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How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

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31–40 of 112 posts

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#31
post #6

One thing I always found a bit of a puzzle: it's widely understood, and scientifically backed up afaik, that strength training is healthy and good for longevity. Yet, if you look at people whose everyday jobs look a lot like functional strength training, eg construction workers, my general impression is that their bodies (age 50+) are in worse condition than the average population (who's not in great shape already),…

I think for a lot of manual labour, the tasks are repetitive and so they experience greater wear and tear.

TBH, a lot of pro-athletes have wear and tear injuries after they retire as well.

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#32
post #6

One thing I always found a bit of a puzzle: it's widely understood, and scientifically backed up afaik, that strength training is healthy and good for longevity. Yet, if you look at people whose everyday jobs look a lot like functional strength training, eg construction workers, my general impression is that their bodies (age 50+) are in worse condition than the average population (who's not in great shape already),…

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Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#34
post #11
post #6

One thing I always found a bit of a puzzle: it's widely understood, and scientifically backed up afaik, that strength training is healthy and good for longevity. Yet, if you look at people whose everyday jobs look a lot like functional strength training, eg construction workers, my general impression is that their bodies (age 50+) are in worse condition than the average population (who's not in great shape already),…

> Yet, if you look at people whose everyday jobs look a lot like functional strength training, eg construction workers, my general impression is that their bodies are in worse condition than the average population (who's not in great shape already), and far worse than people with sedentary jobs who do fitness training. Really? That's not my observation.

I wasn't in construction but I did spend three years working as an arborist / forester between 2022 and 2025 whilst taking a little break from tech after a long 20-year stint. I've been in good shape since I was 30 with strength training, cardio and even a little stint as a masters level competitive olympic weightlifter. A long way of saying, I know my body fairly well.

Two years into climbing trees in domestic settings and hand cutting in timber plantations, even three days a week and my body was hammered. Now maybe that's because I was in the 46–50 year old range, but it was clear it wasn't a viable long-term strategy for me. Speaking about the people I now know in that industry, it's commonplace for "climbers" to be done by their mid-thirties. Shoulders all mashed up from climbing and carrying heavy loads. It's not pretty.

On the positive side and injuries notwithstanding (I did get a shoulder issue just like everyone else) my bodyweight dropped 10kg and I did look (and feel) much nimbler. The core of the problem in this kind of work is that when the rubber hits the road "getting the job done" always comes before "correct techniques for doing X". And there's no liability claim to be had as at the start of each job you sign the risk assessment which states that you will get it done in a health-and-safety-compliant way. If you don't sign, you're not on the crew the next day and you're walking home from site. This is basically how it is in the UK for these kinds of jobs where salaries are between £24–34K annually.

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#35
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can unrack a 180kg barbell with your head and just stand there like that as a 90kg male, much less untrained. That is a humongous amount of weight.

Not your head. Your shoulders. As if you were going to do a barbell squat.

I definitely don't think this is the case. For somebody who hasn't trained - they're not holding 180kg on their shoulders. I think two big reasons would be that they're not going to have core strength/training to support it, and they wouldn't even have the traps to support the bar on their upper back, it'd dig into them and cause immense pain and probably just roll as well.

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#36
post #21

Here's how to actually train for it. https://uphillathlete.com/aerobic-training/vertical-beast-mo...

Its not even something hard to come up with if you are active, understand you body and generally how workouts work on you.

I've trained in similar fashion for my trip to Aconcagua or Nepal, and never researched for that nor discussed with anybody. You carry big backpacks up there a lot, or smaller backpacks for 10-12h each day, every day in places where lack of oxygen makes you lose breath in 5-10 steps easily when walking uphill. It figures that when training for strength-endurance there needs to be a lot of repetitions with some added weight.

I just took some weights into backpack at building I was living back then, hiked those 8 floors on stairs, took elevator down, rinse and repeat many times. Or elliptic trainer with same backpack. Or other movements/machines (just don't run with that).

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#37
post #23
post #16

Reminds me of slovakian mountain carriers https://regiontatry.sk/en/mountain-load-bearers/

hopefully in both Slovakia and Vietnam these will be replaced by cargo drones, after all Vietnamese farmers are already using them extensively, I saw great use of them in videos of saving people during the floods

Nah thats also part of historical tradition (in Slovakia). Folks doing that could earn way more working regular jobs down in city (even say Poprad, closest one). Its their passion, hobby, and there is a lot of respect in community for them. Even normal hikers can take some smaller load up, its encouraged and appreciated. It doesn't have to be 2 full 50l alluminium barrels of beer or similar 120-150kg loads.

In alps for example all this is done by choppers these days, a tradition lost.

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#38
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not your head. Your shoulders. As if you were going to do a barbell squat.

I definitely don't think this is the case. For somebody who hasn't trained - they're not holding 180kg on their shoulders. I think two big reasons would be that they're not going to have core strength/training to support it, and they wouldn't even have the traps to support the bar on their upper back, it'd dig into them and cause immense pain and probably just roll as well.

For me, it actually seems fairly plausible. I was a fairly untrained 70kg forty-something when I went to the gym and very quickly found that as I did a bit of hiking, I could max out the standing calf raise machine at 155kg. This involves having a very padded 155kg on your shoulders while in a standing position. It felt to me like that was the most my shoulders and back could cope with, and it's more than double body weight.

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#39
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yet, if you look at people whose everyday jobs look a lot like functional strength training, eg construction workers, my general impression is that their bodies are in worse condition than the average population (who's not in great shape already), and far worse than people with sedentary jobs who do fitness training. Really? That's not my observation.

I wasn't in construction but I did spend three years working as an arborist / forester between 2022 and 2025 whilst taking a little break from tech after a long 20-year stint. I've been in good shape since I was 30 with strength training, cardio and even a little stint as a masters level competitive olympic weightlifter. A long way of saying, I know my body fairly well. Two years into climbing trees in domestic setti…

You age much faster when older. Don't read too much into it

Re: How to carry more than your own bodyweight (2025)

#40

This reminds me of a trip to Guilin when I was an athletic 22-year-old. We'd booked a hotel on top of a mountain that was only reachable by hiking up a trail. At the trailhead, a five-foot-tall grandma offered to carry my luggage to the top. I thought it was funny — and a bit insulting — so I refused. About a quarter of the way up, I gave up and let her take it. She carried it all the way up without breaking a sweat.…

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