When Health & Safety Did'nt Exist ;-)

How are we going to do this then?

Elf flinging contest?

No good, I weigh far too little. Got to be someone who weighs 100kg.

No, I’m serious. If people really think such feats are easy, then they can come and prove so.

Easy to say stuff on tinternet, but not so easy to prove it in real life.

they been doing that daily since they left school, its conditioning. We are weedy girls compared to your average 18th century labourer. I call it progress.

As no-one has actually provided any proof of such claims, instead resorting to pathetic attempts to insult people from London, I’ll consider this matter done.

Well, I think you’ve provided proof of some of the claims about people from London

Edit: Everyone else… take a look at videos of scaffolders playing around on youtube

Got the builders in at work. One of the bricklayers is around 16st, spends a lot of time at he gym lifting pretty big things, likes to think he’s fairly tough. Got into an arguement with a scaffholder who just lifted him up above his head, and put him in a skip. Been a bit quieter since.

Personally, I can manage squats with 50kg, 25kg each hand, with which my team-mate can do arm-curls with seemingly no effort at all…
I have no upper body strength but am quite happy to enter this STW strongest man thingy if I’m allowed to do leg-presses 😉

Well, I think you’ve provided proof of some of the claims about people from London

Oh really, what’s that then, Mung Bean? Hmm? Come on, enlighten me.

This has descended into the usual ‘I can’t beat Elf in an argument (cos he’s right, basically), so in frustration I’ll resort to attempting to insult him’.

Amuses me, but a bit of a waste of energy, don’t you think? I mean, you could use that energy to lift 100kg sacks all day… 😉

I reckon the truth here is that that little bloke might possibly have bin able to lift the odd 100kg sack, and then Chinese Whispers turned it into ‘ooh he can do it all day long’.

An amusing and entertaining tale. Nothing more.

‘I can’t beat Elf in an argument (cos he’s right, basically), so in frustration I’ll resort to attempting to insult him’.

😆 You really think that’s why we do it? That’s hilarious!

Erm, it is, actually, Mung Bean. And you know I’m right.

It’s ok, I’m not really all that bothered by it tbh. I don’t take it seriously. In fact I find it fascinating, studying other’s behaviour.

It’s bin entertaining, this thread. Bit tired now so shh, sleepy time.

No. Have you?

Yup ok not as full on as a brickies mate but I regularly lift heavy loads in a many an awkward position. We have a lot more equipment then we use to and have a minimal lifting policy but it still has to be done pretty often due to constraints.

lets do this scientifically:

Poulsen E, Jørgensen K. Back muscle strength, lifting, and stooped working postures. Applied Ergonomics1971;2(3):133-7.

70kg men regularly lift 120kg loads.

in the early 70’s

and, more recently:

Simple anthropometric and physical performance tests to predict maximal box-lifting ability Author(s): Williams AG (Williams, Alun G.), Wilkinson M (Wilkinson, Mick)

If people really think such feats are easy

We’re not saying it’s easy, we’re saying it’s possible and people do it.

100kg is two old bags of cement. I can believe people used to do that.
Have carried two a few years ago, not sure I could have done another one afterwards though! Struggled to lift my cup of tea!

Erm, it is, actually, Mung Bean. And you know I’m right.

Well, just to be clear, I don’t really know what the argument, is or know which side of it you are on. Hence i have no interest in ‘beating’ you in it. I’m insulting for the sheer joy of it. I daresay that’s why most folks here are doing it.and just incase you want to find some other reason, to go with that one, or explain it. There isn’t one. That’s all there is. It’s turtles all the way down.

Look at how much porters in Nepal, Peru, Kenya etc can carry as part of their day to day job, fookin loads and at altitude! ’tis amazing what the human body can do with the right ‘training’ and ‘motivation’ (ie. doing it from the childhood with the threat of starvation from the lack of a job…).

Some short bloke syndrome in this thread for sure….

I can see that it’s possible, depending on how the weight is packaged and how you lift it.

I can ‘lift’ the OH who is 100kg and walk a short distance (not really lifting, more balancing on my back) and I only weigh 65kg and I’m a girl

I used to hire men for heavy labouring in a limestone quarry where the temperatures in the bowl of the quarry were often 40 – 50º or higher (outback Queensland).

The big body builder types never lasted. It was the short wiry guys like the OP shows, and it was usually the old guys who were best.

In countries that don’t have health and safety legislation to protect workers it’s up to the individual to protect themselves. As pyschle says the importance of looking after yourself increases when there’s no benefit system!

If you want to see good lifting techniques from the past watch a laurel and hardy film, they used to shoot the action scenes so many times that they had to have really decent manual handling techniques!

When I started work hefting 1cwt (50kgs) loads was the norm. I did however take a degree of micky taking from the older guys who remembered the days of 2cwt loads being routinely manually shifted. However, it has to be said that much of it is about technique rather than brute strength. Shifting a 50kg sack from the deck to your shoulder was bloody hard then and still is. It was extremely unusual to have to do that, mostly it would be a load being delivered onto your shoulder in a standing position.

Having spent most of my working life dealing with manual handling I for one am quite happy with the way things have changed. These sort of changes are why people now live longer and have better health in their later years. So being an old farty no complaints from me.

I used to move pig food bags about and one day I thought to myself, the more I carry in one trip, the less trips I have to make. So with some difficulty I loaded 2 up on each shoulder and staggered off across the yard. Each bag was 25kg, but I’m from the country and not from London. Doable, but I then realised a wheel barrow would probably make the job easier so used that.

you’re all lying. Elf says so.

