[GWJ]

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

A side note though body builder weights are weird because they tend to be lighter than they 'look' (although not light in absolute terms) because of the lack of body fat.

Actually it's opposite :) Muscle mass is more dense than fat tissue, so 5 kg of muscles will have smaller volume than 5 kg of fat. Thus, if we have two 130 kg persons looking almost the same (I mean almost the same volume, shape etc.), the one who have more muscles and less fat, will be the heavier one.

Originally Posted by Rupert

Well, if you're lifting the weight all the way from the ground, and B353 strongly implies that this is what GURPS is talking about when it says 'lift', you need leg strength past a certain fairly low weight (the amount you can lift off the ground by leaning down with your legs straight is quite limited, and the risk of back damage from doing that with a heavy weight is high).

Hm I can't find the implication there is default "from the ground". And when you lift something with your legs straight, you still using mainly your leg muscles, just more of the stress is on your back thighs muscles ;) So I would assume that lifts from the ground are full-body movements.

Originally Posted by Rupert

I'd rule that Arm ST in excess of overall Lifting ST is only useful for weights that you are handling whilst already standing.

That's why I'm asking about which exercise :) I doubt it's military press, more likely it's Push-Press (because why someone shouldn't use their legs if he can do this to help himself in some adventuring situation?), and we have to remember that even holding some maximum weight is stressful to core muscles stabilizing the spine. You can have mega strong arms, but if your core is weak, your lifts will be cut down. And even helping with leg drive will be less useful, because you won't able to make your core stiff enough to properly transmit the energy from your legs to the barbell, and you can use just a part of this leg drive.