# If you can't hold 200 lbs for 30 seconds... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 24, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261 "2016-06-24T20:03:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/81 "2016-06-25T19:45:39Z")
The smart thing that the two of you should have done was clear the way before going up. Shouldn’t have been that hard to eyeball the way through. ---
**Author:** ![elliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@elliott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elliott)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/82 "2016-06-25T19:48:09Z")
Hindsight is 20/20 obviously but it wasn’t there the last time I had been on the landing. I’m assuming one of the other guys helping had put it there. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/83 "2016-06-25T19:51:43Z")
> [@elliott](#): > > Hindsight is 20/20 obviously but it wasn’t there the last time I had been on the landing. **I’m assuming one of the other guys helping had put it there.** And that’s why you check _every_ time. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/84 "2016-06-25T19:52:46Z")
I can easily lift and hold two-hundred pounds, and carry it around for an hour or two. If I were to go to the trouble of getting it in the first place. Sovereigns might be a little more effort than, say, fivers, but I suspect two hours would be about my limit before wanting to exchange or spend some of it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/85 "2016-06-25T19:59:31Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I can easily lift and hold two-hundred pounds, and carry it around for an hour or two. If I were to go to the trouble of getting it in the first place. > > Sovereigns might be a little more effort than, say, fivers, but I suspect two hours would be about my limit before wanting to exchange or spend some of it. You were beaten to it. Post 11. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/86 "2016-06-25T20:10:42Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > And that’s why you check _every_ time. The wisest of words to the wise. NEVER take ANYTHING for granted. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/87 "2016-06-25T20:34:04Z")
Welcome to the board. You sound like a dick. > [@elliott](#): > > I don’t understand how going to the gym makes me a douche or an idiot? Going to the gym doesn’t make you a douche or an idiot. Acting like anyone who doesn’t physically measure up to your “standards” is some sort of lesser human makes you a douche and an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/88 "2016-06-25T20:51:32Z")
> [@elliott](#): > > To explain where the 200 lb thing is coming from. Me and a neighbor were getting him moved in, and he has a fairly heavy leather couch with two built in recliners. The gears and the like add a lot of heft to it. Anyway, we’re two manning this couch and we get stuck at the top of the stairs. I tell him I’m gonna set it down and move some junk that was blocking our efforts to back the couch into the hall. He says alright, I set it down, and as I’m working, he gives out and the couch starts falling on him. He got out of the way but shit dude you nearly died because you couldn’t lock out for a few seconds. Its fine if you can’t, he could’ve let me known and we’dve figured it out, but shit it was frustrating to watch someone nearly die because they couldn’t do a very simple lift or communicate that they couldn’t do it. I’m 165 and deadlift 225 easily. But, I still wouldn’t want to be holding some big, awkward couch, at the top of the stairs, for an indeterminate amount of time. Couches are not barbells - they don’t fit your hands conveniently, and the weight distribution is messy. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/89 "2016-06-25T21:10:16Z")
> [@bobkitty](#): > > I really expected this to be about a terrible incident involving a funeral and a pallbearer. Thank Og I was wrong. Thanks for the laugh! Now I have to clean the diet coke off my monitor after the instant image that put into my head of a runaway casket down a steep set of stairs. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/90 "2016-06-25T21:11:53Z")
> [@elliott](#): > > To explain where the 200 lb thing is coming from. Me and a neighbor were getting him moved in, and he has a fairly heavy leather couch with two built in recliners. The gears and the like add a lot of heft to it. Anyway, we’re two manning this couch and we get stuck at the top of the stairs. I tell him I’m gonna set it down and move some junk that was blocking our efforts to back the couch into the hall. He says alright, I set it down, and as I’m working, he gives out and the couch starts falling on him. You do realize that if you were at the top end and he was at the bottom, [he was carrying significantly more of the weight of the couch than you were](http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/186869/two-people-are-holding-either-end-of-a-couch-is-one-person-exerting-more-force), right? In fact, if you set down your end at the top of the stairs and he was still holding the other end lower down, he was still supporting more than half the weight of the couch. So yeah, another vote for the OP being not only a dick, a douche and an idiot, but a douche-dick idiot with an inadequate understanding of basic physics. Pit hard fail. ---