No I’m not Stoner. I’m saying no-one has provided any real proof that such a scrawny bloke did actually lift 100kg sacks all day, in what would have bin a 12-14 hour working day. It’s all just anecdotes and hearsay.

I have seen blokes in Bangladesh lift stuff that most blokes on here couldn’t. Little skinny fellers, 8 stone or less. Of course it’s all about conditioning. They die pretty young, mind. Many have heart attacks, as the strain is simply too much for their bodies.

I can ‘lift’ the OH who is 100kg and walk a short distance (not really lifting, more balancing on my back) and I only weigh 65kg

I’ve done the same with a 17stone bloke. I’ve had a 13 stone bloke stand on my belly, using my stomach muscles.

All I’m pointing out, which most people just don’t seem to have got, is that such tales are little more than exageration and embellished to sound good.

When I started work hefting 1cwt (50kgs) loads was the norm. I did however take a degree of micky taking from the older guys who remembered the days of 2cwt loads being routinely manually shifted.

Like this. ‘Ee, in my day, we’d pick oop entire ‘ouse and walk fifty miles with it’. Come on.

And this:

I used to hire men for heavy labouring in a limestone quarry where the temperatures in the bowl of the quarry were often 40 – 50º or higher (outback Queensland).

Erm, highest recorded temp in Australia is 50.7ºC. So again, exaggeration. 🙄

You can believe what you want. I prefer to live within the realms of reality.

So, anyone for the STW Strongest Mayn then? Or does MTQG win by default?

we have new TJ people

🙄

Does the winner get to stand on your belly?

Only seems fair…

See, you simply don’t have anything intelligent with which to answer. Because you know you can’t prove your own claims.

Put you down for STW Strongest Mayn then? Or is your back a bit hurty?

I like the idea of winning by default.
Saves me a lot of effort.

Well, it seems that most fellers on here are all mouth and no muscle, Graham!

Like that’s a surprise… 😆

Erm, highest recorded temp in Australia is 50.7ºC. So again, exaggeration

Yeah, If it wasn’t measured in a way approved by the Guinness book of records, then it didn’t happen.

tales are can be little more than exageration and embellished to sound good

I don’t think you can legitimately be so cock sure Elf. You can be sceptical, but you can’t maintain that it’s impossible since you’ve got no proof either way. Consequently it’s time to move on… to the STW’s Strongest Man competition…

I’m in.

However I doubt that it’ll happen for insurance reasons 🙂

Time for another self promotional photo, I think.

100kg stone from floor to barrel.

[/url]
100kg stone[/url] by Vegan Graham[/url], on Flickr

Could you do that all day long, Graham? For 12-14 hours? Every single day?

How about BBB cage fighting?

I’m near certain people would like to test your London hardman fighting credentials Elfin?

No eye gouging or blows to the testicles… everything else is fair game?

Like this. ‘Ee, in my day, we’d pick oop entire ‘ouse and walk fifty miles with it’. Come on.

Pretty sure I didn’t say that. What I said was when I started work 50kgs, i.e. 1 cwt was the norm for a lift, I did however throw in a caveat to that, in that we are not talking about a dead lift. I’ll go one step further now. 2 cwt was the norm earlier especially in farm and building work, albeit with the same caveat.

You are perfectly entitled to call me a liar of you wish, it doesn’t strengthen your argument or make you right. It is noticable that you chose to do that from behind the saftey of your keyboard and not face to face with someone who actually has worked all day carrying 50kgs loads and has routinely worked in excess of 100 hours per week while doing so………. Probably wise 😉

Definitely not.
1 rep with 100kg was my limit.
I think I did 6 reps with 80kg.

No eye gouging or blows to the testicle

Yeah, someone blowing on yer testicles would be really ticklish and might put you off the fight.

A couple of minor points;

I think record temperatures are measured in the shade. If so, then it is quite possible to reach higher temperatures in direct sunlight. There may also be heat reflecting off the quarry walls.

I’ve heard of grain, flour etc. being carried in 2cwt sacks. In every case though, it was from the bed of a lorry or waggon straight on to the shoulders, not from the floor.

Yeah, someone blowing on yer testicles would be really ticklish and might put you off the fight.

Sorry… no biting is also a standard rule.

cant link a picture ATM, but materials handling on site can involve a lot of mass or awkwayd objects.

At one point recently a mate and I had to move 40 x 160Kg 150mm x 4.5m concrete T beams for a beam and block floor.

man at each end, arms at full extension, walking 30yrds with beam between. awkward and heavy. Not nearly as easy as 100kg shoulder load but comparable for effort. but entirely doable.

You are perfectly entitled to call me a liar of you wish, it doesn’t strengthen your argument or make you right. It is noticable that you chose to do that from behind the saftey of your keyboard and not face to face with someone who actually has worked all day carrying 50kgs loads and has routinely worked in excess of 100 hours per week while doing so………. Probably wise

Where did I call you a liar? Hmm? Where?

All I said was that it’s likely the old hands were exaggerating, to try and belittle you. Did you never think of that?

And actually, I would say such to your face. Why wouldn’t I?

Could you do that all day long, Graham? For 12-14 hours? Every single day?

MidlandTrailquestsGraham – Member
Definitely not.

See? That’s someone who knows. And Graham is a big bloke, who is very fit, and works out with big weights.

Not a scrawny little feller from Bristol. 🙂

Is the Bristol bit relevant? No, but I’ll bung it in, as people seem to think being from London is somehow relevant to strength… 😉