human strength-tractor related too

around our area there is a tale that many people say they have seen at one time.a man named sam,who when was young could stall a jd a at idle by putting on leather gloves and squezzing the flywheel till it stalled.i seen sam when i was a tenn and he was id say late 70s,he looked to be very broad and muscular man when he would have been younger.his tales of strength are legendary in our town.tho i never lived on a farm i was wanted in the hay season by all the local farmers,and i helped everyone i could after my schoolwork was done.i was quite strong myself as i could bench 385 and deadlift a little over 500 when i graduated school.the most amazing thing i just couldnt figure out were all this natural "farmer strength" came from.my next door neighbor who was a ww2 veteran,was probably 40 yrs older than me,and the man was tough as nails,and would not quit,most men his age would be long winded baling hay but not this guy,he could and would match me bale for bale,day after day.the guy earned my respect and always gave me a icecream and a pat on the back,and said daily,looks like your gonna be ok son.most of the farmers are older now around here now ,but when i was young it sure seemed like none would want to tangle with them in a wrasslin match.oh another one the old guy told me when i had a bad day in school is that he would tie me in more knots than a bag of twine if i didnt straighten up..and i believe he probably could.....

Those old guys were pretty tuff alright. Dad always told the story of his brother picking up the front end of a Fordson tractor. Dad or myself were never that big of men.

I think that there is a lot more to getting strong than lifting weights.
What I call "practical strength" is achieved by manipulating weight that is not evenly balanced, or when the lifter is not in the same position throughout the lift.
A good example of what I'm talking about is "The World's Strongest Man" competition.
Powerlifters have never done very well in these contests.
Also, the "Crossfit" training system is training for this practical strength.
The old farmers, loggers, and construction workers developed this strength doing their jobs.
I know an older man who milked cows by hand for decades, and did all sorts of farm work, and his hands are so powerful that he could shake your hand and pulverise your bones if he wanted to.
I've been lifting weights for better than 20 years, and these guys never fail to impress me with their power.

Anyone remember seeing Paul Anderson on TV pick up an elephant on a concrete slab using his back. Can't remember the name of the show but it was in black and white.
He was born about 20 miles from me in Toccoa, GA.
There is a marker in front of his home there.
Richard in NW SC

I know a farmer, who in his younger years, could pick up one side of a John Deere H out on the rear axle to put it on blocks to slide the wheels in and out for cultivating various crops. When he told us that story, some of us didn't believe him. I had an old Chevrolet Luv pickup I drove around as a beater, and he promptly went over, picked up the back end and pushed it like a wheel barrow down the driveway. I did see that first hand. Kind of sad, as he got sick with some type of disease and now he is really looking much older and frail than he was about 15 years back.

I worked with a guy from Serbia, back in the 70's. One day on a bet, he picked up a drill press and walked about 50 feet across the shop with it. We put it on a scale, and it weighed in at 440 lbs. He had been a blacksmith back in the old country.

We had a neighbor they called Cy (short for Cyclops I was told). I once watched him get stuck while he was plowing with a JD 70and 3 bottom pull type plow. Saw him pick the plow out of the ground and reset it lifted so he could get unstuck!
I also recall a story about him picking one of my uncles and a buddy up by the scruff of their necks, one in each hand and sticking their heads thru a door but that was before my time...