Lifting, Carrying and Catching a Person | Friends

What This Guide Covers

Some partner exercises use the other person as the load. One partner carries the other on their back or shoulders, holds their legs in a wheelbarrow, squats with them as a rider, spots them through a pull-up or a handstand, balances with them or catches them. These exercises rely on the same knowledge whichever one you pick, so it is gathered here and each exercise’s guide links back for it.

A Person Is Not a Sandbag

Carrying a person works the body much as carrying a heavy bag does. The legs drive, the trunk braces and the grip holds on. Three things make it different.

The load moves. A rider shifts, leans to look around, grips tighter when they feel unsteady and loosens when they relax. Every shift has to be caught by the carrier’s trunk and legs, which makes a person feel heavier than a bag of the same weight.
The load can be hurt. A dropped bag hits the floor. A dropped person can land on their head, their wrist or their back, often from shoulder height.
The load can help. A rider who holds still, holds on in the right place and says when they are slipping makes the carry far safer. Neither role is a rest.

So every carry in partner training is done at a walk, over a short distance, on a flat surface with nothing to trip on. Where a carry is timed, the time only counts if the walking pace held for the whole distance. Speed adds little to the training and a lot to the chance of a fall.

Matching Weights

The first question for any carry or human-load exercise is whether this pair should do it at all. Some pairs should not, and that is fine. Plenty of other partner exercises suit them.

An honest check before the first attempt:

Has the carrier lifted something close to this weight before? A person who regularly squats or carries a similar load is in a different position from someone who has only ever carried shopping.
Can the carrier stand still with the rider for ten seconds, steady and upright, before taking a step? If standing still is a struggle, walking will be worse.
Does it work in both directions? In many pairs one person can carry the other but not the reverse. Both can still train together, with the lighter person carrying a sandbag or a weighted bag while the heavier one carries them, or with both choosing an exercise that does not involve a carry.

A large size gap matters most in the carries, the piggyback squat and lunge, the back-to-back balances and the trust fall. For these, a pair with a large gap should pick a different exercise.

Getting On and Getting Off

Most carry injuries happen at the start and the end, when the load is low and the carrier’s back is bent. Practise getting on and off slowly, several times, before walking anywhere.

Piggyback

The carrier stands with feet about hip-width apart and bends the knees into a quarter squat, back straight.
The rider places their hands on the carrier’s shoulders and hops or steps up, wrapping their legs around the carrier’s waist.
The carrier hooks their forearms under the rider’s thighs, close to the knees, and stands up by straightening the legs.
The rider holds around the shoulders or the upper chest. Never around the throat.

To get off, the carrier bends the knees, the rider unwraps one leg and puts that foot down, then the other. Stepping onto and off a low bench or step makes both easier.

Fireman’s carry

The rider stands facing the carrier. The carrier steps in, drops into a deep lunge or squat with a flat back and places one shoulder at the rider’s waist.
The carrier wraps the near arm around the back of the rider’s thigh and folds the rider over that shoulder, so the rider’s hips sit across the shoulder and their weight hangs evenly front and back.
The carrier holds the rider’s thigh and, where it helps, their wrist, then stands up by driving through the legs with the back flat.

To set the rider down, the carrier lowers into the same lunge or squat, and the rider slides off feet first, holding the carrier’s shoulder until both feet are on the floor. The lift is the hard part, so practise it with a pause at the top before walking.

Bear hug, held in front

The carrier squats, wraps both arms around the rider’s torso, keeps the rider close to the chest and stands by straightening the legs. The rider wraps their legs around the carrier’s waist and keeps still. A rider held away from the body is much harder to carry and pulls the carrier’s lower back into a round, so keep the hold close and the torso tall.

Wheelbarrow

The walker sets up in a high plank. The holder stands behind, takes hold just above the ankles and lifts the legs to hip height. The holder keeps the legs steady and walks at the walker’s pace. Holding the legs a little lower puts less weight on the walker’s hands and shoulders, which suits a newer walker. The holder never pushes the walker forward faster than their hands can go, since a walker who loses the pace goes face first toward the floor.

When a Carry Starts to Go Wrong

If the rider starts to slip or the carrier’s legs start to give, stop walking and go down together. The carrier bends the knees and lowers into a squat or onto one knee, and the rider gets their feet to the floor. Twisting to save the carry or trying to hoist a slipping rider back up are the moves that hurt backs. Agree before starting that “down” from either person means the carrier lowers at once.

