Posted on 08/10/2016 6:24:50 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Think you’d beat your dad in an arm wrestling competition when he was your age? Bad news: he’d probably kick your ass.
Men today are weaker than they were 30 years ago, research in the Journal of Hand Therapy found.
In the study, men aged 20-34 have lower grip and pinch strength – which measures how strong your hand and upper extremities are – than the same aged guys did three decades ago.
In fact, the average grip strength for men ages 25-29 is nearly 12 kilograms lower today than it was before.
Your grip may not seem super important unless you’re a competitive arm wrestler, but it actually serves as a good proxy of your overall strength.
In fact, a 2011 study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that grip strength was predictive of strength in push-ups, leg extensions and leg press.
What’s more, research in previous generations has linked lower grip strength to a variety of serious health problems including arthritis, heart disease, stroke and neurological conditions, says Fain.
It’s not clear whether grip strength actually makes people healthier, or if healthier people are just stronger.
So why are men today so much weaker?
They are less likely to be employed in manual labor jobs, such as in the manufacturing and agricultural fields, than they used to be, says study author Dr Elizabeth Fain, an assistant professor of occupational therapy at Winston-Salem State University in the US.
Working on an assembly line, for instance, requires repetitive tasks handling weighted objects, which can strengthen your hands, she says.
That day-in, day-out grind likely plays more of a role increasing grip strength than weight training – which may only be a few times a week – would do.
It’s also more helpful than the repetitive hand motions we’re more likely to do today, like texting or typing, which tend to activate smaller muscle groups, she says.
Your move, then, is to work on your own grip.
If you’re not working with your hands, you need to make training grip more of a priority.
LOL
Thirty years ago, I was 27 years old, 6’3” and 200 pounds, playing racquetball twice a week, and riding my Schwinn LeTour 10 speed 50 miles a week.
Athletes today are bigger, stronger and faster now, an NFL player from the 70s couldn’t even compete with today’s NFL players. For non athletes it’s a different story. There’s not as much physical requirements with employment and everyday tasks as there once was which effects strength.
Actually, I would.
My roommate in college was in the top ten in the world.
I learned a few things. :)
LOL! I love Big Metal.
Yeah what happened to that? Look at how lean and fit all those guys were! Stupid board of education has gone from this to wanting our boys and girls to pee and shower together. And you know what? It’s all our faults! I went through high school in the late 80’s they had nothing like this but we still had to dress out everyday and run and do some exercises. Now they don’t do anything but teach them about safe spaces and gender equality.
We are reaping our laziness and complacency.
Consider this. Oral contraceptives contain synthetic Estrogen. The greenies and tree hungers were up in fits some years back because they felt these Estrogens were not breaking down but accumulating in the drinking water. They were concerned the frogs were dying out. Could it be this explains the Pajama Boy and Snowflake generation? I don’t know. I suspect it has more to do with progressive libtards demonizing all things masculine. Forty years of a “woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” probably has more to do with it than anything else.
It probably has more to do with as G Gordon Liddy used to say, “You get more of what you subsidize” and we have been subsidizing butt sitting for decades.
So obvious. Back when all Dads were farmers and tilled the land. They were strong as hell because they did back breaking work. You still have a lot of strong guys working the labor trades. But as the USA has become more of a FIRE economy and white collar, neither men nor women use their brawn anymore unless they go to the gym regularly. We drive everywhere. We sit long hours at computers.
It is just modern life in the Western nations. We are more sedate than ever. That is just how it is. This should surprise nobody.
***As an old Quebecois guy I used to know would say, “faggot hands”.***
As a girl in high school I have to say, if a guy had “girly hands” it was a huge turn off to me. That’s one of the first things I would notice. We’re his fingers long with slim hands and dainty looking, or were they wide with big knuckles that were skint up with calluses.
When I met my husband for the first time he was working on a car. Nice wide hands, knuckles all tore up and greasy, had calluses and that weird muscle by his wrist that stood out because he used wrenches a lot.
It also helped he was blonde with bright blue eyes. No sissy hands. Can’t stand that lol.
I’m stronger now than I was 30 years ago, but I’m a woman.
