The One Thing I Enjoy About Moving

What Could Possibly Be Good About Moving?

It isn’t often that I have the chance to use strength from the weight room in day to day life.  Unfortunately the physical demands of the average adult these days are pretty low.  One of the few exceptions to this is when I am involved in a move.  As stressful and time consuming as a move can be, there is something pretty cool about lifting heavy furniture, or carrying out 6 bags of trash at once to the dumpster.  In the most recent move I helped out with, I did some thinking about how training carries over to this type of physical labor.  Below are a few of those observations.

Tough Resistance Training Decreases Injury Risk in Everyday Activities

By pushing my body to get stronger every week in the gym, I’m able to handle weights that I will basically never encounter in everyday life.  When it comes to moving, the “heavy” things I need to lift are at least 3-4x lighter than some of my heaviest work in the gym.  The tricky part with the household items in a move is what I would call their “awkwardness”.  Barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells are very “clean” implements to lift.  They are easy to grip, keep close to your body, and stabilize.  Mattresses, boxes, and rolled up rugs; though lighter; are much more difficult to stabilize and grip.  In my view, this is what makes these things risky to lift for someone who doesn’t train with weights.  Combine heavy and awkward and you may be spelling trouble for your average adult working through a move.  However, when someone is strong and only has to deal with the awkwardness of the objects, the task becomes a lot easier (and safer).

Strength Boosts Energy Levels

When you are stronger, tasks like moving are easier both physically and mentally. I’ve noticed this with other physical activities like hiking.  Physically, the body is used to handling heavy loads and is conditioned to do so.  This means taking on lighter loads repeatedly will not lead to significant fatigue like it might for the average person.  Mentally, lifting lots of lighter things will not seem as difficult or taxing.  In my experience, it is somewhat exciting.  It’s nice to carry around objects others might think of as heavy and still feel full of energy.  

Time to “Get Moving”

So after reading this are you calling up friends to see if they need help with a move? Probably not.  But if you have been training and are “tapped” to help out with a move it will be interesting to see if you make some of the same observations that I have.  Moving sucks, but at least it gives you a chance to put all of that time in the gym to good use, and that may even give you a boost of self-confidence.