UNQUANTIFIABLE STRENGTH

The more I train, the more I found strength to be a far more nebulous concept.  When I started, strength was about how much weight you could lift.  I got further along, and strength became more specifically how much weight I could lift for 1 rep on 3 different movements.  I got even further along, and it started to blur.  Many of the things I thought were strength turned out to be instances of skill, programming, or simply luck, and what I understood to be strength became harder and harder to truly be able to identify.  In turn, I began to appreciate a concept of unquantifiable strength: strength that can’t be counted or measured with numbers and metrics, but is instead simply “strength understood”.  Like the difference between art and pornography: you’ll know it when you see it.  And in turn, it is this unquantifiable strength that I prize above all other forms of quantifiable strength, for it seems he how possess this strength has strength above all others.

Seriously, put away your scouters for a second here

Unquantifiable strength is incredibly unsatisfying, because there is no “answer” to the question of “how strong are you”.  I get asked what my 1rms are, and I reply that I don’t know.  I haven’t tried for a 1rm in 6 years.  Sure, I’ve hit a heavy single here and there, but a true, no crap for real 1rm, moving as much weight as possible for 1 rep 1 time?  I have no idea.  So how do I know if I’m stronger this year compared to last?  Because I trained for it to happen, and the training went well, therefore, I know I’m stronger.  In the absence of measurement, I am still aware that I am stronger.  Even in the presence of reduced performance compared to previous times, I still know I’m stronger.  Why?  Because that unquantifiable strength was built in those hard training sessions.

What do I mean?  I’m talking about the strength you develop doing the things other people refuse to do.  When you train when it’s too hot, you develop unquantifiable strength.  The same when it is too cold.  The same when you are hungry, tired, sick, injured, stress, fatigued, or whatever other malady that you encounter that would shut down a lesser person.  The same is true when you set up for the next set when you’re still winded, when you have to pick yourself up off the floor to set up for the next set, when you’re pretty sure you hurt yourself on the last rep but ALSO pretty sure you can still make it through the session before the pain REALLY sets in.  When you do these things, you develop strength that simply can’t be understood by mere numbers.  It’s strength that exists deep within you, that can be called upon in the darkest of circumstances.

Some people go through darker times than others

The gap between many people’s best performance and worst performances are such a wide and expansive gulf that it’s almost impossible to even comprehend, and it’s because this unquantifiable strength was never built.  Everything has to be perfect, sterile lab conditions for them to perform, and as soon as that is taken away, so too goes their strength.  The person doing what other people AREN’T doing is the one that narrows this gap, until they have simply developed that strength that is forever present.  In addition, they find things they never knew were there when they truly dig down deep inside.  While others dig deep in the well and come up empty, these people discover hidden strength.  They set lifetime PRs when the chips are down, rather than bombing out.  They win events the first time they see them, rather than losing due to a lack of skill against the masters.  They have a strength that simply cannot be measured.

We saw this unquantifiable strength in Bill Kazmaier, as he dominated World’s Strongest Man for 3 years until his mere existence was deemed “unfair” and he was banned from competition.  He beat highland games experts at highland games events the FIRST time he approached the implement.  I asked Bill at a seminar if he had any advice on throws, since I was coming from a similar background as him, and he told me “Just show up and throw the thing.”  …and goddamn if he wasn’t right.  It’s the exact truth.  Develop that strength that can’t be measured or understood through numbers and express it.  Bill trained like a goddamn lunatic and built simply unfathomable strength, to the point that the powerlifts simply did a poor job capturing exactly HOW strong he was. 

Answer: inhumanly strong

And when the critiques come from these approaches, that is what you must keep in mind.  Because yes, you may in fact not see numbers climb like they would on a program dedicated to making your numbers grow as fast as possible on a handful of lifts.  You may not get the satisfaction of always having a number ready to go when someone says “How much you lift?”  You may even show up to a competition with PRs WELL below those of all the people you are competing against…but you may also completely blow all those people out of the water, because you developed that unquantifiable strength that they simply cannot fathom.  You became something hard, different, and beyond.  And you know that it’s there when you need it.