The Rider’s Job

The rider decides a lot about how safe a carry is.

Hold on at the shoulders or chest, never the neck.
Keep still. Leaning to look ahead or shifting to get comfortable moves the load the carrier has to manage.
Say early when slipping. “Slipping” said early is easier to fix than a fall.
In a human-load squat or lunge, stay centred over the carrier’s hips and let the carrier set the pace.

Using a Partner as the Load

The piggyback squat and lunge add a person to a movement the carrier already knows. The base movement’s technique still applies. What changes is how much the rider moves the load around. Keep squats to a comfortable depth, count each rep aloud so the rider knows when the carrier is going down and stop at the first sign of the knees caving or the lower back rounding. The lunge is a step up from the squat, so start it only once the squat with a rider feels steady.

Spotting

A spotter makes a skill or a hard rep safer. Doing the work for the other person is not the job. The rules depend on what is being spotted.

Pull-ups and dips. The spotter stands close and holds the shins or feet, lifting just enough to finish the rep. The lift is smooth and steady, never a jerk. The working partner says how much help they want, and the spotter gives less as the set goes on only if the reps stay clean.
Handstands. The spotter stands close beside the hips, hands ready but not touching. If the handstand starts to fall, the spotter guides the legs down to the floor. Grabbing at the torso or trying to hold the full body weight up does not work and can pull both people over.
Bridges and other supported poses. The spotter’s hands support from underneath. They never push the person higher than they can go on their own, since a backbend forced past its range is easily injured.
Learning to spot a lift. Practising with bodyweight squats, with the spotter’s hands hovering at the hips or under the arms, builds the habit of standing in the right place before a barbell is ever involved.

A spotter watches the whole time. A spotter who looks away for a moment is not spotting.

Two-Person Balances

Some partner exercises are balances that only work with two people: a cheer thigh stand, a back-to-back chair hold, a hand-to-hand lean or a back-to-back squat. Each relies on both people moving together.

Build it slowly. Go into the position a little at a time, together, and come out of it the same way.
Say every change before making it. “Leaning back”, “standing up” or “stepping down” gives the other person time to match it. A sudden change by one person is the usual way these end in a stumble.
Never let go suddenly. In any balance that uses a shared grip, a released hand drops the other person.
Start low and short. Hold for a few seconds on the first attempts. Practise next to a wall, and for a stunt such as the thigh stand, have a third person standing by to spot.
Match sizes. Back-to-back balances work best between people of similar height and weight. A large mismatch puts most of the load on the smaller person.

For the thigh stand, the base keeps the front knee over the ankle and the thigh level, and the top partner steps onto the thigh close to the hip, never near the knee, holding the base’s hand all the way up and down.

Catching

The trust fall is the one exercise where catching a falling person is the whole point. It is an exercise in communication, and its rules are strict.

Short distance only. The faller starts about a short arm’s length in front of the catcher. It is a controlled lean back, never a drop from a height.
A spoken check every time. The faller says “falling” and the catcher answers “ready”. Nothing happens until both have spoken.
The faller stays straight. Arms crossed over the chest, body rigid, no bend at the hips.
The catcher is braced. One foot forward, knees soft, arms up. The catch is under the arms and upper back, and the catcher slows the fall gradually, letting the legs absorb it.
Soft ground and a size match. A much smaller catcher should not catch a much larger faller.

Guided exercises, where one partner is blindfolded and the other guides them by voice through a short course of soft obstacles, follow the same spirit. The pace is a slow walk and the guide’s calls are short and early.

Saying No Is Always Allowed

Being carried, lifted, balanced on or caught asks a lot of trust. Either person can decline any of these exercises, or stop partway, for any reason and without explaining. That includes a carrier who does not feel strong enough today and a rider who does not like being upside down. Both people agree to the contact before starting, and either one can end it.

These exercises are written for adults and older teens and are not suited to young children. Anyone with a back, knee, shoulder or wrist injury should leave out the exercises that load it.

For the rules that apply to every partner contest, such as handicaps, banter and stopping early, see Training With a Friend. For pressing a stretch, resisting a movement or holding a partner’s feet down, see Stretching, Resisting and Anchoring a Partner.