How good do you think ancient greek olympic wrestlers were?

[Doctor Grudge]

Are you implying that the god you follow is the true god? I find that a bit arrogant imo.

I didnt even realize he said this and for seemingly no reason. Feel dumb for wasting a post on this topic now.

 

[don't ask]

I'm not the person you were arguing with, but I wanted to reply.

There are people today in Papua New Guinea fit this stereotype you're trying to paint and they wouldn't beat up Olympians with their folkstyle wrestling either.

But there are people in the world who do demonstrate what a lifetime of hard work does to the body:

-sherpas in Tibet lug shit up and down Mt. Everest daily like it's no big deal while westerners work hard, plan, and invest in the best gear to accomplish their life's goal of going up just once.

-there are tribes around the world that will injure an animal and chase it to death for 5+ hours with the same ease that you or I walk out to get groceries.

-physical labourers are fucking built. I don't know if you've ever trained martial arts with a plumber, but they legit walk into the gym with arms like Popeye and from day one their chokes are lethal. We talk about farmer strength all the time because it's a real thing. Old timey fighters like Jack Dempsey used to muck ore for 10+ hours a day as part of their training because of the shape it got them in.

A blacksmith and a bricker have physical jobs but they do not require progressive overload. The black smith uses roughly the same level of strength necessary to do his job for his entire life - he doesn't go to the gym and think of ways to make himself more stronger. There are huge diminishing returns on just doing the same physical labor. You get better at things by pushing yourself not just by doing the same thing over and over again.

Also, physical labourers don't need to go to a gym and strategize ways to engage in progressive resistance. Doing the same job over and over again and having it become easier is also a form of progressive resistance. They can also exert more force on the same task as it becomes easier, which is another form of progressive resistance. They can also do it faster. In your blacksmith example, if I accept your assertion that using more strength wouldn't help (which I'm not sure I agree with), doing the job faster or doing the job and continuing to adapt so it gets easier and easier over the course of his life, are also forms of progressive resistance.

EDIT: Also, tendon and ligament strength don't require progressive resistance. They just require tension.

 

[rocketrasslin18]

Interesting thread, but the facts that they were naked and they spoke Greek are enough to make me turn away.

Abraham Lincoln being the catchwretling GOAT is the oldest point in history I'd go back to.

Conor starches Lincoln though

 

[SakurabasEar]

Ancient Greeks above the poverty level probably had a superior diet, I legitimately believe that. But they were smaller

They drilled grappling non stop, so you have to give some credibility there

 

[wwkirk]

But they were smaller

I hope most posters in this thread are thinking in terms of weight classes, or at least P4P. Until the last hundred years or so, people used to be shorter on average. Attila the Hun was reportedly “Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head." Genghis Khan may have been taller, perhaps over 6 feet, though some estimate him as low as 5'8".