My fitness goal: be able carry my 130 lbs partner from the couch to the bed without waking her up. How to achieve?

@whatgoeshere Oh!! I had this experience a few days ago. There was a situation where one of the patients in the common area was laying on the floor due to an unknown (at the time) medical cause and we had to move her quickly to her room. I had no idea I had the strength to lift this woman by myself and run all the way to her room. Her weight was about 125lbs and I would've never thought I would be able to carry an adult prior to this event. I am sure adrenaline helped but I totally think it was the zercher squat that helped and the hex deadlift I've been doing. I have a bad back so I have been doing zercher for a few months and I never thought I'd use this skill in a real life scenario. My coworkers were so impressed that day and said I looked like a firefighter rescuing a person from a house burning down lol. It has definitely motivated me to add a few more pounds to my zercher routine.
 
@whatgoeshere It sounds like you want to be stronger. The most efficient way to accomplish this is to spend more time in the gym. This would mean increasing your time spent there at the cost of some of your other activities.

Your routine focused on the right exercises. I’d focus on entering into a strength building phase where you try to do 3-5 reps for your exercises with increased weight for 6ish weeks, then cycle back to something with more repetitions after that.

Lifting weights after climbing is likely helping you to build great muscle stamina, but if likely not going to get you to where you want to go strength wise. Ensure that you aren’t overtraining and give your body enough time to recover.

Perhaps try lifting for a few days without climbing and compare your results to those on days when you do climb.

Also add on a barbell row.
 
@whatgoeshere Best of luck with this.

Sports people do strength training and sport specific training. Consider this as a sport. Keep up your strength straining but also consider a Hessian or canvas sack with weight, building up to the 130lbs. Do the route a couple of times a week.

Also be careful of those doorways. I know I'd clumsily bounce my wife of the door frames on the way.
 
@whatgoeshere Can you deadlift with more weight? That will help build the strength. Carrying 130 lbs of deadweight would be difficult for me and I deadlift 3x the weight you’re using. You need to lift heavy weights. I’m 5’1 155lbs and I would struggle to carry my 85 lb daughter up the stairs. But your goal is fun 🤩 hope you make it
 
@whatgoeshere Do front tempo squats and front pause squats working up to like 150. Maybe some split squats (front or back) to get your core accommodated to weird weight shifts. I’d do pause at half way, pause at bottom for a while then switch to squat down then pause halfway up for a while, then combine at will till it’s easy. You’ll want it to feel easy for maximum effect ;)

ETA: personally I think 2x a week is plenty and maybe supplement w your dumbbells doing whatever to keep your muscles hot. I like goblet squats but there are lots of options and honestly I think the heavy days probably count most for your goal.

Fwiw when I first started lifting my goal was to squat my partner, about 145 lbs, and we mostly just focused on tempo and split squats to prep for the wonky weight of the human body.
 
@whatgoeshere The best training would be to actually carry her for training purposes. Nothing prepares you like the real thing.
Its also a technique issue and you wont get better if you dont do it...
 
@whatgoeshere This is amazing!!!

You’re already doing super fit things (damn bouldering is hard AND you lift). Definitely try carrying weights for longer periods of time. It’s not the same type of training as you do in the gym, but train to simulate the same muscles that are needed to carry someone (like fireman carry, piggyback, or bridal style)
 
@whatgoeshere This is incredibly charming and I wish you luck. I’m spitballing here but I’d try weighted lunges, especially walking lunges, to get single leg balance and stability while carrying weight forward, along with the strength.
 
@whatgoeshere Good luck! You got a lot of advise here but I just want to say you probably shouldn’t try to carry her up the stairs once you are strong enough to. There’s just too much that could go wrong.
 

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