107kg & 152kg • Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire

Sometimes you don't need a full day's adventure.

Sometimes you get up at 5:30 in the morning, drive for an hour, lift a couple of big rocks on a Yorkshire moor and get straight back in the car.

And it's completely worth it.

THE QUARRY HAND STONES

The Quarry Hand Stones of Nought Moor, near Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire, are a pair of natural lifting stones weighing 107kg and 152kg.

I'd found out about them through English Stonelifting, with the stones themselves placed by Dances With Stones — another brilliant addition to the growing collection of natural lifting stones available around Britain.

I had somewhere else to be that morning, so this wasn't going to be a leisurely stone-lifting session.

I had about 10 minutes.

Ten minutes to:

Shake off an hour sitting in the car
Get two stones lifted
Take in the scenery

Then it was straight back into the car for another hour.

SUNRISE OVER YORKSHIRE

Arriving that early turned out to be one of the best parts of the experience.

The sun was coming up over this beautiful part of Yorkshire and there didn't seem to be another person around for miles.

As a proud Yorkshireman, it was difficult not to stop for a moment and appreciate where I was.

No gym. No crowd. No music.

Just an empty moor, an early-morning sunrise and two bloody great stones waiting to be picked up.

107KG — THE WARM-UP

There wasn't exactly time for a conventional warm-up.

The 107kg stone was the warm-up.

Thankfully, it went up easily enough.

That's one of the things I love about natural stone lifting. You don't get perfectly incremental plates and carefully selected warm-up weights. Sometimes you walk up to a lump of rock that's been sitting outside all night, get yourself into position and find out how you're feeling.

On this occasion: pretty good.

One down.

152KG — A PROPER SCRAP

The 152kg stone was a different proposition.

It was sharp, covered in morning dew and I had no chalk.

Getting it from the floor was only the start. On the way towards my lap, the stone caught on my clothing and wouldn't move freely.

I had to really sit back with it to create enough room to free it up and get it properly into position.

Ironically, once I'd won that battle, standing up with the stone was considerably easier than getting it into my lap in the first place.

That's natural stones for you.

The number on the scale only tells you so much. Shape, texture, moisture, clothing, hand position and how the stone wants to move can completely change the lift.

At 152kg, wet, sharp and without chalk, this one gave me a decent scrap.

But it went up.

STRENGTH THAT TRAVELS

What I probably enjoyed most was being able to step out of a car after an hour's drive, with virtually no warm-up, feel strong and get the job done.

That's a good test of training.

You can't perfectly recreate natural stone lifting in a gym. Every stone presents a different problem and the environment adds variables of its own.

But you can prepare for it.

The work we do at The Commando Temple and London Stonelifting Club in Deptford transfers incredibly well: heavy lifting, awkward objects, carries, bracing, positioning and plenty of practice figuring out how to make yourself useful against something that doesn't particularly want to be lifted.

It straight-up works.

Ten minutes after arriving, both stones were lifted.

A quick look back across the Yorkshire landscape.

Then straight back into the car for another hour.

Totally worth it.

NATURAL STONE LIFTING IN LONDON

I run London Stonelifting Club at The Commando Temple in Deptford, where we practise the techniques and build the strength needed to lift natural stones from around Britain and beyond.

You don't need any previous stone-lifting experience to get involved — and you certainly don't need to start with 152kg.

I also coach one-to-one clients at The Commando Temple. You can find out more about personal training with me in Deptford through BearWolf Training.

THE QUARRY HAND STONES OF NOUGHT MOOR