Research Related to Pack Wieght

Mark:

I used to have a hard copy of a translation of an article along those lines. The research described in the article I had was done by the Swiss army, and the article was originally published in a German-language medical journal. The translation was published in a biomedical engineering newsletter I found in the University of Iowa engineering library.

After six house moves in just under 20 years, I can’t find that almost unreadable, bad library photocopy anywhere.

But what I recall is this: The report proposed that everyone has a backpack weight threshold at which they become significantly more encumbered. They defined this weight as the point where a person’s balance-time degrades by 20%. They determined this point by measuring the time that one could stand on one foot without a pack, and the compare that to the time they could do so with a pack on. They found that for the age range of men in the Swiss military, their balance degraded by 20% carrying a pack weight between 8% and 10% of their lean body weight.