Why is it easier to lift a person when they are standing upright, as opposed to when they are lying on the floor, or lifting a dead weight?

549 views

Like it’s easier if you hug their legs while they are standing up and hoist them up. I had a short friend who was able to do lift me when I was a kid, and could hold me in the air for at least a few seconds. How was this possible? Which muscles were important? Was it more about strength or technique?Is lifting someone heavier than you an impressive feat?

In: Physics

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you think about it in terms… has anyone ever seen a dancer being lifted in the ballet or perhaps a gymnast or an acrobat? Now it might not look like the person being lifted is actually doing very much. It looks like the person doing the lifting is doing all the work but actually, that dancer or that gymnast is doing a lot. They’re using their core muscles to help hold themselves up and I think that’s probably what your daughter does when she’s awake. She’ll be sort of holding her muscles in a way that makes it easy to pick her up. She might even sort of wrap her hands around your neck and hold on and that helps spread her weight so that you’re carrying her with you arms, but some of her weight is actually going down through your shoulder and your back which is stronger than your arms so she doesn’t feel as heavy. Now when we go to sleep, we basically lose all of the control of our muscles. We become paralysed, we become completely relaxed and floppy and you may have noticed if you pick up someone when they’re asleep, they can be a bit like a rag doll sort of flopping all over the place. So her muscles won’t be engaging in order to help with the lifting and, actually, what you’re doing, you’re feeling her full weight. It’s not any more than she weighs, she hasn’t actually put on any weight but you’re feeling every pound of that weight because she’s not helping.

You are viewing 1 out of 3 answers, click here to view all answers.