Re-energise your relationship – by carrying your wife

13 October 2014 by in Lifestyle

We at Infinite Ideas are all for feminism but we couldn’t help but be amused at the annual wife-carrying contest in Maine. Turns out, we know quite a bit about wife-carrying and no, we’re not talking about Richard’s weekend activities!

Steve Shipside’s book, Adventure sports highlights the history of this family-friendly sport:

Nordic peoples still clearly look back nostalgically on a time when hats with cow horns were the height of fashion and the gentle art of courtship consisted largely of seizing the object of your desire and hurling her over your shoulder before legging it off back to the longboat. Times have changed, of course, and the hats are but a distant memory. Running around with someone else’s wife over your shoulder, however, is still very much alive and kicking as a concept, and indeed as a contest.

At the annual wife-carrying championships in Sonkajarvi, Finland, wives must weigh at least 49 kg and be carried over a sand and grass course of 253.5 m including two ‘dry obstacles’ and a ‘water obstacle’ about a metre deep. You mustn’t drop the wife and you must have fun (you must, it’s specifically mentioned in the rules). You’d be surprised at the size of some of the wives people opt to carry, which might seem a touching tribute to true love, until you find out that the prize for the carrier is the wife’s weight in beer. There’s more at www.sonkajarvi.fi – look for the link ‘wife carrying’ in English.

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However, if that is not for you, then Dr Sabina Dosani and Peter Cross, authors of Re-energise your relationship, have come up with some less viking ideas for upping the ante in your relationship:

Thirty years ago, a couple of psychologists wrote a paper entitled ‘Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety’. This is what they did: they asked a group of guys to cross one of two bridges. The first was a scarily shaky suspension bridge far above a canyon; the other was solid bridge just a short height over a small brook.

After each man crossed his allocated bridge, he was met by a beautiful researcher. She asked him to complete a short questionnaire, in which he had to categorise some fairly vague pictures of people. When he’d done this, the beautiful researcher gave the guy her phone number. ‘Call me,’ she said, ‘if there’s anything you want to ask about the study.’

Guess what? The guys who crossed the wobbly bridge were much more likely to call. What’s more, they found more sexy themes in the ambiguous pictures they were shown after crossing the bridge. Why? Well, crossing the suspension bridge put the proverbial willies up them, giving them an adrenaline surge and hiking up their heartbeats. When they saw the beautiful woman, the men misinterpreted their increased heart rates and thought they must be sexually aroused. Do something scary with your beloved, and make it work for you.

Not sure? The bad news is that the converse works, too. If you and your partner are supremely bored, sooner or later she’ll start to think of you as dramatically boring. Enough theory. What are you waiting for? Go on a different sort of date. We dare you to try one of these:

Paragliding
We’re not suggesting you take your partner for a walk on a wobbly bridge over a gaping canyon, but paragliding recreates the scenario pretty well. Next time you’re at the sea, instead of lying on the beach, go gliding. Hold onto each other tight, and when you’re high above the water, whisper ‘I can really feel your heart beating quickly’.

Bungee jumping
Get your partner to jump first and look deep into his eyes before he drops into the deep. Better still, find a centre that does couple bungees, where you jump on the same cord.

Quad biking
Speed junkies will love an exhilarating off-road tour across rough terrain, along mud roads, down hills and across creaks.

White water rafting
Thrills and spills guaranteed to pump your love muscle to the max. Plus it’ll build team spirit as you work together to control the raft.

Jet boating
Another date that’ll build a stronger partnership as you navigate rivers at soaring speeds and do 360 degree turns. Hold on tight. And yes, we sound like your mother, but please be careful on your daredevil dates. Remember, you’re aiming to raise adrenaline levels, not the mortality rate.