>>76388050
This
How would two men figure out who is the strongest before gyms were invented? They'd find a heavy rock (the densest material available) and challenge the other to lift it. That is strength at it's most fundamental level: who can lift a heavier object off the floor?
Cultures all around the world have stonelifting competitions to determine who is strongest, namely: Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Japan, Mongolia, Basque Country, Hawaii, Sweden, Denmark, and probably many more that simply weren't documented because we've been doing this shit since before writing was invented. And mind you, these were not light stones! Many of them go north of 400lbs, and 400lbs of rock is a hell of a lot harder to lift than 400lbs on a barbell. Many modern strongmen struggle to lift these stones that some ancient men were able to. Iceland would use these stones to determine your pay on fishing boats. Why? Because your strength at lifting things makes you a more useful person. Rippetoe was right.
We're not monkeys anymore. We developed beyond that as humans because we are the only species to manipulate our environments to suit our needs rather than merely participating in it like an idle observer. We'd rather lift the log to build a cabin or lift the rock to build the wall rather than swing around on a branch and freeze to death.
OP, you think your strength at deadlifting is useless because you were born in 2010 during a time where we have machines to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but take you back to any other point in history and your weakness would not only be detrimental to daily living, it would be shameful and it would make you less of a man.
