Lift and carry to maintain muscles, mobility

STERLING — I attended a convention several years ago and I remember one speaker who was an expert in strength training talking about the decline in fitness of the adult population.

He had a theory about the reason for this. He said it was because we no longer “pick up heavy things and carry them around.” He demonstrated by lifting the podium overhead and carrying it around the stage.

I have written about the benefits of strength training for men and women of all ages before. Working our body against resistance, whether you use machines, free weights, resistance bands or your own body weight, ensures that our muscles will be able to handle the tasks of daily life well into our golden age.

A good resistance training program will work all the major muscle groups in your body. Pushing and pulling with the arms against resistance strengthens the chest, back and shoulders and squatting or pushing against resistance with the legs strengthens the hips and leg muscles.

But one form of exercise that you might not be as familiar with is the “loaded carry.” There are some benefits to this kind of exercise that you might not get with more targeted upper or lower body movements.

According to Medicare’s “Silver Sneakers” website, the benefits of loaded carry exercises include building total-body strength, improving posture, boosting grip strength, developing core strength, increased arm and hand strength, and strengthening the hips and legs.

To perform a weighted carry, you simply lift up a weight (or two) and walk forward. In a gym setting you might use kettlebells, sandbags, or dumbbells. At home you could use milk jugs or any other items in your household that are heavy and easy to grip.

There are different variations of loaded carrying. For example, the “farmer’s carry” means carrying equally weighted loads in both hands and is named for the common farm activity of toting two buckets of water, feed, etc. from one place to another.

The “suitcase carry” means carrying a load in just one hand. This variation works your posture and core as you keep shoulders and hips square and straight. I include resistance training, including loaded carries, in my weekly routine.

I don’t think I could lift a speaker’s podium, but I am confident in my ability to lift my own bag into the overhead bin on an airplane. That’s a good reason to stay fit to me.

- Sherry DeWalt is the healthy lifestyles coordinator for the CGH Health Foundation in Sterling.