I think what I have a difficult time 'wrapping my head around' is your generalized statements of being stronger is better / most important. I think being 'strong enough' is what is needed. Being able to squat 700 lbs does not give you an advantage in the mountains, in my opinion. I will wager most guys that can really get after it in the mountains probably can't squat 450, but they have stamina and can 'go' for hours without getting gassed. I think being strong enough, without sacrificing stamina and endurance, is the formula.
Good question, but I think the way this question gets poised is often weaponized and excuse not to strength train. For example, I don’t think anyone anywhere has advised squatting 700lbs for mountain sports. In fact, very few people will actually squat 700# even in strength sports. Are there even any NFL players, even just one, for example, who can (legit) squat 700#? So that’s an absurd overstatement.
It is very difficult to prescribe hard strength numbers to the general population because of genetics and anthoprometry, but, the data points seems to indicate that the vast majority of men are fully capable of potentially squatting up to around 400 lbs and deadlifting around 500# with proper coaching, programming and nutrition. In some circles, that is strong, in other circles that is not strong. I’ve read that the US men’s Olympic rowing team all deadlift 500 lbs or more and they maintain huge anaerobic capacities and are all over 6 feet tall. On the flipside, I’ve read that if you average male Crossfitters across all of the boxes using the games as a data point, the average squat is less than 250#, which is pathetically weak for a largely strength based sport.
With that in mind, there’s no number that works, HOWEVER, you should be strength training. Everyone should be strength training. Your grandmother should be strength training. And you should aspire to be stronger. Sports, hobbies, “cardio”, family commitments, vacations, hunting trips and work stress are all going to prevent you from being “too strong.”
Now, don’t confuse what I’m saying: strength training is different from hypertrophy. You’re not training for beach muscles, you’re not even training for size as pure strength training results in tighter muscle density than hypertrophy. The goal is to be as strong as you can be within the context of what you do: a competitive road cyclists may only squat 135# and will benefit from having a 135# squat vs a 90# squat.
In general, the statement is this: most people will only benefit from being stronger. Hunting is heavy, sometimes absurdly heavy. Strong people will, all things being equal, handle heavy better than weaker people. A strong body will, generally speaking, have better potential longevity and be more durable. A stronger posterior chain, which cannot be adequately trained with Bodyweight exercise, will only benefit the vast majority of people. So, when I say, “stronger is better” it’s not because you should aspire to a 700# squat, maybe not even a 200# squat, it’s that you should aspire to be stronger, therefore you should strength training. Statements such as “a 700# squat won’t get you up the mountain” are what knobby kneed, no glute having, shoulders like a 11 year old boy, cardio junkies make so that they have an excuse to be weak and physically wrecked later in life. Trust me, living in a mountain town, there’s plenty of absolutely wrecked 50 somethings who are just scrawny and ran, cycled and skied their way into the dirt in their 40s and they are broken. Absolutely broken.
A couple of my partners and I have found that for this lifestyle, squatting around 300# and deadlifting somewhere between mid 300s-400 seems to fit the bill. Beyond that, the training time is too extensive to combine with lifestyle considerations. So that’s around a number that is sought to maintain while hiking, backpacking, hunting, Mtn biking, backcountry skiing, ultra races etc. of course, those numbers fluctuate throughout the year and I’ve come back from 10 days of elk hunting and Barley squatted 225#. But, I can run that back up to around 300# in less than 3 weeks and maintain it from there. But that’s not a number that will work for everyone: some guys who are bigger, have different backgrounds and only do a single hunting trip each year and have no other physically stressful hobbies, might be stronger. Some guys who are smaller and also like to compete in 5ks and tough mudders might be weaker. The hard numbers don’t matter so much, it’s the benefits of progressive strength training itself that matter.
We have a pending storm that is looking to drop 5 feet of snow over 3 days. After this weekend, after 3 days of all out snowboarding, I will be weaker next week than I am today. Then I’ll get a little bit stronger over the course of another week. Then I’ll have a big weekend in the backcountry and be a little weaker again. It’s not static and I’ll never squat 700# with this lifestyle. Nor will anyone else. Just the same, I’ll keep getting under that barbell and I’ll keep grinding it out and keep pursuing strength because it is the single most beneficial form of fitness, takes the most amount of time to accumulate, it’s the baseline for everything else and you only stand to benefit from it with little to nothing to lose in exchange for your effort.