Exactly. The feminists are weakning men, and women. When was the last time you’ve seen a bold, beautiful woman these days?
***(stupid punk screwed up stuck his finger in my chest and asked “What YOU gonna do?” My “Stupid” took over)***
I disagree. A stupid punk shouldn’t mess with a grown ass man. He’ll lose every time.
I was, and am ... right WITH you as I read.
Amen to the beautiful daughters ... and our sons are heart breakers too .... or were .... 'til they married.
Everybody else has boasted of their feats of strength so here goes.
I played football in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grade but I got a concussion from a fullback and that was it. I also played trumpet and quickly realized that the band went to every game the team did and we rode with the cheerleaders, to boot. It took hours to ride home at night....
I got married at 18 and was 6 feet tall and weighed 140 lbs. I worked the mines a couple of summers in college but dropped out and got a job at the factory my uncles worked in. Early on I ran a Warner Swayze big turret lathe and spent months machining castings that weighed 75 lbs. I didn’t consider it a big deal but I had spent months picking them up off the pallet, chucking them up, turning it over, etc. Every seven minutes for eight hours a day.
One weekend my cousin invites us to a keg party up in Greely. This was about 1974. We go to this thing and here I am with shoulder length hair and most of the guys were actually wearing cowboy hats and boots. I was moderately aware all these guys were arm wrestling and carrying on but “that just wasn’t my scene”. I was in the kitchen with my cousin, his wife, and my wife and a few others when this guy comes in and insists I arm wrestle him. I told him to go away. He insisted saying, “I have beat everyone here (at least thirty guys) but you and I am going to beat everyone here!”. So I told him I would wrestle him on the condition that he would subsequently leave us alone”.
So we square up and I can’t believe all of a sudden everyone is watching. I remember thinking this would not last long and then everybody would leave, perhaps even bearing this clod on their shoulders and I just didn’t care. Trust me, no one was more shocked than I that I just slammed his arm into the table. The look on his face was priceless but honest to God I did not know how strong I had become but I had put on 40 lbs of muscle in a year. I just always considered myself a “lover, not a fighter”. Afterward that dude treated me like I was his long lost brother and he was shaking my hand and all happy to meet me and even said he didn’t think a hippy would ever kick his butt at arm wrestling but I sure had. I reminded him of his promise to leave us alone and he did. To this day I scarcely believe that had happened.
At 13 years old, my son was 6' tall and weighed 250 lbs. At 15, he hauled a fully stocked gun safe up a flight of stairs at our new house by slinging it over hit shoulder and walking it up. He and my husband moved a marble-top dresser weighing several hundred pounds, with the drawers in and the mirror on.
He's 6'2" now, slimmed down to 225, and is build just like my husband: wide shoulders, strong square jaw, broad powerful hands, and doesn't take nonsense off of anyone.
My challenge is finding a boy like him for my daughter. She knows how a man is supposed to look, speak, and act because she's had her father as the example.
I was the Grown up ... supposed ... I feel bad about losing my temper. The Grandma and her Son the Uncle are both deceased now... they passed within 2 months of each other. The idiot punk has moved on to West Virginia to be taken care of by some other Family Members.
What I was trying to portray is that youngster was like a wafer...
Light as a feather and weak (yet he still had attitude, face and neck tattoos, piercings etc)
I think that they believe that if they listen to Rap and “Believe” they think they are bad ass and can treat people any way they want to.
Sad from any angle
*** “To this day I scarcely believe that had happened” ***
COOL Story
Have one similar but not for public consumption on a Family type Forum.
I am not as strong as I was but I still split several cords of wood a year. I am slowing down, though. I only think about sex most of the time now.
*** I only think about sex most of the time now ***
I Know what you are saying ... I get much more work done now that Sex is just a “Most of the Time” Distraction.
Another benefit is clarity and a real thought process... Thinking about seeking a Dr that can address my Low “T” so I can get back to being a regular guy again. ;^)
This article barely scratches the surface
I cannot believe how weak I’ve seen white men become since the 70s
It’s pitiful
Nauseating
Increase in homosexuality to follow
Do not doubt me
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