Where You Carry Weight Matters

As you might imagine a lot of the book is about the importance of getting his gear right so he can survive the hardships of his journey. At one point he says, “Where you carry weight matters,” but he doesn’t expand on the topic.

I am always interested in how people carry weight, especially people who live in Balance, on the line of gravity. Fedarko’s comment made me even more curious.

First, I explored the internet and found photo sites with endless photos of Balanced people carrying seemingly impossible weights on their heads or shoulders. There are also endless websites about weightlifters, but that’s another story altogether.

When Balanced people carry loads, they are always carried high, most often on the head:

                                                                                                                                                                Photo Jean Couch: Morocco

Or in the case of a yoke, on both shoulders as demonstrated by Noelle Perez and Jose Miguel:

                                                                                                                                                                Photo Kay Hackney, Paris

A tumpline, a strap attached to any weight, is very common and places the weight in the spine.

                                                                                                                                                                          Shutterstock photo: India

The most common things I’ve seen Balanced people carry in their arms are babies:

                                                                                                                                                                       Photo source unknown

Here is Google’s AI Overview on how to wear a backpack.

Backpack weight should be primarily on your hips, with a properly fitted hip belt carrying about 80% of the load, while shoulder straps should only provide stabilization and handle the remaining 20%. This approach uses your body’s strongest muscles in your legs and hips to carry the weight, preventing fatigue in your shoulders and upper back. A well-adjusted hip belt sits on your iliac crest (the top of your hip bones) and is cinched snugly, while the shoulder straps are adjusted to take up the slack without bearing the majority of the weight.

I hate to argue with AI, but I have never seen a Balanced person carry weight on their waist. It is always carried high, on their head or shoulders.

Decades ago, when Dana Davis was my assistant, the Balance Center office was on the second floor of 560 Oxford. Dana and I were distracted by workmen tearing up the cement across the street. As we watched them, we both noticed a man who bent and moved in Balance. They were there for hours, so eventually Dana and I went down and talked to him.

During the conversation, we explained that from our experience people in Balance had little to no backpain. He said that he had horrible back pain early in his work career. Despite a lot of medical investigations and physical therapy he still suffered.

Then he solved the problem himself. Instead of wearing his tool belt around his waist, like everyone else, he got the idea to hang his tools from his shoulders. I don’t remember if he made the leather harness that hung from his shoulders and secured at his waist, or if he bought it, but he said from that time on he never had back pain again.

That doesn’t solve the mystery of how to carry a backpack. But what we do know from studying people in Balance, is that in general, you want the weight high. For those of us working to live on the line of gravity, it means practicing Balance like crazy and carrying weight on our shoulders. For our long-term skeletal health, I don’t think there’s any other choice.