Muscle size does not always equal strength

There is this hilarious guy named Anatoly on social media, releasing videos of himself outlifting humongous body builder types. Guys with huge biceps. Anatoly weighs 170 pounds. He is disguised as a janitor, and is mopping the floor around these guys deadlifting more than 300 pounds. While they are resting, he nonchalantly lifts and moves the barbell with one hand!, while still holding the mop with the other hand. There are hundreds of these examples. Here is a different clip.

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The look on these bodybuilders, who probably outweigh him by 50-70 pounds of muscle, is priceless.

Of course this is one anecdotal case, and snarky entertainment, but also a great reminder to us strength coach and trainer types of some very important science about muscle hypertrophy (size) vs strength. And about how we train for strength vs hypertrophy.

Anatoly has competed at the highest levels of powerlifting. Don’t get me wrong, this guys is jacked, you just can’t see it as much under his janitor suit.

This is way oversimplified, but I am going to try and list the differences in the presumed routines.

1. Bodybuilder - 1 or 2, 1-2 hour sessions per day of split routines, where the body builder targets more of a specific muscle group, to try and make that muscle look bigger. Repetitions can be anywhere from 1-20 in a set, but generally stay in a 6-12 range. This elicits more hypertrophy or size. Most sets go to muscle failure.