04-20-21 11:10 AM - Post#909743    

I just finished up doing "Simple Strength for Difficult Times" and "Classical Conditioning" back to back over the last two months and have been more or less just playing around for the last week or so. I've always liked the idea of "accidental" and "dad" strength. My grandfather was a carpenter and never went to a gym, but was amazingly strong from pounding nails and carrying bundles of shingles all day.

He'd probably laugh to no end about his cubical jokey grandson trying to simulate manual labor, but it got me thinking. A few months ago I picked up a Concept2. I try to either do a 30 minute row or a long walk everyday. I also have an Apple Watch that "pings" me every hour to get up and move for a minute. I was thinking of keeping my 24kg bell next to me at my desk while I work and using that time to do some varied loaded carries for a minute or two every hour. What does everyone think?

04-20-21 11:38 AM - Post#909744    

I think that's terrific. What a great habit and I believe that'd be a good example of "little and often over the long haul." In the long run it'd be like if you stopped by the bank every day for years and years and deposited a dollar. It adds up!

Just my 2¢

04-20-21 12:28 PM - Post#909747    

Don't ever remember reading grease the groove being movement specific, so why not loaded carries?

04-20-21 12:48 PM - Post#909749    

I worked for a builder about 13 years as general labourer, which means a lot of odd jobs on detached condo sites. Did all kinds of carries all day, loved that job. Now retired but only coz my wife was going to and since I was going to be 65 then.

"Go Henry - Live, lift, learn and grow - Never quit - Dave Draper"

04-20-21 01:44 PM - Post#909752    

There are a lot of benefits to be had, IMO, from taking little "exercise breaks" throughout the day. Nothing major, and you don't need to make yuge gainz doing this, but I find that if nothing else, it makes the day more pleasant. Just don't get too bogged down in the details or fret if you miss an hour or two on any particular day.

04-20-21 02:26 PM - Post#909753    

If at home just add the 'carrying of a KB' to other tasks eg
Waiting for kettle to boil - Rack position marching swapping arms holding the bell every 10-20 steps.

Getting up from desk to go to bathroom - bottoms up carry etc etc.

Richard

04-20-21 05:07 PM - Post#909756    

I'd say forget the kb and just rearrange all the furniture every hour on the hour. See how long it takes your coworkers to notice everything is different for every single Zoom call.

04-21-21 03:31 AM - Post#909757    

This reminds me of Marty Gallagher's story, which I'm sure he made up, of newbies at a particular gym not being allowed to lift at first - they had to just load and spot for the other guys.

Then after six months they'd say, "Well, you've built a base of strength loading and unloading the bar, and you've watched the other guys lift so you know what to do, go to it."

When I worked at the globogym I used to do a fair amount of work putting weight plates and dumbbbells away. The leg press gave me a lot of work, somehow all the 135lb guys needed every 45lb plate in the gym.

Athletic Club East Strength in numbers

04-21-21 09:30 AM - Post#909771    

• Kyle Aaron Said:

Dave Tate had a series on T-Nation (Education of a Young Powerlifter) [https://www.elitefts.com/education/the-educati on-of-a-powerlifter/] way back when. Same sort of story. Except the young trainee in the story was doing lots of sled dragging work also.

Regarding the weight cleanup stuff, when I spent a lot of time in University gyms, I would always "completely organize" and gather the weights that I needed at the start of my workout. Very good warmup and, of course, lots of loaded carries and plate juggling. It was always pretty funny when folks would come over to "take" one of "my" plates that was neat and orderly on the integrated plate holders on the platform-rack combo: "I'm sorry, I'm using that." There's plenty everywhere else, they just aren't organized at all. LOL.

Best,
Mark

04-21-21 10:04 AM - Post#909774    

When I was in College I had a summer job as a garbage man for a large park district. Six days a week we went to numerous parks picnic sites and emptied the garbage into 50 gallon aluminum barrels with a shoulder hook.

We would walk back to the truck, dump the load and either go to the other cans if it was a large picnic site or load up and go to another site.

While I had no appreciation for the "core work" that job provided, I did notice a marked improvement in my upright row and stamina.

Mark it Zero.

04-21-21 10:11 AM - Post#909775    

I was a fat, alcoholic 23 year old when uni spewed me out.

Then I got a summer job putting up marquees - carrying bales of canvas and poles, pulling ropes and hitting spikes with a sledge.

