Which one reigns supreme for the tactical athlete?
First, let’s lay out exactly what they are.
Absolute strength refers to the maximal weight that one can lift, regardless of your body weight.
Relative strength is the amount of force exerted relative to your body weight. Essentially, your pound-for-pound strength.
While a larger individual may be able to lift more than a smaller individual, they may actually be weaker pound-for-pound than that smaller individual.
A solid argument can also be made for why both are important to the tactical athlete.
Recently the Secretary of Defense stated:
Our standards will be high and in combat formations they will be gender neutral because the weight of a 155 round, or a ruck sack, or a human being, doesn’t care if you’re a man or a woman.
While the SECDEF’s point is about gender neutral standards, he’s talking about absolute strength.
If a 200+ pound male service member becomes a casualty, you are still going to have to drag him (plus an additional 100ish pounds of whatever he’s wearing) to safety.
The weight is the weight. It’s not changing for you just because of your gender or size. There are absolute strength requirements to that are foundational to performing the duties of your occupation.
Before I risk you thinking that the rest of this article is about how absolute strength is king and nothing else matters, let me let you in on a spoiler alert….there’s just as strong of a case for relative strength.
You must also ask yourself, how strong is strong enough?
At what point does the pursuit of additional maximal strength cause other qualities to deteriorate?
For instance, if you have to add 20 pounds of body mass to take your deadlift from 500 to 510, are you really moving the needle towards better occupational performance?
Or would you be better off deadlifting 475, weighing 20 pounds less than you do right now but with significantly better cardiovascular endurance?
It probably seems obvious when you read it. And if it does, then you’re leaning towards the side of relative strength.
But the right answer always falls somewhere in between and there’s always nuance to consider.
Here’s what I mean…
In Yuri Verkoshanky’s work, Supertraining, he differentiates between structural resistance training and functional resistance training. Structural resistance training is aimed specifically as producing muscle hypertrophy while functional is most commonly associated with performance goals.
However, Verkoshansky notes that there is no such thing as purely structural training, as all strength adaptations are inherently functional.
What I see as the key point though, is that there is an optimal degree of body mass for the tactical population.
At some point, gaining additional mass (even though it may be as a result of muscle hypertrophy) may not be so beneficial if it means becoming slower, limits mobility, or diminishes other performance enhancing traits.
I’ll highlight one of our coaches, career firefighter, and one of the strongest human beings I know, Brandon Serio when talking about a recent bench press mas:
Hit 455 on bench for about a 1 minute lockout. Old PR was 475 but at a 290 bodyweight. Super happy with this press at 235 (bodyweight).
While I don’t want to put words into Brandon’s mouth, I’m willing to go out on a limb and guess he probably is more efficient while on air due to his increased cardiovascular endurance, his work capacity has significantly improved, and he feels overall healthier with better mobility.
He clearly has sufficient strength to perform his job.
In this case…just simply try to push for a new bench or deadlift max was not what he needed most for better performance.
It’s all a balance…
I’ve said 1,000+ times, if you’re in the tactical field then you can’t just be a powerlifter and be okay with getting winded walking up a flight of stairs.
You also can’t just be an endurance athlete and get knocked down by a strong breeze.
Your base level of strength needs to be sufficient for accomplishing your basic occupational duties.
Back to the SECDEF’s quote…if you don’t have the strength to load a 155mm artillery shell and you’re a field artilleryman, that’s a problem. That weight isn’t changing based on your age or gender….you need to get stronger and do whatever is required to get there.
Some minimum strength standards I believe most tactical professionals should strive to achieve:
Back Squat - 1.5x Bodyweight (BW)
Deadlift - 1.75x BW
Pull-Ups - 10 Strict Reps
Farmer’s Carry - 1.5x BW (total) for 50 meters
These are the minimum. High performance standards look more like:
Back Squat - 2x BW
Deadlift - 2.5x BW
Pull-Ups - 15-20 Strict Reps
Farmer’s Carry - 1.5x BW for 100 meters
These are just examples, and the specific movements and weight standards may differ for you based on the demands of your occupation.
But for me, I like to try and maintain the high-performance standards while keeping my 5-mile run time at 40 minutes or less and my bodyweight around 200-205 pounds.
You could call my run time and bodyweight standards as my “cruising altitude” that I like to always maintain and keeps me accountable when I get that itch to really focus on what I enjoy more (strength) at the expense of other attributes that are just as important.
To wrap things up, there’s a base level of absolute strength you need to achieve to perform the tasks required by your occupation. Past this, you may find more success in tracking your strength relative to bodyweight.
In practice, gaining absolute strength and relative strength often happen concurrently and you’re not necessarily changing what your sets and reps look like.
However, the way in which we think about training and the way we track training can be different. Lifetime PRs are cool and all, but there’s much more to performance training than just the weight you can lift one time.
Maintaining your 1, 3, or 5 rep max at 10-15 pounds less bodyweight is also a PR, and you’ll probably feel better doing everything else in and out of the gym.
Be strong. Move well. Look like you do the job.
PS - if you’re ready to join the team hitting big lifts and moving faster and further, come join us for a free week on Warfighter.