Eukonkanto: The Ancient Sport of Wife Carrying

A Finnish friend of mine (also paleo) recently told me about a new workout he's been doing.  He shoulders his wife using a fireman's carry, and then does squats.  No joke.  Works his strength and balance, and her abs too.  

Apparently, there is a whole sport around "wife carrying" in Scandinavia.  Seems to have begun as a joke in Finland, mimicking some past time when men ran off with women.  Here's a Village Voice article that describes wife carrying as what cave people used to do, but the much more recent Vikings were probably much better at it.  (Practice makes perfect.)  Regardless, what began as a joke now has national and international competitions.  Still small, but growing.  My buddy and his wife want to compete.

There are different types of carries: the fireman's carry, piggyback, or Estonian-style: "the wife hangs upside-down with her legs around the husband's shoulders, holding onto his waist."  See the picture.  Pretty awesome.

Check out the rules at Wikipedia.  Here are two I like:

• The track has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle, about one meter deep.

Kind of like a mini Tough Mudder, but for couples.

• The wife to be carried may be your own, the neighbor's, or you may have found her further afield; she must, however, be over 17 years of age.

Now really.  There should be a prize for couples that are, in fact, married.  And just like you have age/gender groups in road races, you could have anniversary tiers.  You compete against other couples that have been married for 5-10 years, 10-20 years, 20-30 years, and so on.

Because don't forget the most important thing that wife carrying strengthens: your marriage.