That's way more impressive, because the average American ain't doin' that
I thought it was Korea no? I defer to @Idaeo 's experience, but from what I know at ports most of the heavy lifting is all crane and forklift, since 99% of the sh*t is palletized. I would bet the "heavy lifting" is mostly unloading consolidated shipments of personal goods all day. I worked UPS part time in college for a month, there was a lot of moving 30-100 lb packages around, it was a light workout to be honest. I just don't agree that Asian guys are so pathetically weak. I was in Vietnam for a minute, I used to marvel at these guys unloading containers by hand that in the States we would unload by machineMaybe that's the machine's capacity, but trust me Asian guys aren't THAT weak.
These shipyards are all in South Korea. These aren't ports though....they're shipbuilding yards. They build the biggest ships in the world(ships that drill oil wells...cargo ships)...the Huyandai shipyard is the biggest in the world. Yeah the cranes carry the massive multi-ton loads, but the workers still have to lift pieces of steel, materials, etc.
They're not bodybuilders, but they're pretty fit...most of them bike into work (quite a sight to see 1000s of shipyard workers biking into the yards)....and the entire workforce does a synchronized tai chi type exercise every morning.
Hell if I know