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Brian Shaw does CrossFit
In case some haven't seen it, and in case anyone needs confirmation that 'Strong' really does trump all other physical attributes in competition, here is a video of Brian Shaw smoking a CrossFit workout like it's his warmup:
Of course, Brian Shaw is an anaerobic beast, as well as being monstrously strong. This 'but! but! but!' only takes you so far though; the other 'competitors' don't look like anaerobic slugs. The key difference between Brian, and the guys that lost to him, is that he is stronger than they are.
NB: I used 'competitors' advisedly because I don't know the context in which this WOD took place - for all I know these CrossFitters were not really trying, or were building training volume at sub maximal intensity with a view to creating a planned overload event/progression, perhaps in order to achieve a performance peak for some future event (for example, the CrossFit games).
Last edited by Townesy; 11-13-2014 at 02:05 AM. Reason: typos
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Yeah dude's really good at picking shit up and putting it over his head.
Isn't that what he does for a living?
What's the point in saying that "the key difference . . . is that he's is a lot stronger than they are"
The whole idea of these competitions is to find the strongest athlete in the context of the event.
I think you have an agenda.
Last edited by Dildo Bolt; 11-13-2014 at 03:27 AM. Reason: toned down the formatting
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A bit of an oversimplification of his sport for mine, but yes, he is paid to be as strong as he can be.Originally Posted by Will Diebolt
Simply to ward off the, perhaps, inevitable 'counterpoint' that Brian Shaw is not just very strong, but also very conditoned to high intensity, short duration, anaerobic tasks. Of course he is, but so are they (presumably?). Brian is stronger. That's the salient point.
And it would seem that they did exactly that in this particular instance. They even filmed it.
Of course I do, and given where I posted this I imagine most people reading, and watching the video, might have a similar one. I could be wrong of course. To each their own.
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....as long as the competition is exclusively dependent on the body's ability to exert a large amount of force against an object over a short period of time. InB4 12-page-thread with guys making the pointless "Yes but all other things being equal..." argument.
Fun video (jump to 54:40 mark for final event....I suck at internetting and can't get the damn thing to work....or you can just watch the whole thing, as it's pretty cool in general):
OD Wilson spent all day proving that he was 1990's strongest man alive. And then the last event happened and he couldn't keep up with the slightly weaker Sigmarsson.
Last edited by stuffedsuperdud; 11-13-2014 at 05:23 AM.
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Yes but all else being equal the stronger person will beat the weaker person ...
I should, perhaps, have been more circumspect in my statement, I take your point. In the 'competition' (if that's what it was), Mr Shaw's being strong caused him to beat his competitors (at least some of whom, presumably, are 'fitter' and more proficient at the competition movement than him).
It's something of a loaded scenario though isn't it? most could probably be persuaded that some very strong men might not have 'won' that WOD - would an Andy Bolton or Carl Yngvar Christensen have done as well, given their sports specializations?
Fun thought experiment or spurious Internet point? You be the judge.
Sweet vid though anyway, thanks. I love watching strongman, and that vid is vintage!
My guy Matt (Vogstar on these forums) recently squatted 195, benched 110 and deadlifted 200. He works out at the back of a crossfit gym, and tells me that whenever he tries their events, the short ones he absolutely smashes everyone. But if it lasts more than 10 minutes, he's destroyed.
So... all depends what you're after. I don't understand why you'd be after doing a zillion light snatches in a five minutes supersetted with a zillion burpees, or whatever they do in crossfit, but I also don't understand ping pong or eating at Five Guys. People spend years of their lives doing all sorts of pointless shit.
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What you're trying to do is say that Shaw won this event because he has a higher 1RM on some arbitrary exercise(s)
Do you think that the man who wins the World's Strongest Man title also has the world's highest powerlifting total?
Makes you wonder who is really the world's strongest man!!!!!!!!!!1
Please consider what strength is and what it means to have strength in various contexts. Maximum voluntary strength (typically when the speed of movement approaches zero) of non-specific movements has little bearing on specific strength where the conditions of movement are much faster (which is typical of sport)
Actually, the type of strength you have in mind (judging from my inference of your bias) is not a great approximation of absolute strength because certain neural feedback mechanisms exist to prevent a muscle from continuing to produce force to the point of mechanical failure. This is why it would be more practical to use the maximum explosive isometric strength produced under maximum plyometric conditions as an approximation of absolute strength.
TL;DR: If you want to find the World's Absolute Strongest Man I think you must drop men from a height onto a force plate and see what they do.
Was going to say that sounds like a really weak bunch of Crossfitters, but then I realized you were using KanGaroos, not pounds.
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Pretty funny vid. I actually know the dude in the pink outfit. He is a beast. Played baseball with him a few seasons ago. He was a fullback in the NFL (practice squad for the Giants).
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I love this video too, and Shaw's a beast, but everyone seems to be operating on an incorrect assumption. Shaw didn't win this.
Look behind him. Derek Poundstone finished at the 1:25 mark. Tiny little dude that he is, he was a bit quicker than Shaw.
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