Primal Patterns: Carrying Weight

How humans evolved carrying the weight of what we owned, the benefits of doing it today, and different methods to implement

In the last few weeks, I’ve been training my body for my elk hunt. Typically, at least for me, this has involved shooting my bow a ton and extra jiu-jitsu. The latter is to help me practice the “sprint” portion of the hunts where I might be breathing heavily while needing to stay calm in pressure-filled situations.

But the most important exercise I’ve been doing (and what 99% of hunting is comprised of) is hiking with a weighted pack on. Whether my style of a particular hunt leans more towards day hunting or backpack hunting, I’m always carrying some kind of weight for an extended period when I’m hunting elk or deer. 

On the “light” end, it might be 10-15 lbs consisting of a gallon of water, food, optics, a tripod, medical supplies, a kill kit, and of course, the pack itself. Oh, and don’t forget the weapon in my hand that can be anywhere from 6 to 11 lbs depending on what I’m using for that hunt.

On the heavy end of a backpack hunt… Think more along the lines of 50 to 60 lbs in my pack. 

And if, Lord willing I’m successful on my hunt… Then we enter a whole other realm of carrying weight when it comes to getting an animal out of where ever I killed it!

The point of illustrating all of the above is that there is no way to train for hiking around in the mountains all day with a weighted pack except… Hiking in the mountains all day with a weighted pack! I learned this the hard way on my first hunt when I thought I could squat and deadlift into mountain shape.

This also got me thinking about how hiking/walking/trekking with weight on our backs and shoulders was how our hunter-gatherer ancestors survived. 

Heck, throughout human history, if your civilization was going to survive, it had to have men who were supremely capable of carrying weight for long distances and durations to fight others. 

Even today, there is a reason why our military still trains with heavy rucksacks as an instrumental part of basic and ongoing training while in the service.

Why you should train your body to carry weight: Function

Do you ever wonder why carrying a 60 lb suitcase feels hard compared to, say, deadlifting 315 lbs? It’s because it’s a different type of work! Lifting a heavy barbell is intense, but the length of your body and muscles under exertion isn’t very long. You pick it up and you put it down. 1 rep probably lasts no more than 5 seconds max. 

Compare that to carrying a 60 lb suitcase up 2 flights of stairs. I know which one is likely to get you huffing and puffing! With the suitcase, you’ve got to exert yourself for a much longer time. 

Carrying weights, even if you think they are light relative to the weights you lift during structured workouts, is going to improve your strength, cardio, and endurance on a whole other level.

Improve grip strength

Carrying weight is one of the best exercises to improve your grip strength. Think about how often we need to carry things in today’s world. Most of us carry our groceries 50 feet MAX from the car to our front door.

Now compare that to cultures who every morning have to carry water from a well to their village. Heck, even living in New York I had to carry a week’s worth of groceries a mile from Whole Foods to my apartment. I took great pride (and cost savings) in never ordering an Uber to bring me and my groceries home.

Improve posture

Doing carry exercises forces you to stand upright. If you round your shoulders and have a forward head position during the carry, you will not be able to hold whatever it is that you’re carrying.

If you have a heavy backpack on, you MUST stand up straight and activate your muscles for good posture, or you’ll be in a world of hurt. Carrying also improves your posterior chain (the muscles on the backside of your body that are notoriously neglected in the gym by most people).

Build a stronger core

No matter which type of carry you choose to do, your core is firing and working. This goes back to the posture point, you need to have an active core if you hope to stand up tall under load. Again, if you don’t activate your core, you’ll quickly collapse under the weight of whatever you are carrying. 

Shoulder health

When carrying things by hand or over the shoulder, you are improving your shoulders by putting them in safe positions of strain, priming them to handle those positions later in life.

Some of the most debilitating injuries for older folks are shoulder injuries, likely because they never used them for anything other than bench and shoulder presses. You need to have strong shoulders in all planes of movement.

Why you should train your body to carry weight: Life

Will you ever have to put on a legionnaire's uniform and march into Germania for an extended winter to fight the barbarians who are harassing the borders of Rome? Probably not (but golly, I wish).

If you aren’t in the military, you’ll probably never have to load up a 60 lb rucksack and hike until you’re told to stop.

And maybe you have no intention of ever hunting, so you’ll never need to carry a heavy pack into the mountains.

BUT… 

You might want to be able to carry your kids on your shoulders at the boardwalk.

You might want to be able to go backpacking with friends and family and enjoy the great outdoors.

You might want to carry your groceries in when you’re 80 years old.

And you might want to be a gentleman and carry your lady’s heavy bags at the airport.

You see, adapting your body to carry a load isn’t just about adventures deep into the wilderness. It’s also about training your bones and muscles to be able to function in everyday life long into advanced age without being dependent on others to do things for you.

The different types of “carries” and how to incorporate them into your routine

Although formal, specific equipment is nice, the great thing about carrying exercises is that you don’t NEED formal equipment. You can make anything heavy and carry it around in one of the exercises below. For the sake of this article, I’ll reference the formal equipment version and a random item you can replace it with.

Farmer’s Carry

Two heavy kettlebells or dumbbells, one held in each hand. Pick them up, and walk 25, 50, or 100 yards. You can also load up two carry-on suitcases and carry them in your backyard.

Suitcase Carry

One heavy kettlebell or dumbbell held just on one side. Pick them up, and walk 25, 50, or 100 yards. You can also load up, get this, a suitcase, and carry it on one side of your body.

Racked Carry

Two kettlebells or dumbbells, held in the clean position in each hand. Make sure you are strong enough to get them into the clean position of course, and once there, same as above, walk 25, 50, or 100 yards.

Waiter Walk

One kettlebell or dumbbell is held overhead. You can also use a backpack.

Sandbag Carry

You can buy a fancy sandbag for a few hundred bucks or you can go to a hardware store, buy a sandbag, and fill it with sand. Toss the sandbag over 1 shoulder and walk the dog like that.

Fireman’s Carry

You need to use a longer sandbag for this so that it can sit on your yoke and distribute weight across both shoulders. Or, more fun, grab your significant other and carry them around in your backyard. 

Rucking

Finally, good ol’ rucking. Use any old backpack, it doesn’t have to be fancy and load it up with weight. I’ll note, test it first to make sure it can handle weight without falling apart.

This is one where I do recommend buying a pack specifically for rucking or hiking, but only because you’ll be a lot more comfortable. If you try using an old-school bag, it’s going to sit on your back wonky, causing movement pattern issues with extended use.

Brands like GORUCK have great packs for this. I use my hunting pack from Stone Glacier to help prepare for my hunts.

Take Action: Pick any of the above carry exercises and incorporate them into your current workout routine, maybe at the end. See how much stronger you get and taller you stand after a few weeks!

In the meantime, my hunt is only 11 days away as of the publishing of this article, so I’ll likely be tapering down on my intensity of workouts to allow my body to fully recover before 10 days in the mountains chasing bugling bull elk with my bow. 

Thanks for all the awesome feedback on my last Primal Patterns article on Steel Clubs! If you asked for video content on how to incorporate them into your routine, or for more articles on Primal Patterns, don’t worry- it’s coming.

This has encouraged me to put together a series of articles like this one to provide value to y’all on Primal Patterns. It’s time to throw it back to my fitness trainer days and create a program built solely around these movements. Stay tuned for an announcement on when that will be delivered!

Carry on.

-Sebastian