Plague of Strength

Here’s another stream of consciousness- style article that is a sort of companion to the Art of Lifting. I’ve still no idea what, if anything, I’ll do with this, but if you guys have suggestions, feel free to share em.

Much is made of the science of strength, which is both entirely new and wholly superfluous, yet literally no mention is made of the art of strength. It is an art that likely predates sport, because nothing more than resistance is needed for strength- it requires even fewer tools than does painting, drawing, or even chalk art, and it can be done in little to no open space.

As soon as man had a sense of self, man likely also had a sense of pride in appearance. Though there are cultures in which obesity is a sign of wealth, it is generally not a universal signal of strength in the same way a strong arm, thick neck, and stout chin would be. Conversely, there is not a civilization in history in which the person being described has a powerful physique and is not respected for it, perhaps saving only the modern day, in which the upper echelon of bodybuilders are considered freakish monstrosities comprised of little more than drugs. Be that as it may, their physiques still turn heads and command at least a begrudging respect for the possessor of such a fine suit of muscular armor.

And there is of course science in the construction of any armor. There are angles that can be calculated to improve deflection or resist denting, to the placement of rivets to avoid catastrophic failures under stress, calculations to determine the best temperature at which to quench the armor, and the types of metals to be employed, but every bit of that science has its roots in art, not in math. It has its roots in the sweat and blood of thousands of years of artisans and craftsman utilizing the feedback of the people wearing their armor to improve the design constantly, through trial and error and years of creating specialized and individualized pieces of metallic art.

The same goes for the legendary Ulfberht sword style. Created in the Viking age by Frankish artisans for Germanic warriors of all sorts, the Ulfberht sword represented such an extreme advance over the regular “soft steel” of the day that the swords essentially turned the warriors wielding them into unstoppable death machines whose taste in swords made them not only brutal but haute couture. The methods utilized in the creation of the sword have only just been possibly determined, though modern metallurgists are still astonished at the fact that the Ulfberht technique for sword manufacture creates steel on par with steel that wouldn’t be seen again on the planet for another thousand years after it had its 200 year heyday.

“One of the most perplexing things about the Ulfberhts is the strength of the metal from which they were made. The material, known as “crucible steel”, is so strong and pure that it seems inconceivable that any blacksmith of that time could have handled it. In fact, since the age of the Ulfberht, this quality of steel was not seen again in Europe for over a thousand years. However, at the time the Ulfberht swords were being forged, similar weapons were also being produced in the Middle East. The latter were made of so-called “Damascus steel”, which comes from a raw material known as Wootz steel, and originates in Asia. Both Damascus steel and crucible steel have been found to contain unusually high amounts of carbon” (Kliger).

Consider that- it took scientists a thousand years to recreate steel of that quality, though the exact methods the original Ulfberht manufacturers used still remains a mystery, even after the magic of science claimed to have thrown back the “veil of ignorance” under which people allegedly lived before science came to dominate our thinking. Blacksmithing then became the work of fat nerds with neckbeards and no girlfriend, who would toil endlessly over a hot flame trying to re-aquire ancient skills about to be lost to CNC lathes became commonplace. Is it progress? Certainly- mass manufacturing of shit has brought us a lot of good. That said, no one is testing out badass new tech in a Golf- they’re using the technology that’s already been tested on bespoke hypercars for 20 years to determine its efficacy and work out the kinks, which is basically exactly what happened in the world of swords as well.

“Swords were incredibly expensive. Depending on where you lived, a good sword could cost about $1,200 to $24,000 in today’s money. Of course, it’s hard to directly translate the cost between the medieval period and today, simply because the economy worked so differently. But the bottom line is if you wanted a good sword, it wasn’t cheap.

But what if you wanted a really good sword? A sword that was so much better than everything else of its era that it was almost mythical? Then you needed an Ulfberht. And you had better bring some serious cash.

The Ulfberht swords, largely associated with Vikings, were basically like the Ferraris of their time. They were a symbol of wealth, status, and they would perform better than what most other people were using” (Redd).

So goes lifting- the science of lifting is thousands of years behind the art of strength, and one needs look no further than the efforts of the ancients for proof. It’s only just in the last twenty years that humanity has created human beings capable of outlifting the ancient Greek weightlifter Bybon or legendary viking chief Orm Storolfsson, and it wasn’t “scientific” lifting that got them there- it was a shitload of hard work and the untold millions of benefits of living in the modern era… which was brought to us by science.

“There is a work of art behind every science. Just that science dominates. We largely speak the language of science to communicate. There is a work of science behind every art. Just that art attempts to dominate. It is no hidden secret. The art of communication. The science of language. We speak the language of art to communicate with people who are art lovers and love the passion in art work. In essence there is a symbiotic relationship between these two fascinating characters of our life. These characters have typical characteristics…these fascinating characters role just needs to be unraveled and understood in its right perspective.   We use both these prisms of art and science to have a better understanding of the world around us.

Our minds need a supply of answers….questions keep churning. It is a restless machine and makes our life miserable if we don’t feed the famished mind with proper food for thoughts. There is an art in managing the motions of mind, unlike the Newtonian Law governing the motion of objects. We need to learn that art of managing the science of the mind machine. We are curious creatures by nature. 

There is art in nature and there is science in nature. 

