Over this weekend I was putting in some fall veggies in a small raised bed. Try as I might, I could not lift a 40 pound bag of garden soil. I could drag it fine but couldn’t even pick it up to get it over the lip of the trunk.
My 22 year old son lifted with it with ease, my 22 year old daughter could not lift it and my 50 year old husband lifted it, although I wouldn’t say he did it with ease. This got me wondering-- how much should the average person of a certain age be able to lift? Is there a chart somewhere that tells you this? Are me and my daughter feeble weaklings compared to everyone else?
I think how much somebody is able to lift depends significantly on how convenient it is to handle, so I doubt you could find some sort of a uniform table.
Edit: In my non-scientific opinion, barring a physical disability or medical conditions, I think most people capable of walking of any age or gender should be able to lift at least some object of at least 1/2 their own body weight off the ground.
Lifting technique also counts. I am also mid-40’s, but I can pick something my own body weight up off the ground. I don’t think I could get it higher than my waist, but it’s my technique, utilizing my leg muscles, that allow me to lift it. (Well, OK, I also have some outright muscle, but technique is important)
I can easily lift 40 lbs, but since I’m working in construction and landscaping I don’t think I’m a typical woman of my age. The OP, assuming no health problem, could work out and be able to lift 40 lbs if she wanted to put the effort and time into it, but I’m not surprised she can’t do it right now. Few women lift heavy stuff on a daily basis, indeed, they are discouraged from doing so, therefore they don’t develop the muscle and ability to do so.
As a practical example, 40 lbs would be about the weight of an average 5-year-old child. Would it be considered usual for a 40-ish woman to be able to lift a (compliant ) five-year-old?
I’d say picking up a child is much, much easier than picking up a bag of soil. (Dragging a bag of soil, however, is a ton easier than dragging a kid. Go figure.)
I should also mention that we are a family of widgets. The tallest of us (my son) is 5’7". And the bag is a little bit more than 1/3rd my daughter’s total weight.
In the 70s there was a court case regarding the test for firefighters in New York. The disputed aspect of the test was picking up and carrying a 150lb bag of concrete. None of the women tested were able to do it. At trial it was demonstrated that a female firefighter (from Chicago) who could easily lift and carry a 300lb human being, could not lift and carry the 150lb bag of concrete.
So apparently there is a huge difference between lifting a sack of something and a person.
I’m a pretty strong guy and I can carry a 150lb bag of concrete. I doubt I could easily carry a 300lb person (and I can perform the fireman’s carry). I doubt someone who can’t carry a 150lb bag could easily lift and carry a 300lb person.
On preview, I decided to Google. The case you’re talking about is Berkman et al. v City of New York et al. See here.
The female Chicago firefighter could perform a fireman’s carry on a 180lb man but couldn’t lift a duffel bag filled with 120lbs of cement in it.
Sorry about the details wrongness. I should have double checked. Still, the point remains. A heavier weight human can be carried than a sack of something.
True, but I’m sure the biggest reason for that is the starting position. I’m betting the Chicago firefighter in the court case didn’t have to pick up the lawyer while he was lying on the ground the way the duffel bag was. If he had been, she probably wouldn’t have been able to lift and carry him either. Likewise, had the duffel bag been as tall as the lawyer and left standing upright, I bet she could have easily performed the fireman’s carry on it.
Obviously, this is far out in WAG land, but it seems to me a matter of leverage that even lying down a human would be easier to lift. As we know, lifting strength comes more from the legs than the arms - if you can’t get under a thing, it’s very hard to lift with arm strength alone. Humans have hard bits and soft bits inside of them - parts that give to pressure and parts that don’t. Humans are also bendy in certain respects. A sack of concrete is just uniform - you can’t get your shoulder under the ribs and give a heave-ho, and you can’t bend it very easily, and it doesn’t have anything (like an arm or leg) to take hold of.
Back to the point - a 40lb child is MUCH more easily lifted - even when actively resisting - than a 40lb bag of dirt.
And that’s a problem. The center of gravity changes when limbs don’t follow the rest of the body when lifting it from a horizontal position from the ground. I’d go with the duffel bag filed with concrete.
My bet is that the bag of dirt is an easier lift and a much easier carry than the resisting child. Okay, I’m done.
I am a 40 year old female and all I can say is I can lift a case of wine with little difficulty, and that’s around 40-45 lbs. I can also lift the 45 lb plastic containers of cat litter I get at Costco with no problem.
I understand that grabbing a bag of soil is way different… just another data point.
Did a little research. I can pick up both of my cats at the same time with ease. I mean with great ease. They are 18 and 19 lbs (big cats, they are), plus their carriers would put their weight over 40lbs. Wrapped my arms around my over 200 lb co-worker and, with a grunt, lifted him clean off his feet and deposited him a good 5 feet from where I started.
The 40lb bag of dirt was immovable to me. The best I could do was grab a corner and get maybe a fourth of the bag lifted before the straining started. Got to the trembling muscles part before the plastic ripped in my hands. No way I could have gotten that thing up. I should mention that the soil in the bag was very, very wet. I’m thinking the bag must have weighed more than 40 pounds.
I don’t know how helpful this is… but employment law around here says that any job that will be required to lift more than 40 pounds needs to have that specified in the job description. So it sounds like it’s safe to assume that the average person can be expected to life at least that much.
Potting soil is a real challenge, though, especially if there are no handles. Also, did you let it get wet? A dry bag of soil in the store will weigh 40 pounds as advertised. But if you happen to get it wet (even by leaving it outside overnight where it can collect dew) you’ll find that it weighs more in the morning.
Although the bag may have weighed more than 40 pounds, I’m certain it didn’t weigh 200. The relative ease with which I lifted and carried my co-worker as compared to the bag of dirt is. . . strange.
My SO is about your age and would have no problem at all lifting a 40 lb bag of soil. I’ve seen her carry 40 bags of dog kibble without any problem, although she doesn’t enjoy it and hates the picking up part. She just kneels on one knee to get closer to its center of gravity then hefts it on to her thigh, then onto her shoulder from there. Once it’s on her shoulder, she’s fine.
My cousin, who is 37, 5’4" and about 120 lbs, was able to lift my 50 lb backpack and get it on her shoulders for a portage. She couldn’t carry it very far though; it bruised her. She used to work running crew for several theater seasons though, so I’ve seen her grab and run off with an empty 55 gallon oil drum (they’re about 40 lbs). She would kneel down and tip the barrel over her knee, grab the edges as the center of the barrel was resting on her thigh, then stand back up and rush off. ETA: the ease with which she could toss around the rigid drum vs. struggling with the squishier backpack was significant.
My girlfriend also has no problem picking up and carrying our 75 lb dog. We were hiking a trail that had a lot of stiles and we had to pass him back and forth to each other. The pooch is not exactly co-operative, but he’s definitely not a dead weight.
When the cat decides to go limp like a WTO protester, even I think he’s tougher to pick up than the dog.
Maybe it’s a center of gravity thing. But I do know that my mom, who is seven years older than you, didn’t need help carrying bags when we put in a garden using 50 pound bags of soil. I put them in the car myself, so obviously I wasn’t hindered by their awkwardness either.
We might have more practice than you, though, which could help account for the difference: duck, rabbit, and chicken food all come in 50 pound bags, and we raised those animals for years. I weighed a little over twice that (if only I still did!) when I was first assigned the task of picking up food at Agway.
) five-year-old?
I should have double checked. Still, the point remains. A heavier weight human can be carried than a sack of something.