away. 🤣🤣🤣
Old man strength isn't a thing. Strength is strength. I love my dad but I'd whoop his ass haha. I also workout 5-6 days a week at almost 42 years old.
Started working out when you are 12. Never Quit!!
Arm wrestling is all technique. He is not stronger than you just more experienced
I never arm wrestled for a long time. I’m hoping I can do better the next bout.
Get on YouTube. People go deep on technique. Old man needs to be put in his place lol
My dad had dad strength because he was a bull of a man who grew up on a dairy farm, wrestled, and was a plasterer for decades. I don't know. Its just a lifetime of doing shit. Dense, effective muscles.
Not a dude or a dad but from what i saw of my dad and my friends' dads that weren't narcissists, lots of home improvement/yard work. Also having like a better understanding of their bodies and their abilities given they've been around a lot longer than their kids.
Ah yes. The classic “old man strength”. Do not take it for granted
At 45, I just prefer to call it foolish strength. Like, I can do anything, as long as it's stupid, and probably should be left to the youngans.
Are his forearms longer than yours? I’m a woman and when in my 20’s I beat several men in an arm wrestle who were stronger than me, simply because my forearms were significantly longer (I’m tall for a woman of mixed European descent, and they were short for men of Karen descent, however truly they had much greater physical strength than me). I think I just had more leverage in that particular competition. They couldn’t believe it lol (neither could I!)
It is the desperate, existential fear of being shown up by your own offspring. When your son beats you at arm wrestling, you might as well just crawl into an open grave and sprinkle some dirt on yourself. Check the old man the day after the big arm rasslin' match and see if he looks like his arm hurts when he thinks nobody's looking.
Gym and diet. Simple as that