Deceptive Strength is a term to describe someone who, at first glance, you might not pick for your gladiator team, but has a strength that far exceeds their physical frame. I first heard the term in the book of the same title by Logan Christopher, and it got me thinking quite a bit. It seems that people today are not very impressed with performance anymore. Vanity has assumed the threshold of quality, so people are simply attracted to huge muscles. There is a certain charm and glamor that comes with huge muscles, but anyone who doesn’t have the muscles but has great strength seems to be doing the whole thing fake. Metal-bending feats are rigged, phone book rips are cheated, nothing a small person does with strength seems to have merit.

But this was not always the case; there were as many 160-170 pound strongmen as there were 200+ pound strongmen. Credited as one of the greatest muscle controllers to ever live, Maxick weighed in at 143 pounds soaking wet, but could hold Tromp Van Diggelen in the outstretched palm of him, a man who weighed 215 pounds at the time. Of course, some people have cheated with what are supposed to be incredible feats of strength, raising the antennae of skeptics around the world. But there is a certain charm that comes with someone who has immense strength in a small body.

Muscles are a symbol of strength, and every magazine you see advocating strength training or exercise shows men with huge muscles on their bodies. But is that muscle functional or strong? Sig Klein is credited with saying, “Train for fitness, strength will come.” This was intended for people who trained their arms and upper body without considering other parts of the body. However, some people who train every muscle in their body for aesthetics never realize the true strength they can achieve.

Bruce Lee is a great example of deceptive force; the power to kick 300-pound punching bags to the ceiling in a 145-pound body is admirable. This is a true deceptive strength that cannot be faked, and this is the strength that most of the strong men of old had; they didn’t need to have extravagant muscles to have stellar strength, and in some cases they were hampered by having too many muscles. Gymnasts are incredibly strong and powerful people, but they don’t have the kind of physique one would expect them to have with their strength. That’s because there are more components to strength than muscle size, and the strongmen of old knew it. They trained tendons, ligaments, muscle control, and things that people today didn’t know were trainable. His methods are not secret, but they are buried under the vanity of the industry.

Deceptive strength is what strength coaches should aim for as a training ideal; train for strength and function, and your physique will build on its own. Dedicate yourself to the methods that these strong men of old had; his lack of science or technology is not a lack of knowledge, and his feats of strength are a testament to that. Even if you look at the Farnese Hercules sculpture, you will see that the ancient cultures that revered strength did not imbue Hercules with muscles worthy of a cloud, but he nonetheless exuded strength in every ounce of his being. Deceitful strength is the way of the ancients, and it is the image of true strength.