**Author:** ![elliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@elliott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elliott)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/91 "2016-06-25T21:14:31Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’m 165 and deadlift 225 easily. > But, I still wouldn’t want to be holding some big, awkward couch, at the top of the stairs, for an indeterminate amount of time. Couches are not barbells - they don’t fit your hands conveniently, and the weight distribution is messy. Well yeah, but you could also stand up under a couch pretty much indefinitely if you can lock out a higher weight. This isn’t like I’m asking you to be able to deadlift the couch by yourself, I’m just asking you to be fit enough that you’re not risking death or injury by moving your couch. > [@Turek](#): > > Going to the gym doesn’t make you a douche or an idiot. Acting like anyone who doesn’t physically measure up to your “standards” is some sort of lesser human makes you a douche and an idiot. I’m a douche for expecting the average human being to meet what qualifies as a novice level of strength? Like I understand not everyone does, but it really is sad and a huge flaw with our society that people are so out of shape. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/92 "2016-06-25T21:15:27Z")
If you can’t lift 200 lbs for 30 seconds… …you are MUCH more in need of help moving than others, and should meet with willingness at ever turn because of it! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/93 "2016-06-25T21:16:07Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’m 165 and deadlift 225 easily. That’s _incredible_ for that age!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@elliott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elliott)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/94 "2016-06-25T21:17:38Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > You do realize that if you were at the top end and he was at the bottom, [he was carrying significantly more of the weight of the couch than you were](http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/186869/two-people-are-holding-either-end-of-a-couch-is-one-person-exerting-more-force), right? > > In fact, if you set down your end at the top of the stairs and he was still holding the other end lower down, he was still supporting more than half the weight of the couch. > > So yeah, another vote for the OP being not only a dick, a douche and an idiot, but a douche-dick idiot with an inadequate understanding of basic physics. Pit hard fail. Are you just projecting that I’m stupid because it fits your narrative that I’m a meathead or whatever? I understand basic physics. It’s why I said a 250~300 lb couch would need 200 lbs to support and not 150. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/95 "2016-06-25T21:20:19Z")
> [@elliott](#): > > To explain where the 200 lb thing is coming from. Me and a neighbor were getting him moved in, and he has a fairly heavy leather couch with two built in recliners. \ > [@elliott](#): > > Are you just projecting that I’m stupid because it fits your narrative that I’m a meathead or whatever? I understand basic physics. It’s why I said a 250~300 lb couch would need 200 lbs to support and not 150. You never said the couch was 250-300. ---
**Author:** ![elliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@elliott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elliott)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/96 "2016-06-25T21:24:58Z")
I didn’t really think it was important to the narrative I was creating? Would you like me to describe further details about the couch and the people lifting it? The point isn’t the couch or some arbitrary weight you should need to lift to be a man or healthy or whatever, its you shouldn’t be putting yourself in danger if you can’t lift something. If you need help moving, but you can’t do half the work safely, don’t put other people at risk because you don’t want to pay a mover. You guys are getting caught up on the details here. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/97 "2016-06-25T21:30:11Z")
> [@elliott](#): > > Are you just projecting that I’m stupid because it fits your narrative that I’m a meathead or whatever?\*\* I understand basic physics. It’s why I said a 250~300 lb couch would need 200 lbs to support and not 150.\*\* Since you knew that, you (being the muscled specimen that you are) should have taken the heavier end. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/98 "2016-06-25T21:34:47Z")
