Tips for lifting boulder? page

[Knifegill]

Found a cool boulder in my yard that's jut exactly a little too heavy for me. I can pick it up with a straight back, but the grip is weird. Is it still useful exercise if I just hug the thing like a teddy bear and stand up? Does anybody else lift big ol' rocks?

[Miscellangela]

Why not do a Sisyphus and roll it uphill?

[Scott F]

Don't do it. Speaking as someone who thought he was muscled up enough for that stuff in his younger days you are asking for a life-long, troublesome back injury. I remember once lifting something like that at work and ended up going to my knees. It was as if someone hit me in the low back with an electric shock. I was in bed for days.

[Knifegill]

Was your back straight?

[primalrob]

can you straddle it a bit and sort of squat/deadlift the thing? that might eventually get you to the point where you can do a ground to overhead move.
otherwise, the bear hug sounds good as long as you're keeping everything in line. i used to lift a few rocks and boulders and parts of tree trunks...great strength building exercises.

[Knifegill]

Yeah, I'm squatting down to grab it. Once I grip it and get the weight on, I can stand about halfway up. The problem it that as my angle changes, so does the direction of the weight. I'm afraid it's going to slip out of my arms, so I tend to just shove it away and back out instead of completing the lift. Perhaps I'll try a full-on hug next time, with arms low so it can't slip out.

[primalrob]

Yeah, I'm squatting down to grab it. Once I grip it and get the weight on, I can stand about halfway up. The problem it that as my angle changes, so does the direction of the weight. I'm afraid it's going to slip out of my arms, so I tend to just shove it away and back out instead of completing the lift. Perhaps I'll try a full-on hug next time, with arms low so it can't slip out.

the half movement is probably a great progression. doing the same movement with slightly smaller boulders might get you there too.

[Knifegill]

Strongest Man Who Ever Lived 4 - YouTube

Concrete ball at end of video. Awesome.

[sbhikes]

Well, from the looks of that video, you could put it in a sack and drag it around. You could put it in something that has handles and pick it up. You could put it in a little cart and deadlift it. You could attach it to a harness and pull it behind you. You could pick it up with a bear hug and rest it on your stomach while you heave it into a barrel.

[Scott F]

Was your back straight?

yep. I didn't even have to squat down as far as with using an Olympic bar deadlift.