Question...Strength verses Fitness

True physical fitness includes not only strength, but also flexibility, body composition, muscular endurance, and cardiovascular conditioning.

+100  Totally agree.

Well, let's be totally honest. The majority of powerlifters and bodybuilders ( as well as other athletes) are using the pharmacy to get bigger, stronger, leaner, ripped, or whatever.   Is that healthy??  Naaaaaaaa!

Two thoughts...a little off the subject.  I knew a guy on my high school football team.  Every year he would come into the season buff and in shape.  Never saw him in the weight room.  His dad was a cement contractor and would have his sons work with him during the summers and on weekends.  Also Jerry Rice's dad was a brick layer or masonry contractor.  Jerry would catch bricks thrown at him over a great distance during his early years.  Heads up!!   Brian

hey brian,

yep, there's something to say for good old manual labor. i'm a contractor and let me tell you, there's no shortage of macho behaivor, ego and testostorone flying around a job site. ditch diggers and mason guys are two guys i would not mess with. i worked as an apprentice plumber when i was in high school. which means i dug ditches! if you do that kind of work, like pushing a wheel barrow full of cement and bricks, you're going to be buff. maybe a better workout than the gym.

all i know, is when i come home from a full day of work (i'm a trim carpenter who specializes in kitchen cabinet installation and custom work, builidng a custom english walnut pub and coffered ceiling right now...lol) i really don't want to work out at the end of the day and my job is not that physical. i have the guys do the heavy lifting and still i'm whipped! oh, and i can eat like a horse if i wanted to and not gain a pound.....carbonblob