> [@elliott](#): > > I understand basic physics. It’s why I said a 250~300 lb couch would need 200 lbs to support and not 150. Congratulations, you’re not only a douche-dick idiot but also a liar (or maybe just too dumb to remember what you actually said). As **running coach** pointed out, nowhere in this thread did you claim that the total weight of the couch in question was “250~300 lb”. In fact, what you said was > [@elliott](#): > > Just picking up one end of a heavy couch or a fridge or some shit involves supporting 100~200 lbs and that’s perfectly reasonable for a normal guy […] > > […] you should at least be able to hold half of a couch for me. You didn’t even realize that what the lower-step guy was holding was **more** than “half of” or “one end of” the couch until I pointed it out to you, dickhole. > [@elliott](#): > > The point isn’t the couch or some arbitrary weight you should need to lift :rolleyes: Says the douche-dick idiot liar who actually **started a Pit thread with a title explicitly stating some arbitrary weight you should need to lift** for some arbitrary length of time. > [@elliott](#): > > You guys are getting caught up on the details here. The butthurt goalpost-moving whine of countless idiot Pit OPs after they get called out on their idiocy. Congratulations, you’ve let us all know that you’re strong enough to lift heavy weights. I hope that glow of satisfaction consoles you for the fact that you’ve also let us all know that you’re a douche-dick idiot liar. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/99 "2016-06-25T21:42:41Z")
And the OP retreats to a pretense of concern trolling in a pathetic attempt to cover his ludicrously exposed ass: > [@elliott](#): > > […] it really is sad and a huge flaw with our society that people are so out of shape. […] > > The point isn’t the couch […] its you shouldn’t be putting yourself in danger if you can’t lift something. ---
**Author:** ![elliott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@elliott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elliott)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261/100 "2016-06-25T21:44:24Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Since you knew that, you (being the muscled specimen that you are) should have taken the heavier end. I agree. But at the same time, we were going to have to back walk the couch around other inclines as well so the weight was going to shift no matter what. You’re still completely ignoring the point though. > [@Kimstu](#): > > Congratulations, you’re not only a douche-dick idiot but also a liar (or maybe just too dumb to remember what you actually said). > > As **running coach** pointed out, nowhere in this thread did you claim that the total weight of the couch in question was “250~300 lb”. In fact, what you said was > > You didn’t even realize that what the lower-step guy was holding was **more** than “half of” or “one end of” the couch until I pointed it out to you, dickhole. Holding half of a couch doesn’t mean supporting half of the weight. You can be a pedant all you want but it doesn’t make me stupid. I promise you I managed to pass physics. > [@Kimstu](#): > > :rolleyes: Says the douche-dick idiot liar who actually **started a Pit thread with a title explicitly stating some arbitrary weight you should need to lift** for some arbitrary length of time. > The butthurt goalpost-moving whine of countless idiot Pit OPs after they get called out on their idiocy. You’re still back to being a pedant because the point of the thread wasn’t the arbitrary number I picked in the OP to demonstrate my point. I could’ve said “some heavy weight for a few seconds” and it would’ve been the same thing effectively, but I wanted people to be able to visualize very roughly the weight I had in mind. If you want to say that the average person can’t pick up 200 lbs, I’ll agree. I’d say most can support it but that’s not easy to measure. I’ll definitely say the average guy _should_ be able to pick up at least 200 lbs though because its really not a heavy weight, and as shown here, you’re very likely to hurt yourself if you can’t work with heavier weights in the real world. > [@Kimstu](#): > > Congratulations, you’ve let us all know that you’re strong enough to lift heavy weights. I hope that glow of satisfaction consoles you for the fact that you’ve also let us all know that you’re a douche-dick idiot liar. I’m not very strong and that’s not the point. Do you want to defend people being unable to move safely because of being out of shape or do you want to argue the minimum amount of strength you should possess before you’re what I’d call fit? I don’t mind talking about either but the first one is what the thread is about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-cant-hold-200-lbs-for-30-seconds/758261.md?page=6)