The gymnasts and acrobats (especially the acrobats) are far beyond just "functional" when I say that they are stronger, I mean they are stronger when it comes to stabilization, No doubt Mike Wolff is the strongest on this board when it comes to frontal plane exercises, but the gymnast and acrobat are strong from all planes and that includes holding loads that might be equivlant to them doing as heavy of a load as Mike if that makes sense.
What these guys do takes alot more than balance. It's alot easier to get a gymnast to do a deadlift (pound for pound) than it would be for Mike to do a gymnasts move.
oh, so now you're talking about stabilizer strength, as in core strength, rotators, etc, because ummm you don't need stabilizer strength to bench 800lbs do you?
and wtf has a beginner to weight training have to do with this discussion
we are talking about pure strength here coach, not your ass. you made the statement that gymnasts were stronger than anyone her (including guys like wolfe) which is pure bullshit any way you want to dress it.
yes, stabilizer strength is essential to just about every sport ie core strength is essential to a sprinter or fighter, but wtf has that got to do with who is the strongest. i'm sure the little league tee ball players have great core strength, are you going to say they're stronger than wolfe too? why not, makes about as much strength.
i am not a p/lifter. in fact, being built like wolfe would be suicide to my sport but i know that he is way stronger than me, despite the fact that i'm pretty sure he can't do some of the things i can.
strength is strength and when one is talking about the 'strongest' there is no such thing as relativity or functionality.
what i'm very surprised about, is that an apparently qualified personal trainer that has been involved in the industry for a long time can not grasp this fact. muscle contracts against progressively greater loads it gets stronger. it contracts all or nothing and doesn't depend on rom. this is not a debatable issue, this is scientific fact. that's it and that's all, everything else is semantics.
