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

[zelisky]

@whatgoeshere Someone has a similar goal as me! I want to be able to pick up my partner (a wheelchair user) in case he ever falls out of the chair. I want to be able to just pick him straight up from the ground. He (probably) weighs about as much as me as well. Gotta say, didn’t think I’d find a thread that so perfectly matches my goal!

 

[elinamatts]

@zelisky AWESOME! I'm trying to get where I can lift and carry my wheel chair using roommate up and down stairs when needed.

 

[razare]

@zelisky As a wheelchair user myself, I hope you're practicing this with him. We all have different preferences for how we like to be helped and straight lifting is often not a good strategy. I've often had to tell strong guys at the BJJ gym that I'm not a sack of potatoes and purely lifting me is harder than necessary for both of us.

 

[zelisky]

@razare Oh, absolutely! All very good points. When I say straight from the ground, I should clarify that I want to be able to deadlift my weight in case of emergency. If he ever did fall from his chair, he’d definitely be able to help me get him up, but there is some brute strength that I just don’t have that would be needed to get him back in his chair. But yes, excellent points!

 

[dawn16]

@whatgoeshere I'd advise cutting the bouldering most days you lift and cutting the lifting the days you boulder. Atleast reverse the order every other week or something or you'll likely be too burned out to make static gains on your lifts.

Curls and weighted squats will be most helpful lifting someone. Get some pullups in there and make sure you can lift yourself first though.

Progressive overload works a lil different based on whether you want strength, size, endurance or recomp, I'd recommend looking into how to best do that. Also make sure you're training intensely enough.

 

[gsoleiman]

@dawn16 ugh I struggle with this myself. I love climbing but have to lift on the same days I climb or I’ll never have a recovery day, so on those days I’m either going to lift shitty or climb shitty.

 

[dawn16]

@gsoleiman Get out of the "week by week" mindset. It doesn't matter if two days of recovery fall in the middle of god knows what kinda messy schedule as long as you aren't overdoing it in cumulative load. One off here, lift climb lift, 2 off, climb lift, off, lift off climb off lift... Just do something and progressively overload efficiently. Identify your areas of strength and weakness, where you grow easily and what takes a lil more. Also make sure it's not over or under working compromising your gains.

 

[crazyforchrist]

@whatgoeshere I just want to say that my wife uses me for farmer’s carries and it amuses the hell out of me. I’m 5’2”, 110ish and she’s 5’7” and 145lbs.

 

[dawn16]

@whatgoeshere Damn, I wish I slept that soundly.

 

[mlenadc]

@whatgoeshere Can you Zercher-carry 3x45 pound plates (135lbs)? Start with one, then two.

Or maybe three 35 lb bumper plates, this will give you a sense of how to do it.

 

[dewguru]

@whatgoeshere Core exercises have been really good for my carrying capacity. I can get my similarly sized wife across a room in a bridal style carry and am working on better lifts. (I 100% gauge my fitness goals on carrying her so this post is very relatable.) I would suggest planks for sure, but I’ve also made good progress with single leg bridges, dumbbell pullovers, and back extensions.

 

[pcippy]

@whatgoeshere Why not practice carrying her everyday while she's awake? Or asleep I guess. Just practice carrying her.

 

[defender]

@whatgoeshere this is so wholesome, i hope you reach your goal!!

 

[volinfl]

@whatgoeshere Sandbags! They’re very cheap and you can fill them as much as you want. You can get them up to 100-200 lbs+ even. You can practice all sort of lifts and carries.

 

[rue]

@volinfl This is what I came to recommend. I love heavy lifting and at my peak ore covid was nearing on a PR of 300. Around this same time my grandmother who was ill fell and couldn’t get off the floor and my dad who usually helped with her wasn’t there. My mom was definitely unable to lift her.

I was able to lift her (maybe 130-140?) with help and great difficulty. It’s a whole different ballpark lifting dead weight vs a bar that’s ergonomically designed to be easy to grip with evenly distributed weight.

I would also add maybe movements that focus on helping stengthen all the little stabilizer muscles you’d use as dead weight shifts around when you lift: single arm or leg movements, squats on an upside down bosu ball etc.

 

[rue]

Also forgot to add there’s the element that when you lift a bar you can grip as hard as you want and you aren’t going to hurt it- not so much with a human.

 

[dawn16]

@volinfl I have thought about doing this but with the combined weight of my kids! Also if I could figure out ways to strap the weight of the small one to my front (since I often wear him in a carrier) and the weight of the bigger one to my back like a piggy back ride and then do squats or farmer carries with it on. I live in an area that’s got a lit of country roads and areas with bad signal. And I often think, what if my car broke down and I couldn’t get phone service and had to carry my two babies a couple miles to safety? How would I do it? Sand bags seems the most versatile and practical way to train for that.

 

[lawforchrist]

@dawn16 Not sure about actually strapping your children to your front and back, but ruck packs or plate carrier vests are made for exactly this type of training!

 

[dawn16]

@lawforchrist No, I definitely wouldn’t strap my kids to me for exercise. Lol But I do often “wear” my baby in one of those structured carriers and my older son loves piggy back rides. So I always figured if I found myself stranded and had to carry them both a long way that would be the best way to do it. Being physically capable of it is another matter. But I find the idea of training to do practical things a good motivation to exercise.

 

[teatimebabe28]

@volinfl It can be pretty cheap too. I bought an army surplus canvas duffel bag a decade ago for my sandbag, drum liners and duct tape for the sand. I've used 110 pounds in it and it seems like it would hold 220 if the sand was packed tightly. I repackaged my sand to be intentionally loose and floppy for that dead weight fun, and 85 seems to be about half full.