After the summer I was still an alcoholic but was about three stone lighter.

04-21-21 11:40 AM - Post#909779    

The summer in between Freshman and Sophomore year I worked the grounds crew at a golf course doing a bunch of odd jobs - hauling bags of mulch and top soil, digging holes for fence posts, etc. I learned that I didn't like being outside in 90+ degree heat/humidity, but damn if I wasn't in good shape come September.

I've decided to put this experiment into practice today - I'm keeping my 24kg bell next to me and during my frequent "movement" breaks I bang out one clean, press, squat per-side followed by a short waiter walk, rack walk, suitcase walk, etc.

04-21-21 04:36 PM - Post#909792    

• Matt_T Said:

Some friends had a son who did that exact job after uni. He was a clean living super-skinny intellectual guy. But after a summer of 14-hour days in the fresh air earning good money, he was strong, confident and had plenty of cash in the bank. Not sure about 3 stone but certainly 3kg heavier! They got to hang out at some of the parties too. I tried to get my son onto it when he graduated, but Covid intervened.

The brief UK summer season and the ever-present possibility of rain means that big marquees are everywhere!

04-21-21 05:00 PM - Post#909794    

He must have been the only clean living tenter based on my experience, absolute lunatics the lot of them. Thought I knew my way round a bar after graduating but that summer was something else.

04-21-21 07:10 PM - Post#909799    

Funny. It hit me once a long time ago that whenever the giant bodybuilders in my gym loaded 16 plates on the leg press, they were getting in tons of loaded carry time.

Loaded Carries All Day?
04-21-21 07:52 PM - Post#909800    

Once a year I do a thorough cleaning of my garage gym. It's one heck of a workout - doing it once a week would probably make me stronger than the regular workouts I do. One of the real joys is the rack of dumbbells - I have 5 - 10 - 15# etc up through 80s. Carrying them across the gym and out of the way so I can do a good cleaning is a workout that reminds me why I only do this once a year LOL. It's almost that time of year again ................but not quite yet.

Edited by Chris Rice on 04-21-21 07:52 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.

04-22-21 09:57 AM - Post#909814    

I've started adding loaded carries to most of my sessions since completing Dan's Post-Deployment Program last Fall. That program features them along with lifts and mobility.

Without going that heavy (24kg suitcase carries are near the higher end right now for me) I've noticed increase thickness and deeper 'cuts' (I'm not that lean so cut needed to be parenthetical) through my entire trunk. I usually go anywhere from 50 to 100 yards per carry. I'd be interested to see what you find from doing them GTG style throughout the day.

For my money I think you'll see great returns. The combination of a suitcase carry and 10 1-handed swings really seems to hit my core, FWIW. And for clarity, I'm not overly sore, but can definitely feel an increased stability through my entire abdomen a day or two following a lot of carries.

04-23-21 11:36 AM - Post#909851    

Loaded carries appeared unexpectedly in a book I’m halfway through, One Summer/America, 1927 by Bill Bryson. With such a limited scope, Bryson’s able to include great detail about subjects like Lindberg, Ruth, Hoover, Prohibition, and flag pole sitters. Regarding the latter, Bryson explains how “Shipwreck” Kelly managed to sleep while perched for 12 days on a platform the size of a stool at the top of a 50’ flagpole.

Bernarr Macfadden, who owned a tabloid in the 20s, was a vegan and a bodybuilder. Here’s what Bryson wrote about him, “Well into his eighties he could be seen walking around Manhattan carrying a forty-pound bag of sand on his back as a way of keeping fit. He lived to be eighty-seven.”

If you Google Bernarr Macadden workouts, there’s some interesting material about him.

05-18-21 11:33 PM - Post#910471    

Swings + carries are magic for me. I like 5-10 sets of 10-15 swings with a carry in between. One hand, two hand, suitcase or rack carry. I like to to do them before a Nordic ruck Uphill with the dogs, or interspersed with a couple minutes on the rowing erg. Endless ways to fit them in. I think GTG would be great. Fabio Zonin has a good article on adding a few swings throughout the day to break up sedentary work. Why not add a carry too?

05-20-21 01:59 PM - Post#910508    

Loaded carries all day?
I did that back when I was still drinking and working as a receiver's assistant.

Life's too short to worry about longevity.