I “There’s a story that a lot of people might relate to,” David Cohan, 47, told me. I doubt it, considering this Irishman’s favorite pastime is ripping rocks weighing over 150kg out of the ground, but he continued.
“In my 20s, I was into art and music and drinking and smoking. I was overweight and mentally and physically unhealthy. Then in my 30s, my body said, ‘Wait a minute, I need to start doing something about this.'”
At age 32, hungover, he went into a sports store and bought a pair of trainers. “I remember a young guy working there laughing and saying, ‘Really?'” Cohan says with a laugh.
Within six months he ran a marathon. In the next few years, he became a world champion in kettlebell sports. Then, when the coronavirus lockdown hit, they started lifting stones. Heavy, heavy stone.
“I was bitten by the feel-good bug,” Cohan continues. “Before, I had no idea what feeling good felt like. But once you start feeling good, it’s amazing and you realize how bad you’ve been feeling for the past 10 years.”
Reviving Ireland’s ancient culture of stone lifting
When the coronavirus lockdown hit in 2020 and gyms were closed, most people turned to burpees in their bedrooms to stay in shape. But Cohan, a father of three, had other ideas.
“I met my wife at art school, and she was carving stone,” Kohan says. “The stone I started lifting in the backyard was one of her stones, which weighed 60kg. I do strength training anyway to stay balanced, so I think that’s what has kept me mentally sane over the years.”
A friend who was building walls at the time saw Kohan’s actions and officially dropped stones weighing 70 kg and 90 kg onto his house. Since then, he hasn’t had a gym membership, instead using giant stones to perform lifts like squats, rows and presses, often with a kettlebell precariously balanced on them.
Come to one of these stones. It would be great if you could catch the wind, but that’s not the issue. Most importantly, you can participate in the continuation of that story and culture
True, this approach is not suitable for everyone. But this shows that fitness plans aren’t one-size-fits-all.
“Sometimes I go to the beach and name a stone and hold it up,” Kohan says. “This is a free gym. You can be there by yourself and listen to the seabirds. Why wouldn’t you?”
“Then I learned that there was a whole culture of stone lifting. It wasn’t just ‘people picking up stones,’ and I started looking into that culture.”
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Scotland has a strong connection with lifting stones, with the Dinny Stone in Aberdeenshire being the best known example. Other parts of Iceland and the Basque Country also have a rich history with this custom.
“In some cases, it was like a job interview,” Cohan said. “If you can’t lift a certain stone, you can’t be a mason or a fisherman. It was also used as a rite of passage, growing from a child to an adult to a warrior.”
Ireland also has a deep-rooted culture of lifting stones. However, this was wiped out centuries ago, mainly by British colonization and famine, and few traces remain.
Learning about the Fianna Stones in Scotland, named after a group of medieval Irish warriors, Cohan got the hint he needed that Lifting Stones existed in Ireland. He then made it his mission to excavate the remaining stones west of the Irish Sea.
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Stone of Inishmore – the first of many stones
He first discovered it in 2023 on the island of Inishmore in the Atlantic Ocean. The breadcrumbs that led him there included a mention in the short story “. The Stone By Irish author Liam O’Flaherty, information from Reddit posts by O’Flaherty’s ancestors, and a collection of folk tales from locals.
“My friends and I set out in a campervan, took a ferry over, then biked to the right location,” Cohan says. “But when we get to Inishmore, we find that it’s just an island made of stone, covered in stone. And the stone we were looking for was in a rocky field.”
Fortunately, it was immediately noticeable. A 171.2 kg round granite butt with a distinctive pinkish hue sat in the middle of a small clearing. This is not a 171.2kg weight plate on an ergonomic knurled barbell. It’s wet and unwieldy and cannot be picked up without a fight.
Kohan left home and devoted his free time to becoming strong enough to lift stones. In training, I gradually lifted heavier stones, ate more food and increased my weight to 20 kg.
A few months later, he returned to Inishmore and treasured the stone that had fallen on the floor. He lifted it onto his lap and then placed his lips on it, kissing its cool surface three times. Just as the protagonist of O’Flaherty’s short story does. And with it, the Irish stone-lifting culture continued.
From this point on, Cohan further intensified his goal of tracking down more stones through myths, stories, and oral traditions. He has since found more than 50 animals during a weekend search around his job at a construction warehouse in Waterford.
“It gave me a whole new purpose and gave me space in my 40s,” he says. “It’s great to discover this culture and share it with people. It brings back strength and pride, and there’s also a whole national identity attached to it.”
Today, people come from all over the world to lift the stone that Keoghan rediscovered. his instagram account, indiana stoneshas a loyal five-figure fan base. He recently published a book about his discoveries. wind under the stone. Irish stonelifting is back.
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Keep rolling: The life of the lifting stone
Historically, lifting stones served many purposes. Some people started their lives by pushing stones together outside pubs to stop horse-drawn carriages from turning corners and damaging pub walls. Some were placed at intersections or along public streets for entertainment purposes. “People always want to pick things up,” Cohan explains.
Other stones were used as concrete measures of strength to determine their suitability for particular jobs. In Iceland, a set of four called Doritvik stones were used to determine how much of the day’s catch each sailor brought home, Keohan said. Their weights were 23kg, 54kg, 100kg and 154kg. The stones raised on natural pedestals determined their role in the boat and what proportion of the catch they would secure.
“We now know that something similar happened in the west of Ireland,” he added. “We were literally all in the same boat, and whoever could lift the stone highest with his body would get a share of the prize he wanted. It was a novel idea, and I really enjoyed it.”
This, he says, is “the opposite of toxic masculinity.” It’s a buzzword that describes an outdated environment of hierarchical masculinity that is often based on subjective measures.
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A stone, by contrast, is definitely objective: you either lift it or you don’t. No matter who you are or what your background is, you can give it a try. Whether you pass or fail, you are part of something bigger.
“It’s supportive and healthy,” says Cohan. “Come to one of these stones. It would be nice if you could catch the wind under it, but that doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that you can be part of the continuation of that story and culture. The strength aspect is secondary to me.”
There are only two important rules to participate. “Respect stones and respect culture.”
“These stones are not gym equipment; they are historical items,” Cohan said. “When the stone breaks, the story is over and you have broken the chain.
“If you are strong enough to pick it up, you are strong enough to put it down again without letting it fall off your chest or shoulders. If you do, you will have me and all the others who love the stones they lift up chasing after you.”
And that’s a brave group you don’t want to fall into.
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