How to carry more than your own bodyweight

Some communities have developed techniques to help them carry heavier loads. Here’s what we can learn from them.

The rural farm workers of Vietnam could be seen as almost superhuman. Every day, they shoulder impressive loads strung to a pole before carrying them for up to several miles at a time by foot. The awkward, bulky packages of produce, tools or other materials can often weigh more than their own bodyweight, yet they seem to take the burden in their stride.

It is a feat most of us would struggle to achieve. Lifting something equivalent to our own bodyweight is hard enough, but then walking long distances with it would defeat all but the hardiest of strongmen or women. The Vietnamese farm workers, however, have a secret weapon – their long springy bamboo poles.

The workers adjust their gait so that the load on either end of the poles oscillates in time with their strides. This reduces the amount of effort required to lift the weight with each step by around 18%, according to one study by researchers who studied the farm workers’ carrying abilities.

But even with this springy assistance, there can be little doubt that these farm workers are also just supremely strong after years of carrying heavy loads.

Many of us with jobs that don’t involve so much fetching and carrying could also benefit from getting stronger, however. So, what does it take to build this kind of strength?

There can be little doubt that humans have a preoccupation with strength. The sport of weightlifting has captivated audiences for more than 4,000 years and can be traced back to ancient Egypt, Greece and China. Writings, statues and artefacts such as halteres (large throwing stones) from ancient Greece show that competitions involving resistance lifting and strength were popular as early as 557BC.

Of course, the sport has come a long way, becoming a permanent fixture in the Olympics at the 1920 Antwerp games.

At the extreme end we could look at Georgian weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze. At the World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2021 he achieved three world records, which he still holds today. During the competition he lifted 267kg (584lbs) in the clean and jerk – more than twice his own bodyweight. For most of us, the idea of lifting that much is incomprehensible.

But increasing your strength by lifting weights can bring benefits. Strength training among older adults, for example, has been shown to improve their health and mobility. It can help to build athletic performance and has been linked to lower levels of mortality from conditions such as cancer and heart disease. Some studies have also suggested strength training could be beneficial for mental health too.

Perhaps the most obvious way of getting stronger and carry more is to build muscle. “Developing big muscles and stabilising those muscles,” says Jeffrey Ackerman, an associate teaching professor in mechanical engineering who studies load carrying at the Colorado School of Mines. “Our bodies are adapted to carrying our own body mass, then when you add a lot of weight, you really need to be doing strength training in a consistent way to grow your bigger load-carrying muscles, [such as your core and auxiliary muscles], that support the motion of your body while you’re carrying things. The only way to train these muscles is through intensive and progressive strength training.”

Indeed, higher levels of skeletal muscle mass tend to correlate with strength, although there are differences according to age, particularly as we get older, and sex. And building big muscles alone isn’t enough – it is important to train muscle activation to get the best from them.

But jumping straight into lifting heavy weights is not recommended. Instead, experts recommend focusing on technique and starting with loads that can be comfortably lifted before progressively increasing the training.

Progressive weight training, or progressive overload, is the gradual increase of stress (weight) placed on the body. A higher physiological demand means that you need to exert a greater force to meet it. For example, if you are easily lifting four sets of eight repetitions at a comfortable weight, you need to increase the weight, the number of repetitions or time under tension, to keep improving muscular fitness.

Some studies have shown you can get the same benefits from lifting lighter weights with a larger number of repetitions as heavier weights with fewer repetitions.

Other studies suggest that combining heavy and light loads into training may improve strength and power, while multiple sets are also more beneficial. One review of the science concluded that doing multiple sets with rests of two to five minutes in between appeared to produce the greatest strength-power benefits.

And while most experts recommend a squat technique to lift heavy loads to maximise overall strength, there is some debate over whether this is better for back health or not.

There are other ways, however, of increasing how much you can carry without having to spend hours at the gym. And, much like the farmers in Vietnam, some communities have developed techniques to help them shoulder impressive loads often over long distances.

At the turn of the 20th Century in England, market porters in London’s Covent Garden carried baskets of fruit and vegetables on their heads.

Such traditional handling methods are still commonplace today, particularly in developing countries. In north-eastern India, manual load carrying is widely used for transporting goods and materials over long distances, and across difficult terrain – largely due to lack of adequate transport infrastructure and the hilly terrain, but also for economic reasons. In East Africa, women of the Luo people often carry loads equivalent to 70% of their body mass balanced on top of their heads, for hours or sometimes days. Research suggests that they have developed an energy-saving strategy in the way they walk, to limit the muscular work needed to carry such loads.

Famously, sherpas in the Himalayas routinely take on both shoulder and head-supported loads, where a load is slung on the back and supported with a strap across the forehead. The loads carried often exceed their body mass. Professional porters in the region can manage these loads on journeys taking several days, covering around 60 miles (100km) and ascending up to a total of 26,000ft (8,000m) on uneven mountain paths.

While researchers are still grappling with its biomechanical advantages, the act of carrying a heavy load like a sherpa essentially counts as a combination of weight training and cardio – both of which are important for carrying loads for long periods of time. “Many sherpas have been doing it for years and have built up this endurance cardio and core supporting muscle strength,” says Ackerman.

One study examined the sherpa method of carrying by testing 10 physically fit agricultural workers, where each carried 10% then 40% of their body weight while walking on an inclined treadmill. It found that using supports such as a hip and shoulder strap meant that the heart rate and oxygen consumption of participants significantly decreased, as opposed to without the straps. Essentially, the straps help sherpas to either carry loads faster, or for a longer distance.

Researchers of load carriage have found that the ability to lift heavy loads depends on a variety of factors, including age, training regimes, gender, muscular strength and body composition, climate, terrain as well as the position of the load on the body. Some engineers have turned to the idea of a spring-loaded or “floating” backpack, to ease the force of loads on the back and shoulders and allowing them to move more naturally with our bodies as we walk.

Military load carrying also offers a fascinating lens into our capability of holding extreme weight.

Soldiers often wear and carry loads that exceed 45kg (99lbs), which consist of equipment and weapons for survival and protection, such as body armour, ammunition, patrol packs and heavy boots. This is particularly true where motor vehicles cannot be used, either due to the terrain or to avoid the risk of detection, and therefore survival and mission success often depends on how quickly soldiers can move while carrying such weight.

A review into the physical effects of training on load carriage performance in a military environment revealed that combined modes of physical training considerably improved their ability to carry heavy weight – particularly when progressive resistance training was combined with aerobic training, at least three times per week over four weeks.

Interestingly, hybrid training, the combination of cardio and strength training, has recently seen a burst of popularity on social media as runners look to incorporate weightlifting into their routine to reap the benefits of both types of exercise.

Indeed, incorporating strength training into your exercise regime is now widely encouraged by national organisations and health bodies. For example, the American Heart Association advocates for the cardiovascular benefits of doing 30 to 60 minutes of resistance training every week. As a general health guideline, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommend having two days a week where you incorporate some strength training into your routine, as does the National Health Service in the UK.

This guidance is particularly important in the context of our aging population – by 2030, 20% of Americans will be aged 65 or older. As people age, a natural loss of muscle mass and strength occurs, but if done multiple times a week, strength training can help to preserve bone density, reduce the risk of osteoporosis and improve flexibility, sleep and self-confidence.

While you may never have to carry a load across mountains like a sherpa or have the urge to break world records like an Olympic weightlifter – perhaps the exceptional power of these people will inspire you to pick up a dumbbell and see how much you can lift.

Go on, you might surprise yourself.