Arnold discusses Wilt's strength...

[SichtingLives]

But people aren't being "born" stronger now than before--that makes no sense. It's obviously because we have better ways of maximizing strength through diet, training, etc,.

Chances are, if Wilt was one of the strongest guys in his era, then with modern training he would be one of the strongest guys in today's era. Obviously if we just put the 1960s version of him in a time machine and asked him to compete with modern athletes without the benefit of modern training and diets, he might be at a disadvantage.

It'd be like asking, what if we took the best athletes today and gave them 1960s training? Then obviously they would be great by 1960s standards, but probably not as good compared to the best athletes trained with modern methods.

A great athlete from a past era probably would be a great athlete in today's era with the benefit of modern training, though race exclusion in many athletic contests of the past would obviously throw doubt on past athletic achievements (still, even say the fastest running white guy in an all-white athletic contest would probably still be a pretty damned fast guy today with today's modern training).

However, the race issue doesn't apply to Wilt's case anyway.

I think the training and diet stuff is (obviously) a huge advantage in general for the modern athlete, no question.

But for the outliers who were the best, strongest, fastest of the past, it probably wouldn't matter as much (not to say they wouldn't be better off for it, but to say they wouldn't be at as much of a disadvantage without it)..... a good correlation to my point is, look at Pedro in the steroid era. He was facing the biggest, strongest hitters probably ever, and he still **** on them at will without having any of those same advantages they did (in this scenario, I'm just going to assume he was clean or the point is irrelevant).

[druggas]

point is, this era is different than every other, but human beings in general and physical strength haven't advanced nearly to the point some people think.

As I said above, everywhere we can objectively measure them, they advanced by a lot. Take a look at documented world record bench press figures through time, just as an example.

Where we can measure, the top end of the spectrum has improved by a relatively large amount. My guess is that the same happens where we can't measure, but it's much harder to debunk exaggerated stories in those fields.

Take this for example, from a recent New Yorker article on body building:

it wasn’t until 1953 that the first five-hundred-pound bench press was done,” Rogers said. “Today, you have guys who are doing a thousand pounds."

So maximum bench press has more than doubled in the last 60 years.

Steroids has helped them.

[TheXFactor]

To stay that strong after being with 10,000 women, maybe he was the real superman

[ChargerMan]

[quote="Prospect Dong"][quote]point is, this era is different than every other, but human beings in general and physical strength haven't advanced nearly to the point some people think.[/quote]

As I said above, everywhere we can objectively measure them, they advanced by a lot. Take a look at documented world record bench press figures through time, just as an example.

Where we can measure, the top end of the spectrum has improved by a relatively large amount. My guess is that the same happens where we can't measure, but it's much harder to debunk exaggerated stories in those fields.

Take this for example, from a recent New Yorker article on body building:

[quote]it wasn’t until 1953 that the first five-hundred-pound bench press was done,” Rogers said. “Today, you have guys who are doing a thousand pounds." [/quote]

So maximum bench press has more than doubled in the last 60 years.[/quote]

Nobody has a raw 1000 lb benchpress, the record has doubled in the last 60 years due to benchpress suits and gear.