Plate Pinch - What's Next?

[Jedd Johnson]

Guys. Just thought some with a monster pinch grip like Juha or Jedd can do blob swings. Dunno if this has been performed but it would be nice to do

That's something I've never tried, right there.

[Billy Jack]

Another point to consider is the degeneration of Homo sapiens as a species. Not much natural selection going on anymore so don't be disappointed if we don't evolve into super-humans any time soon.

This is always something that a lot of people forget about. Most of us today are descendants of those who were the strongest, meanest and/or smartest 50,000 years ago. All the disabled, unintelligent, lazy, immune-deficient, etc are not being weeded out like they were 25,000 years ago. Saber-toothed cats did not care if you had no daddy at home, had a physical disability, a learning problem or a bad back and could not dead-lift. They just ate your ass and the best got away. Our evolution has, and will continue to slow to a crawl as the years move on. Or until some magical person from above decides otherwise, if you believe in that stuff.

Individually, however, there will always be a few that will push the limits because they have the drive and the gifts. That combination will continue to prove the unthinkable.

[Stephen Ruby]

I think a lot of people when talking of whats possible (humanly possible) tend to massively underestimate. You only have to look a couple decades back in strongman to see theres been a huge improvement in overall strength. Back only three decades ago 300kg+ was a respectable deadlift for a wsm competitor, now its 400kg+. The sport has grown so the strength has increased, if grip grew the same it would have the same effect so we certainly have not seen the best yet. Also people are getting bigger and stronger in general, 150 years ago the average height was 4 inches less than it is now. That is a massive increase increase for such a relatively small time frame. If we make it another a 1000 years, who knows what strength feats we will be accomplishing.

True but in other lifting sports like olympic weightlifting 30+ years ago they were doing bigger lifts then now. Our genetics have not really changed at all in a very long time and are not likely to change due to our superior position in the world. If you going to see any major physical changes it will come as a result of scientific advancements with gene therapy or other modifications.

Either way grip is still a relatively new sport and guys like juha/jedd/odin are showing what is possible right now. I didn't think I would see 2x25kg pinch lifts but now two lifters have done it this year. Pretty remarkable it will be interesting to see what they do next.

[climber511]

Any advancements that come within our lifetimes will not be because of natural changes in our genetics - that takes more time than this. Better nutrition, better training in specific strength development, better drugs perhaps, gene therapy has some serious potential (both positive and scary negative). Considering that the 2 HP record is 270 - that gives a 135# one hand pinch as a sort of reasonable number. Plate pinching is of course different than on a Euro - the easy availability of small steps in well matching plates will be an issue also.

[Alawadhi]

Paul I like Cancrusher think drugs got better and WITH better training and nutrition.

Mikael I don't think food is the reason for height. This is genetics mostly. Now keave the theory of evolution aside, I know many and I mean many well fed people aren't even over 6 feet. And on the other hand lots of Kenyans and Ethiopians who lives here are not fed at all. I used to play football with them when we were kids. Not they are over 6'6" each.

Have you been to China? I guess not. Peope there eat A LOT. And there are many rich people that have a family doctor (which usually is a PhD from Harvard, Oxford, and the university of London, yep no kiddin) which on a monthly base advice them the best nutrition for them. They are not even 5'10". Yes this was since there childhood too. There are other chinese who are tall and do not eat good even in their childhood. The Church research isn't an all end research. Plus you don't know what really happened there. Maybe the bigger guys scared the smaller guys to keep there food for them only.

Stephen, no in Olympic weightlifting the true c&j world record belongs to a Soviet 266kg. For some weird reasons he is out of the list (due to changing of weight class whaaat?!) Hussain Rezazadeh had the world record 263kg for 15 years and 263.5kh for 11 years and just few days back a Russian came and took the record of 264kg. Still the old record hasn't been broken. I have a very good feeling if they kept the old record of 266kg it would've been broken because then people have to shoot for the world record.

[Mikael Siversson]

Food, or rather the lack of it, is the main reason people of the past (average height within populations) were shorter than we are today, that's what I tried to convey (stunted growth). This was explained to me by an anthropologist who worked on material as old as 5,000 years from Scandinavia.

True natural selection btw works very fast in mammals if greater body size is advantageous. A good example is the huge increase in body size in feral cats in the Australian outback. It is not uncommon with lean male cats weighing 12-13 kg. This represents a three-fold increase in size over a 200 years period or thereabouts.

What makes you think I have not been in China? I went there two years ago (stayed mainly in Zigong).