Stone Lifting the Ancient Art of Picking up Heavy Rock

OVERVIEW

Looking to get strapped, jacked, yoked, shredded, succulent, and or peeled?
Tired of the artificial, commercial, repetitive nature of gyms?
Would you rather have the powerful physique of an Icelandic shepherd than the “all show no go” muscle of bodybuilders?
Want to spend a chill morning in the woods?

If you answered yes to any of those or are at all interested in picking up stuff then come try (or join me if you’ve already done this) stone lifting on ohill tomorrow morning. Im planning on going around 10, but ill put a time question in the questionnaire if another time works better. Also if you’re interested in this any other day just text me (540-759-1277).

I know stone lifting doesn’t sound particularly exciting but it’s much more interesting than lifting any other weight. The varying weights and shapes of the stones makes each one a unique challenge (mental engagement), and shouldering a stone (the goal of the lift) is really a powerful mood boost. Stone lifting also has a pretty interesting history across the world, my personal inspiration came from Scottish and Icelandic stones of strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifting_stone heres link if interested.

What is stone lifting as a sport?

The goal of stone lifting is essentially lifting a stone as high as you can and sometimes carrying it as far as you can.

For height, one goes through five steps of lifting a stone
1. Breaking the Stone from the ground
2. Resting the stone on both legs
3. Lifting the stone to chest height
4. Shouldering the stone. Which means balancing it on one shoulder
5. Pressing the stone overhead

Shouldering is the big one and generally the main goal.
Stealing a bouldering term here but using these 5 steps in combination with the different stones allows you to create projects.
For example there’s one stone I would really like to “shoulder” but haven’t so one project is shouldering stone 1.
Then there’s another stone I’ve never pressed overhead so I have another project of pressing stone 2.
This may seem like it only relies on strength but finding the right grip and sequence of moving the stones is really what solves these projects.

If you’re still reading, heres the plan

Plan
Meet at slaughter at 10ish
Walk to stones
I give some basic technique info to avoid injury and demonstrate the sport
Lift them as long as you feel like it

What to bring
Clothes that can get very dirty
Water would probably be good
Any activity to do while resting between lifts, ill probably bring a hacky sack
A healthy spine

It’s important to note that we will not be lifting any native stones that provide habitat for plants or animals on ohill. These stones were placed by me like last week and were not taken from nor disturb any habitat.

Also ill probably run the ohill trails after if anybody is interested in that too.

-Owen