Brute Idea

[High prince of geeks]

A pewter ferring can store there physical strength, and Wax has showed us that you can store continuously throughout your life with no problem. Here's my idea, exercise and work out until you are at the very least semi athletic, after that start storing a large amount of you strength away continuously throughout your life. Now most people would just store the strength, and do nothing else, but instead of doing that you start working out in your weakened state until you just as strong as you were before. If your continue this process eventual just not storing your strength would become that equivalent of tapping your strength. Not  only would this make tapping your strength extremely powerful, but in case your mettleminds get stolen you aren't left weekend, in fact you'll be stronger. 

[A Joe in the Bush]

Not sure it Works that way. When Wayne gets Hurt at the End of Alloy of Law, He can't store health, because when he stores Health, he can't get any Stronger. When you're changing yourself by Using Invesiture, it Overrides Normal; Change. So no matter how much you worked out While Storing Strength, You wouldn't get any Stronger.

 

Upvote for original Idea though.

[lyht]

I don't know, there might be something to this idea. This sounds to me to be a bit like being a feruchemy savant. I don't think this would work with many powers, because there is no way to change what is "Normal". But but because it is possible to work-out and change your normal amount of strength, it should be possible to drop your strength through storage, and work out to get back up to your previous normal.

 

I think an aspect about this that might keep it from working is the practical limit to human strength. Would this process allow you to get around that natural limit, or would someone only be able to get their "Normal" body strength to the natural max possible.

 

I would also imagine that it would require continued effort to keep such a program going, just as bodybuilders have to work hard to keep their body in shape.

[MistLord]

There's absolutely no reason why this isn't possible. This is precisely what Wax does (storing 25% all the time), except applied to muscles. I would find it incredible useful, for example the idea of walking around with all that muscle doesn't appeal to me, preferring to stick to a lithe frame. Pewter would allow me to get as strong as I could however, then I could tweak and adjust. 

 

Going beyond - when I first thought of this idea myself, I always mused how it could actually work whilst exercising - do you gain muscle mass faster if you had less muscles? Would tapping or storing strength when you exercised help in any way? 

[High prince of geeks]

I don't think it would help much, it would make working out easier, but I don't think there would be as much muscle growth as there would be if you didn't tap. The only purpose of it would be to impress people watching.

[MistLord]

I don't think it would help much, it would make working out easier, but I don't think there would be as much muscle growth as there would be if you didn't tap. The only purpose of it would be to impress people watching.

So under this logic, then it should be easier to work out while storing, because it makes it harder for yourself = more gain in muscles with less equipment. See where I'm going with this? The exploitation of magic systems in the most mundane of settings continually fascinate me. 

[Cstryon]

This should work. Everyone is different, so you can't really say what "normal" muscle storage is. If the brute is storing 25 percent his normal strength constantly, and then works out, he would get stronger and gain muscle mass, as normal people would. He'd just be making up what he stores in a natural way.

This would be the same with healing, you store health, you get sickly. Doesn't mean you aren't healing unless you store at 100 percent. Wayne got sickly, and took a nap, just like I would feeling under the weather. The blood maker could store a tiny amount constantly, and then change diet /get vaccines, work constantly at being healthy.

So this should work, but it sounds like it would be hard work.

[MistLord]

This should work. Everyone is different, so you can't really say what "normal" muscle storage is. If the brute is storing 25 percent his normal strength constantly, and then works out, he would get stronger and gain muscle mass, as normal people would. He'd just be making up what he stores in a natural way.

This would be the same with healing, you store health, you get sickly. Doesn't mean you aren't healing unless you store at 100 percent. Wayne got sickly, and took a nap, just like I would feeling under the weather. The blood maker could store a tiny amount constantly, and then change diet /get vaccines, work constantly at being healthy.

So this should work, but it sounds like it would be hard work.

Many have also suggested filling a Goldmind while holding Stormlight, which effectually has the same purpose. 

[Cstryon]

Hmm, I don't imagine you could store the healing from the stormlight. But I guess you could let the stormlight sustain you while you drop a ton of your normal health at a high rate.

[SmurfAquamarineBodies]

When a Feruchemist stores strength they lose muscle mass. Which suggests that they are taking the actual muscle tissue, converting it into Investiture and storing it in the Metalmind. This idea is reinforced by the fact that when they tap strength they gain muscle in proportion to how much strength they use.

If this is correct then the Brute idea should work.

[Fifth of Daybreak]

I would think this is plausible, but dangerous. The big problem with storing it like this isn't being able to bulk up when storing strength, but if you ever get separated from your metalmind. We know the reaction the Lord Ruler had to losing his atium minds, and there'd be a similar effect to this, the dangers of reverting to a normal body that can't support the state that it has been forced into by the magic. In the Lord Ruler's case, it's because of his age, in this case, you're going to bulk up way past the point of being safe of comfortable.

 

With moderation I think this is a good theory, but anyone who takes this and overdoes it can be in trouble. So let's say you've been storing this for years, running at 25% strength, but you've also been working yourself to the point that you're just as strong as you used to be before you were storing that 25%. I actually think you might be in trouble anytime you're not tapping it. It shrinks your muscles, and you're still a big bulky guy. As soon as you let go of that 25% storage, your body mass is increasing by 25%-with no magic to fight the bulkiness or the disproportions. Depending on how much you've been working out and how big you've gotten, you might not be able to move-your muscles are too inflexible, and the bulk literally gets in the way. 

 

Even when you tap strength, it's only going to increase from there, so it won't solve any of the problems I just outlined, just give you more strength with those same limitations. So now you've got someone who's however many times stronger than a normal person, but they can't move because of bulk.

So I'd say this has a very limited application. You'd have to balance it to be sure you aren't causing more problems for yourself this way. 

[MistLord]

But... The Lord Ruler had problems with constantly tapping his metalminds, not storing them, right? Again, remember Wax says he constantly stores weight in his metalminds (increasing this to the maximum when he used his weight to smash through the floor). 

 

I feel what you've just outlined to be more a psychological problem than a magical one. Getting used to being at a certain size can be troublesome. Yet you could say the same thing if any Brute were to tap Pewter (we know Sazed had trouble moving sometimes due to his enhanced bulk). Again though, it's not really so much of a mechanic to stop you, more of a unintended consequence. And you couldn't store every moment of your life, so I would imagine those moments where you settle down and release your storage (or even when you sleep) it may be enough to acclimatise yourself to your own body mass.

[Pathfinder]

I will say this much, this would be far more effective/possible in a modern day setting than during the first trilogy or AoL. Think of it this way. You are basically working out while on the equivalent of a low protein diet. Muscle mass is LEAVING while working out. So you are running on "fumes". The way to balance it, is visit your local GMC or equivalent store and buy MASSIVE quantities of protein shakes and bars just so you can continually build the muscle as you lose it. Only exercising wouldn't do it, you would have to alter your nutritional intact massively as well.