keep it general not to dox yourself and whatnot, just wondering if there’s anyone else adopting the fielder method. and also what’s the worst thing you have had to pick up and carry somewhere? for me it is a toss up between upright piano, heavy treadmill and slab of granite.
Caterpillar tracks, all sorts of gymn equipment that recommend you use a forklift, gold, several bags of flour consecutively, white picket fences, and a bucket of cum.
No I’m not joking.
Not exclusively lifting, but i’m a delivery driver so the handling of some unexpectedly large items can come into play. For the worst carry, one of my customers got two giant bags of dog food shipped in. Not terrible in and of itself, but this was right after the cold snap last year so everything was iced over and they hadn’t cleared their driveway…
Business customers can be a real bear, too. One route I work has a factory at the start which sometimes puts out more outgoing parcels than I can fit in the truck by itself. They’re a marginal case where their output is too much for a carrier, but not quite enough that the district would consider allocating dedicated staff and a box truck for collections.
Long ago, before many of you were alive, I worked as a mattress delivery dude. It was honestly not a bad gig, but there was a few things I found doing it.
One, the poor treat service workers far better than the rich; I literally never got a tip from the people with big houses or fancy cars, but I would frequently get $20-30 from those living in cramped apartments buying our cheapest mattresses. With people living in McMansions in middle class areas at least tipping $3-5 usually.
Two, driving box trucks up canyons requires you to be on another level, I ended up having to pull over and letting the more experienced guy drive because I wasn’t comfortable going twenty over with a 500 foot cliff as my reward if I messed up.
And three, “organic memory foam mattresses” are fucking heavy as shit. Like, I could carry a California king typically easily in one arm while moving quickly up and down stairs, but that thing… holy fuck did I struggle hard. Added to the pain was that this was a hyper rich client with chalk walls, who was so super paranoid us lowly workers would damage them that she made us carry the mattress around her entire house up two stories and back down one on this crazy cliff side deck that she had. Then, of course, no tip. We did get the satisfaction of telling her off a bit though. She claimed that she ordered “king size pillows”. We told her, we don’t sell king size pillows, and after some back and forth, decided to keep her pillows and told her that she can come down to the shop and pick up her pillows herself then. A small bit of satisfaction after a terrible delivery. Oh, and we had to back the truck up her 500ft winding driveway built into the side of a mountain barely wide enough for the truck to fit on. Fuck that lady, decades later and I still get upset thinking about her.
Are you old enough to have moved water filled beds?
I once found myself in the possession of a vintage arcade machine with a big CRT that made it super top heavy. I moved it around a few places but the worst was getting it down a really tight staircase.
I ended up just leaving it there but the landlord was cool about nearly everything and was fine with it because he loved that game back in the day and was happy for it to stick around.
I used to do something similar- I worked in a furniture warehouse. Unloaded trucks full of furniture coming in and loaded trucks for local deliveries and going to the stores going out. Steel frame electric couches and bed frames were the worst 💀
I used to, mostly construction materials. Worst experience I ever had from a lifting perspective was when some dickhead made me carry like 40 bags of concrete 50 feet each rather than moving his truck right next to the pallet where they were sitting and then had the gall to complain to my manager when I gave him the side eye for it. Luckily my manager was cool and told him to piss off lol
That’s always fun. I only did one job in concrete and decided that was enough for me. I once, though, had to carry 8 5 gallon buckets of paint across a street and around the corner because the boss wouldn’t let me pull my car onto the sidewalk and there was no parking where the job was.
A giant pane of glass that was custom made to protect a giant wooden conference table. The glass wasn’t heavy, but it really sucked turning a corner with it in a tight stairwell, flexing it too much, and then having to clean up a million pieces of broken glass.
I’ve also moved a lot of logs. It sux.
that sounds like hell, big panes of breakable material make me soooo nervous
I’m not a professional generally, but I try to make it a point to help people I know move their stuff.
The hardest thing I ever moved was also a piano, out of a basement with a tight stairwell. Luckily I had my gym rat brother come help us. But it still took four of us trying very hard to get that shit up the stairs. It was an old buddy I had kind of grown apart from, so I really wanted to do him a favor just to let him know that I was still a friend.
Honestly it contributed to me now doing strength training. And now that shit has done so much for my mental and physical health.
Again, never been a professional lifter/mover, but I’ve been on job sites about as long as I can remember and have had home improvement happening consistently with my folks.
Drywall isn’t that heavy but it is super sucky to navigate around stairs, especially when it’s moisture-proof board.
I didn’t watch the whole vid vis-a-vis Fieldering, but I’ve always treated this stuff as good exercise and also given it the respect it deserves for body safety. I don’t know if it was just reading the manual and safety labels from my slight autistic nature, but I internalized very early on to lift safely and preserve my back.
There’s a general “gym rat” atmosphere to the job-workplace itself which suits me fine though I have like no spare energy to work out on top of doing 8-14 hour house moves. that said I don’t see myself going back to computer based work anytime soon, my body likes all this activity too much.
I have worked in a warehouse before. The secret is to always keep the load super close to your chest and to lift slowly. My knees kinda suck so I try to avoid bending down to pick things up whenever possible. Keeping products close to chest height is a great solution to this issue.
Did warehouse work
Anything that couldn’t be palletised and moved around with a forklift
You have to share the reference. It was a classic back then: https://youtu.be/q7gzmoqmL7g?si=VEUNMzntr0Ydvpg0
what is the fielder method? I do some heavy lifting in my job.
it’s a reference to this Nathan For You episode
welp, guess I will just continue to destroy my back then hahaha
my actual recommendations are trying to sneak in some stretching every morning and lift with yr knees and things that aren’t your back as much as possible! also make sure you’re getting a lot of rest. I don’t seem as injury prone as some of my younger co-workers and I think they’re not getting enough sleep.
I always try to lift with my legs as much as I can. I have only pulled my back like twice in 10 years on this job. so I’m doing ok.
