Bubbalouie wrote:For active adults I'd argue that percentage of your body weight (in reference to your pack) is more relevant than total actual weight.
I think the pursuit of lighter gear relative to the environment you are in can only be a good thing for your body and while upgrading gear recently we have been looking at the weight of each item and taking into account when deciding on purchases. I do wonder though if some perspective has been lost or is everyone on here the same size and build While I understand that it is easy to categorise based on base weights and these weight classes generally define quite distinct changes in the design and style of the big 4, should there not be more consideration and discussion regarding the size of whoever is carrying them?
Being light is all well and good but a base weight of 5kg is not the the same when you compare a 190cm 90kg bloke with a feather weight like myself (64kgs wet). I expect for our next trip my total pack weight including water sits between 15 and 18kg or about 25% of my body mass and I know in the past it has been up around 25kgs (nearly 40%). When you think about it this is not really comparable to the same weight carried by a fit 90kg person - 15% of body mass.
Are there any discussions concerning what is a healthy weight to carry for a person as a percentage of body mass? There must be some sports science types around who can produce some facts and figures. Or perhaps some armed service personnel, you would think this type of thing would have been looked at by the army over the years. Does anyone know of any good reads on the subject?