This dude is Frank Merrill, who insofar as I can tell is the OG Arnold, silent-era style. Demonstrating how improvements in science had allowed him to rock arms that were a full five inches bigger than the average US Army recruit’s for another 40 years after his career. He began as a stunt double and stuntman, then transitioned to being the feature actor in action heavy shit like Tarzan. Referred to as the “Hercules of the Screen,” he was small by today’s standards at 6′ 185lbs, but he rocked a 16.5″ bicep, had boxed and wrestled, then trained champion fighters, and was apparently some kind of Mr. Olympia of the day (he won the title of ‘The World’s Most Perfect Man’ in a physical culture contest in Newark, N.J., was pronounced “100% perfect,” whatever the fuck that means, by the president of the Medical Association at Los Angeles, in addition to being the “holder of more than twenty championships in Roman rings, rope-climbing, wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, swimming, hurdling, shot putting, broad jumping, etc. He was the winner of more than a hundred prizes and medals in athletic contests throughout the world” (Doug).  

These are in harmony and hence we always see the magic in nature” (Pradhan).

As I see it, humanity disconnected itself from its natural state when we started growing crops. Crops led to bigger populations, and surplus food, and civilization. It gave us all of the rad shit we enjoy yet bitch endlessly about today, though the road has been long, hard, and uneven. Regardless, we finally stand at the point wherein science has allowed us to fulfill and perhaps exceed our design parameters, driving them higher and higher as a species even as half of the population is falling into a state of physical and mental disrepair that is as personally disgraceful as it is socially irresponsible.

Technology is now allowing us to live more than twice our genetic predisposition and to equal and/or exceed the physical performance of people whose engines ran far hotter than did our own and were coupled with only the most basic electronics. Put in automotive terms, we have been looking back at early man, whose lives were necessarily difficult, strenuous, and short as a kid of physical ideal just as American car enthusiasts have been doing with the Plymouth Roadrunner and its fellow lowtech monster muscle cars up from 1970 until about the last 15 years. Yeah, the Roadrunner was fast as shit for the time (5.4 second 0-60 and a top speed of 150 unmodified, but Chrysler modded it to hit 200mph, and the 0-060 times can get similarly crazy), but it was fucking dumb- the thing didn’t even have ABS, never mind a decent stereo. Awesomely, it was cheap as shit, so you could have had one for a couple grand less than what a gently used VW Golf R would cost you now, but without the insane suite of electronics and amenities with which the Golf R is packed, or the added quickness and gas mileage of the Golf.

So what we see there is that science has improved upon what the heart of automotive design had produced in the 70s. Whereas in the 80s they’d tamed the beast with catalytic converters and mileage requirements, we now live in an era wherein even “shitty” modern cars like the Kia Forte outperform muscle and pony cars of the 70s. Humanity seems to be evolving in the same way, though in the effort to worship at the altar of science everyone seems to have lost the fact that lifting is not a fucking video game. Humans are not fucking robots. Even if they were robots, there are too many variables affecting the robots, variables that are totally unconnected to lifting, which cannot be managed well enough to adequately state that a given technique is going to be superior to another over anything longer than a year, and even the year is incredibly generous.

“We have disconnected with nature. We have distanced ourselves from nature. We have drastically curtailed the visit to nature. As and when we look at the natural landscape we are completely at awe and wonder. When we see the magic in nature we discover that there is a beautiful logic in work behind the scene, and it is the science of logic. In some cases it is the art that makes us understand the nature more deftly than science. And there are many other situations where it is the applied science that makes us understand things much better than art” (Pradhan).  

Lifting is art. Just as art is improved in many ways by science (digital art ranging from the questionable benefit of people like myself having a platform for their unconventional art to Photoshop to filmmaking and everything in between, from weird boutique black pigments to better dildo materials), so is lifting. That said, the addition of salt to almost any dish improves its flavor, but if you sit down to a meal of nothing but salt, you’re probably going to die.

That is essentially what the people claiming science is the way to success in lifting look. They’re the Porsches- yeah, they’re often fast as shit, but they’re boring as fuck and hideously overpriced when they do perform, and when they drop a turd like the 926 or the original Boxster- they looked fast as fuck and had every amenity for which you could ask, save actual speed. Yeah, you can tune them to make them decently fast, but they could get smoked off the line, right out of the dealership, by cars that cost half as much to buy and insure. Tuners might look janky, but they’re fucking art, just in the same way your physique is art.

In the lifting world, calling yourself a “powerlifter” essentially makes you one, just as calling the Porsche 926 a sports car made it one… but in the end, a lot of heart and very little expenditure in the way of supplements and gear usually beats all of the supplements, gear, and ridiculously complex programs in the world, because that shit isn’t the main course- they’re just appetizers and side dishes. In the end, it’s the guts of the machine that matter, and without guts ones art will be tame, banal, and tepid- just like the music of Michael Bolton demonstrates so aptly.

Sources:

Beans, C. Science and Culture: Searching for the science behind art therapy.
PNAS. 15 January 2019, 116(3):707-710.

Kliger, Isabelle. The secret science behind the Viking supersword “Ulfberht.” Linde Stories.  Web.  20 Aug 2020.  https://linde-stories.com/the-secret-science-behind-the-viking-supersword-ulfberht/

Pradhan, Nihar R.  Art behind the Science and the Science behind Art.  Makeup and Breakup.  22 Mar 2019.  Web.  27 Jul 2020.  https://makeupandbreakup.com/2019/03/22/art-behind-the-science-and-the-science-behind-art/

Redd, Wyatt.  Unlocking the mysteries of Ulfberht words, The All-Powerful Viking Swords  All Things Interesting.  14 Feb 2018.  Web 20 Aug 2020.  https://allthatsinteresting.com/ulfberht-swords

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