Heavy Lift Training

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  • July 10, 2023 at 10:48 am #39647
    Sanjiv Gupta
    Participant

      One of my glaring weaknesses at Nationals was the Hip Lift. I do not have the space in my home gym for all of the special equipment lifts, but I would like to set up a heavy lift bar, hip belt, hand and thigh bar and neck harness.

      In reviewing the main site, it seems like most USAWA clubs have had equipment fabricated over the years. Since I am just getting started, I wanted some advice on plans, how to find metal fabricators and leather workers and making sure everything is safe and can handle the loads the heavy lifts require. Although folks have managed 2000-3000 pounds, I have less than 1000 pounds in 45s and will work with that for the foreseeable future.

      Heavy Lift Bar – I planned to have a center sleeve fabricated that would initially use schedule 80 pipe and then swap out with solid steel rod if necessary.

      Hip Belt – Order a Belt Squat Belt from Spud Inc (~$100)

      Hand and Thigh Bar – I have not seen any of these, but figured I could have a ring welded to 1 inch rod stock

      Neck Harness – I have not seen any of these, but it seems like the common neck harnesses online would not be sufficient to handle the loads required by the neck lift

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      • July 10, 2023 at 2:54 pm #39660
        KCSTRONGMAN
        Keymaster

          Sanjiv, I will email you the specs I have for the big bar and the hand and thigh attachment. I believe my hip belt, harness, and neck lift gear is all made from agricultural belting. You are correct, the neck harness you would find online would not hold up.

          I'm the lyrical Jesse James

        • July 11, 2023 at 11:51 am #39662
          Sanjiv Gupta
          Participant

            Thanks. I had never heard of agriculture belting. That is a serious material.

          • July 11, 2023 at 8:20 pm #39663
            Randy Smith
            Participant

              Hi Sanjiv. Farm supply stores have been best for me when trying to find parts for the heavy lift belts. I got hay baler conveyor belt from Tractor Supply. It can be cut with a utility knife. Rivets are often used, but I used short carriage bolts for my hip lift belt. I have found that farm supply store staff are often interested and very helpful when they find out what we are going to do with this stuff. They have had specific hardware suggestions that have been helpful not only for chain lifts but for other lifting applications such as optimizing adjustable kettle bell handles.

              A steel fabrication shop should be able to help you with the bar. For a solid bar cold rolled 1045 steel was recommended because it is stiffer than 1038, but I don’t know what others in USAWA use for their bars. Diameter needs to be 1-15/16″. I think you will outgrow a pipe/hollow bar pretty quickly.

              And hopefully you can find a local gym that will let you bring in your bar and lifting rig so you can load it up without having to invest in a bunch of hundred pound plates. You might even find others that are interesting in giving it a go.

              Good luck with your project!

            • July 12, 2023 at 9:31 am #39664
              Sanjiv Gupta
              Participant

                Good advice on the hay baler belt. It will probably take some trial and error to figure out exactly what lengths and widths I prefer for harnesses. I might have to hold off on this until I visit some established USAWA clubs.

              • September 26, 2025 at 11:41 am #42791
                Jerome Licini
                Participant

                  Hi Sanjiv,

                  In order to do full-load training without a ton of plates, you might want to consider fabricating some kind of leverage system. For example, a landmine kind of pivot at the bottom, the plates at the free end, and then a ring maybe one-third of the way up. That might let 1000 pounds of plates create a 3000 pound load. Maybe not a perfect calibration, but probably better than training that is limited to 1000 pounds.

                • September 26, 2025 at 12:01 pm #42793
                  Jerome Licini
                  Participant

                    Turns out leverage is not a new idea!
                    I’m not sure if this is still commercially available:

                    https://usawa.com/?s=strongman+machine

                  • September 26, 2025 at 5:47 pm #42804
                    Sanjiv Gupta
                    Participant

                      Leverage would certainly make it easier to load and execute some of the chain lifts. As much as I would like to think I would be breaking 1000 or 1500 pounds, my best chain lift to date is a relatively light 675 pounds.

                      I wonder how the changing angle would change the lift. When I have seen Carter Lifts executed, the loading of the hips and then the shoulders often pulls athletes forwards or backwards. I suspect with a pivot point in front, the lifter would have to drive somewhat backwards to avoid being pulled forward.

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