Man-strength, Does it exist? Options

[*mipadi*]

I was at dinner with some friends last night, and a few of them brought up the concept of "man-strength". Man strength, as defined by my friend PJ, is when a male suddenly wakes up and has a lot more strength than he used to. As he put it, a young boy is fairly weak; as he progresses through puberty, he may become stronger, but he's still not as strong as an older man, because for some reason, it seems like guys in their 30s and 40s are always stronger than a healthy, hardy 19-year-old—as PJ put it, even a 20-year-old is afraid to fight a 40-year-old. My friend Sean made this illustration: He was in class the other day, and a brawny young student was trying to open a window but couldn't get it up; but then the professor, who is in his 40s, came over and easily opened the window. PJ and Sean attributed this phenomenon to "man-strength".

Several others, including myself, countered that this notion of preposterous. "Man-strength" is nothing but a psychological condition—i.e., it's all in one's head. We claimed that Sean's example is clearly explainable: The younger student loosened the window, making it very easy for the professor to open.

But Sean and PJ insisted that man-strength exists.