What to Do When Rucking Or Carrying Heavy Loads Hurts
Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman
Nutritious Movement
4.8 • 660 Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dynamic Aging Retreat Oct 3-5 2025
This Episode's Show Notes
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Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Jeannette Loram talk about rucking—walking with weight on your back—and other modes of carrying. They touch on the evolutionary history of carrying, carrying in modern Hunter Gatherer populations, rucking in the military and the benefits of fitness rucking.
Jeannette and Katy focus on the challenges associated with rucking particularly pain and discomfort. They explain how different body adjustments—like leaning forward, arching the back, or shifting the hips forward—are responses to offset the backward-pulling force of a heavy load. These shifts help accommodate the extra mass, but if a single adjustment is done repetitively or without muscular support through the core, pain can be the result.
Listen in to discover a more varied and mindful approach to managing your ruck; your low back will thank you!
CHAPTERS
00:06:00 - The Dynamic Collective
00:07:00 - Are Humans Born to Carry?
00:13:00 - Phases of Life and Issues with Fitness Rucking and Carrying in General
00:26:00 - What's Holding You Up? Mindfulness in Rucking
00:38:45 - Listener Question about broken bones, brought to you by Ikaria Design
00:49:00 - A Conversation Between Katy and Jeannette: What Is the Big Movement Question?
BOOKS, ARTICLES AND RESEARCH MENTIONED
My Perfect Movement Plan by Katy Bowman
Pain-Free Baby Holding by Katy Bowman
Trunk Muscle Activity In Different Modes of Carrying by Motmans et al 2006
Bone Density and Intramedullary Rods by Kroger et al 2002
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, podcast listeners, this is a live event announcement. I am headed to North Carolina this |
| 0:06.9 | October to lead a three-day dynamic aging retreat of the serene Art of Living Center in the Appalachian |
| 0:13.5 | Mountains. Aging is for every body. While we can't stop the sands of time, there is a difference between the effects of age and the effects of years, accumulating sedentary habits. |
| 0:26.4 | This is my third time offering this event, the first time at the Art of Living Center. |
| 0:31.5 | You'll learn to nourish all your parts with movement, feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, shoulders, pelvic floor, and all the |
| 0:38.1 | bits in between, and restore loss function due to inactivity. In addition to gentle, |
| 0:44.7 | head-to-to-co, corrective movements will also be working on practical movement skills like balance, |
| 0:51.2 | fall-proof gait patterns, boosting the amount of play in your life, and how to make |
| 0:56.4 | the movements you need fit easily into the activities of daily living. I could go on and on about |
| 1:01.9 | the benefits of the content that we'll cover, but I know you want to get to this podcast episode, |
| 1:06.2 | so if you're keen to know more, go to nutritiousmovement.com and click on events. There you will find more |
| 1:12.9 | information. Retreats are different from vacations where you're looking to just get away. They are |
| 1:18.5 | time set aside from the regular grind and dedicated to practicing something that you don't |
| 1:23.3 | often have time to focus on in daily life. Movement retreats let you focus on building a toolkit |
| 1:29.0 | that will serve you again and again long after you've left the event. I hope you can join me. |
| 1:35.0 | We're going to have a blast. This is the Move Your DNA podcast, a show where movement science |
| 1:43.2 | meets your everyday life. |
| 1:46.0 | I'm Kitty Bowman, biomechanist, author, and I rarely leave the house empty-handed. |
| 1:51.0 | And I'm Jeanette Lorham, biologist, movement teacher, and I often prefer carrying in my arms than carrying on my back. |
| 1:59.0 | Every body is welcome here. |
| 2:02.2 | Let's get started. |
| 2:04.2 | Okay, we're gonna talk of rucking today. |
... |
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