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Forearm Forklift: A Very Personal Review By Infohound

Updated on September 29, 2009

I had to move over the past weekend and I had the benefit of using the most amazing product.  A good friend who was helping me showed up with these straps, and we proceeded to relocated my entire life down three flights of stairs, into a truck, then out of the truck and up four flights of stairs.   I haven’t had the pleasure of using any product that has had more impact on me in a long time.

Forearm Forklift straps operate on a really simple concept.  They loop over the crux of your elbows and then under the object you’re lifting.  This allows you to better position the weight of the object closer to your body to make it easier and safer to handle.

How Do Forearm Forklifts Work?

If you guessed that your hands are the weakest link when you’re lifting something, you’d be correct. I am a bodybuilder, and I regularly lift things that my hands are barely strong enough to support although my larger muscle groups, such as those in my back and legs, support them with ease. I solve this problem at the gym by using straps that wrap around my wrists and the object to distribute the weight. Basically, this is the premise behind forearm forklifts. By supporting the weight further up your arm, you are able to carry heavier objects a lot more easily, and with much less strain on your fingers. A great side benefit of this is that your hands are instantly freed up to do more important things, such as balancing the object you’re carrying. This makes the whole endeavor a lot safer. During the move of my whole three-bedroom apartment, I did not once feel off balance, or about to lose my grip on anything, regardless of its size. This was very important as a lot of flights of stairs were involved.

Straps criss-cross under flat-bottomed objects.
Straps criss-cross under flat-bottomed objects.

Initial Concerns?

While they are certainly not expensive, they are still a well thought out, quality product. They’re made of very thick, heavy duty webbing straps, which I can’t imagine are easy to break. I was initially concerned about the straps slipping off some heavier things, like my washing machine, but because you can adjust them this was not a problem. If the bottom of the object has legs, each person’s straps loop around the bottom end closest to them, and if it is flat, the straps can be adjusted to criss-cross beneath the object in a figure 8, to safely carry things with flat bottoms.

What a Great Find!

I can’t tell you how much these helped during my move. Nothing was dropped, I didn’t ever feel unsafe or off-balance, and I had to move a lot of really heavy things. There are lots of products that I own and recommend that solve problems and make my life easier, but few that restore my faith in the ingenuity of human beings. What a great invention. I can’t believe that at my age I had never seen nor used this product or one like it before a few days ago. Obviously I ordered my own set, and I would highly recommend that you do the same if you ever have to move, or even just to have around the house in case someone else does. You will not regret it. I’m going to be giving these to lots of people over the holiday season.

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