The Myth of Nonfunctional Hypertrophy by Kelly Baggett

[Gant Grimes]

Originally Posted by Donald Lee

I thought the part about manufactured strength vs. natural strength was interesting. I don't see people talk about that much. I guess people usually call natural strength "raw strength" or "raw power."

Around here we call that "country strenth" (no "g" for whatever reason). A lot of guys that work on the farms or in the oil fields have never touched a weight...and don't really need to.

[Grissim Connery]

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

Around here we call that "country strenth" (no "g" for whatever reason). A lot of guys that work on the farms or in the oil fields have never touched a weight...and don't really need to.

i don't really have any proof of this, but generally i feel that if a guy has strong hands, he's overall a strong dude and most capable of applying and adapting to a lot of tasks. when i think of "country strenth," i think of these guys. i fear shaking hands with an old farmer who's ready to crush my weak, college boy grip.

there's one guy who i train with who just has a brutal strength to weight ratio. i know he's done some rock climbing, but there's definitely a big genetic component. anyways, when you roll with him nogi and he takes a grip of your wrist or ankle, it's his. unless i'm with a really big dude, i never really take a strong nogi grip on my wrist or ankle seriously. when this dude grabs it, i'm like "well damn. that's his now."

[John Alston]

Originally Posted by Donald Lee

I experienced that a week ago. I was playing some baseball and volleyball at the park, and I felt like I was fifty trying to bend over and move laterally. Squats and deadlifts had zero transferrence that I could tell...haha.

Felt it myself Sunday on the basketball court. Just need me some more games to get used to that kind of moving, and to find my shot again.

[Steven Low]

It feels like he's just describing the flipside of his other article on the myth of relative strength. -_-

[Jay Guindon]

Gymnasts have non-functional hypertrophy?
I asked this same question over at Gymnastic Bodies and they seemed to be under the impression that gymnastic type strength and conditioning is superior to most types of lifting (unless you want to be a powerlifter) because the strength gained through gymnastics movements transfers well to moving external laods and you get really strong at manipulating your body, wehereas being strong at moving external loads doesn't mean you are strong at controlling your body. The example given was that having a big bench press doesn't give you the strength for planche pushups whereas having planche pushups can give you big bench, obviously not a powerlifters bench, but a big bench nonetheless. Another example was gymnasts deadlifting 400lbs first time. For powerlifters thats a weak deadlift, and for some crossfitters too, but since my deadlift is only 280lbs and I train the deadlift to slowly bump it up, thats big to me.
It's also hard to argue that the hypertrophy gymnasts have doesn't somehow lend itself well to movements like inverted iron crosses. Maybe you don't do inverted crosses on a daily basis, but the strength to do an inverted cross surely must have some real world transfer, or functional strenght if you will.
Anyways, I'm not a professional, but I would question that a gymnasts hypertrophy is not functional.

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

Depending on the athlete, it would seem to me that there is very much a thing as "non-functional" hypertrophy...gymnasts just seem to be the best example that comes to mind.

Or maybe "non-beneficial" hypertrophy would be a better term here.

That doesn't even make sense...

I mean, what part of being able to manipulate your body extremely well is "non-functional"

Regardless of how I hate the word functional...

Being strong and being able to move well. That's functional. Athletes of all sports can do as such... except for swimmers.. they're a bit awkward on dry ground (and vice versa).

[Geoffrey Thompson]

I think what Garrett meant is that some types of hypertrophy would be nonfunctional for a gymnast. ie, if a gymnast took six weeks to do Super Squats, the added leg mass would probably not be good for his ring work.

[Derek Weaver]

Originally Posted by Grissim Connery

i don't really have any proof of this, but generally i feel that if a guy has strong hands, he's overall a strong dude and most capable of applying and adapting to a lot of tasks. when i think of "country strenth," i think of these guys. i fear shaking hands with an old farmer who's ready to crush my weak, college boy grip.

there's one guy who i train with who just has a brutal strength to weight ratio. i know he's done some rock climbing, but there's definitely a big genetic component. anyways, when you roll with him nogi and he takes a grip of your wrist or ankle, it's his. unless i'm with a really big dude, i never really take a strong nogi grip on my wrist or ankle seriously. when this dude grabs it, i'm like "well damn. that's his now."

I think Gray Cook has said something similar on a podcast. He's said something to the effect that the number one indicator of overall strength (without actually lofting something) is grip. Not an absolute, but in general it's true.

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Geoffrey Thompson

I think what Garrett meant is that some types of hypertrophy would be nonfunctional for a gymnast. ie, if a gymnast took six weeks to do Super Squats, the added leg mass would probably not be good for his ring work.

Whoops. I see you're right. I feel like a doofus.

To make up for it, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXWL...layer_embedded

[Tom Vale]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Whoops. I see you're right. I feel like a doofus.

To make up for it, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXWL...layer_embedded

Being "powerlifting strong" is cool, but when I see gymnasts do this sort of stuff I just can't help but feel... weak.