Strong Enough

When it comes to strength, the phrase “strong enough” has caught on, alluding to the idea that there is a point of diminishing returns with strength gains.  The difference between 400 and 500 pound deadlifts is generally training age.   

Finding a definitive point of diminishing returns is difficult, as one never knows how much strength will be needed in the course of daily life.  Deadlifting a car off of your neighbor’s cat is an opportunity that rarely presents itself… but you never know. 

A problem that I have with the phrase “strong enough” is that it simplifies strength into one bucket.  Strong enough to squat 500 pounds or strong enough to bench press 315 lbs.

Strength expression occurs in a variety of ways.  Someone doing a turkish get up is presenting  strength that is specific to the turkish get-up, while sprinting up a hill is yet another form of strength expression that can have very little to do with the turkish get-up.  

So how do we define “strong enough”? 

The easy answer is “it depends” but I hate that answer more than anything without proper justification.  If someone wants to be the strongest man on the face of the earth, strong enough might be a hair stronger than the average Tom, Dick or Harry looking to golf 18 and lift the kids up past their third birthdays.

So to avoid the “it depends” answer, my answer for strong enough lies in the process.   Strong enough means strong enough to keep training.  It means strong enough to withstand the ups and downs of a healthy lifestyle.  Strong enough means forgiving the mistakes and moving on  with focus and effort.  It means being strong enough to live in the present and be excited for the future.  Strong enough doesn’t mean plateauing, finding the promise land and bagging it for the rest of eternity.   

The phrase “strong enough” was coined in sports for athletes who trained with powerlifting style programming and then ran the risk of getting injured for their sport due to excessive training loads.   It was not an attempt to give everyone a finish line with their training.  

When I hear someone saying they’re “strong enough” and don’t feel like taking steps to take care of their body, that person is the farthest thing from strong enough to me.  It doesn’t need to mean weightlifting but it should mean the pursuit of progress over perfection. 

There is no golden snitch when it comes to strength.  It’s expression is specific to the task at hand and in this day and age, there’s plenty of different tasks out there to keep us busy chasing “strong enough”.