He can probably lay down mad power outdoors, too… But no one here is saying he’s about to win a state or regional level TT, either. Not at 2.6w/kg with an indifferent approach to CDA.
You have Emmett’s power files? His cycling specific training history? Or just his results?
Newspaper reports.
So Abe, what you’re saying is, "No, I don’t have any idea what his peak power or his FTP was shortly after he retired, I just know that ‘newspaper reports’ put him in the ‘unremarkable category’ according to Abe. "
You know that, at the time of the newspaper reports, he hadn’t won/podiumed enough to publish a really cool article.
(General reply)
Dude’s still 280 pounds (he was on a podcast I listen to this week and they asked because they thought he looked lighter).
I think trying to reason that the 20 minute power must be wrong because there’s no way he could have an FTP that high is reasoning in the wrong direction. Very hard 20 minute aerobic efforts is not far off the kind of conditioning tests NFL players would have to pass every season.
I also tend to think folks from an endurance background tend to underestimate how much stronger power athletes’ legs are. It’s not that someone that strong also has an incredible aerobic engine, it’s just that he doesn’t have to push that hard to put out 400+ watts. Doesn’t mean he could do even 300 for an hour though.
(Also think the thread title should be “can you beat JJ’s Watts?”)
As far as I can tell, Emmitt Smith never trained seriously on the bike.
Done 
How does one see the data for all intervals users?
Also, now I kind of want to see how close to 20min I can hold 421W, but possibly not enough to suffer through hanging on once I’m blowing up. 
In the Power menu, you can sort by age, gender, time interval, and watts or watts/kg
That puts JJ Watt at 127kg.
460w for 20min is 3.6 w/kg. There really is nothing impressive or unrealistic about that. I don’t get why people believe the wattage is off, even tho it may be due to the bike.
I think a lot of people aren’t considering w/kg, a relative metric, is what’s important and are in disbelief. A world tour larger rider would put down 460w for 20min and weight like 70kg. In other words, JJ is almost twice the size of them doing the same power for that duration.
The best thing about this topic is that JJ posting a tweet questioning the output of those above him led to a long thread questioning JJ’s output.
I had aways thought that power output does not scale with size. Is this not true? Certainly not linearly anyway…
3.6 w/kg is about 60th %ile on intervals for 35-39 yo men, and if the Peloton is off by 10-20% he’s well below 50th. And, as you and several others have said, the category error here is assuming a 20 minute all out effort from JJ Watt on a Peloton can be plugged into the equation we all use to estimate cycling FTP.
We have one the latest gen peloton at home and I’ve checked calibration a few times over the last couple of years against my favero assioma pedals and average power is within 5 watts after an hour. That said, I’ve ridden some older pelotons at hotels and the power is WAY off, 20-40% in some cases. Assuming JJ is riding a newer Peloton and it’s calibrated correctly, those numbers could be accurate.
It scales with muscle mass, not with just weight. A fat person doesn’t put out more power bc they have more fat on their body. A solid build guy would tho. That’s why you see these big guys who weight 200lbs putting down big power numbers, but their w/kg is low so they get dropped easily on climbs. They can be monsters in the crits tho
Most people are fat or overweight
I didn’t read it that way… I took it as he was impressed at what they were able to do because of how hard it was for him.
Ok fair enough. Now, I’m not saying you’re wrong…but how does this reconcile with the notion that weight lifting to add mass does not help with power on the bike? Or is that just false as well?
I’m asking because if this is the case, it would seem just getting jacked would seem to be the easiest route to 400+ power numbers and wrecking flat crits…
“Weight lifting to add mass”–bodybuilding workouts-is VERY different than “weight lifting to increase strength or power” Exercises/% max/reps/rest intervals/sets are all VERY different for a body builder vs a competitive power lifter (bench/squat/deadlift) vs an Olympic lifter (cleans and snatches), and you can see the differences in the typical physique.
Think about male gymnasts, who are very jacked. Almost all of that mass is high rep body weight, not from being in the gym.
You also have to think about the tradeoffs between pure power vs time vs relative power (w/kg).
Adding muscle mass does not guarantee an increase in aerobic power. There are multiple systems in play. To do 450+ watts for 20 minutes requires a big aerobic engine and you can’t have a bottleneck anywhere. You have to be genetically predisposed to do that kind of power. If muscle mass translated to aerobic power, you’d see track sprinters going for the hour record on the track. They have huge legs and can put out over 2000 watts for short bursts, but their raw ftp will be lower than an elite skinny legged climber. Some of that is how they train, but also likely genetics if they are at a high level.
Fair enough. I may just be an extremely cynical Peloton owner.
Do people think football requires no aerobic endurance? One thing that made JJ Watt so special was he always on the field and never needed to take a break. Considering he’s one of the best athletes of all time and w/kg isnt insane this doesnt seem unreasonable. We’ve all seen someone switch from another sport and just come in within insane fitness. Now a HOF in one of the most competitive shouldn’t even be out of the question.