Thank you Brad! Have you tried any of the method yet? Please kmp if you do, I would love to get your feedback and answer any questions you might have, happy to do that here in the comments or feel free to message me any time.
Awesome! The goal of the method and practice is to create a new normal, so doing this regardless of whether there is weight on the head is great. Enjoy that spinal erection my friend!
Yeah I bring in all my groceries on my head. About fifteen pounds for three miles and twenty pounds for two miles round trip. I bet I could do a lot more weight, though I'm not sure about height. I don't need my hands as that stuff just naturally stays put. But above twenty inches it suddenly gets much tippier. I also do yoga standing poses with boxes on my head. At big intersections I pretend to trip and fall. On trash day I go around balancing people's trash on my head. There's a patriarch and big family from India across the road here and they don't find me amusing at all. I use a round bushel basket in higher winds and if it's not too windy I use a blue recycling bin. To me it feels a lot like sailing and I watch for leaves and flags to see how strong the wind is. I also have a comedy routine in grocery stores where I put a big bag of dog food topside and go around asking people if they've seen the dog food. Lots of people talk to me about their mothers and grandmothers in Africa, India, and South America. For comic effect I sometimes load a recycling bin heavily on one side so the box leans way out over my head sideways. I also walk backwards, but if I have a load topside I go quite slowly. If you live in Beamsville in Niagara Ontario or south London Ontario you've probably seen me. Look for me next in a town called Terrace in British Columbia, then next winter in Brownsville, Texas, and then for two years I'll be the old guy living in a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia, learning bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) by walking around carrying large objects on my head. --david
Is that you in your profile pic? If so, I am surprised that the skin on your face does not look more taut and toned with all of that loading of the head you are doing! Glad you are having fun either way though, thanks for the comment and comic relief.
Yeah I’m a saggy old coot. That picture was two years ago and I’m probably saggier now. On the other hand, I had only started doing light weight then. I had just started walking backwards. I had a wife who didn’t approve of me goofing around with stuff on my head. She ditched me in November. Either because I was too saggy or made too many jokes. So really it’s only been four months that I’ve been carrying heavy loads. I got the idea from seeing I think Nigerian woman on a video. Just plastic buckets, like I now routinely carry everywhere. I figured I was the only male in the world who did this until my aunt told me that in India male porters would swing her suitcases onto her head. Sorry, their heads. Though “her head” is funnier. Doc, you’ve been great to see. I always suspected that it was actually good for one to load up topside. I mean I used to do ten-minute headstands when I was 193 pounds. I have a very large head, so subtract 25 pounds from 193 and whatever that is was on my neck for ten minutes, right? So in theory we should be able to carry women on our heads. How come I’ve never seen that? In the first month of fifteen-pound loads I would get minor peripheral pain more in the shoulder really, but I’ve never experienced pain in the neck, unless you count my wife ha ha. I did your five minute thing and I have a question—when you say all the air out of the lungs do you mean just relax until there’s no more air going out or do you mean really blow out all the bottom part of the lungs so they’re really empty? In Wim Hof I think you’re supposed to cheat a bit and call it “all the air out” when it’s really about two-thirds, which is at the relaxed position. Anyway, it’s very encouraging to have you say not only that carrying loads isn’t bad for you but it’s outright good. And it’s nice to hear that it could make me less saggy-faced. I certainly never heard that. Ideally I would like to get up to thirty pounds and then I could do ultralight hiking. Go five or ten miles and then sleep. Not thirty miles like the crazy speed hikers. I should probably get one of those heavy balls I glimpsed you working out with. Not for hiking, obviously.
This is great stuff brother, thank you for sharing! Yes, it is an inherently funny thing to load the head, to USE the head in that way, as a tool…it keeps me entertained daily as I walk about 3-5 miles per day with my two friends who are huskies!
Regarding the question about exhaling fully, the answer is yes. What I am referring to here is within the Dao Yin or Qi Gong practice what is called ‘purging’ exhale, because we are actually detoxing/purging energetically, primarily, and the breath is the master key for that. When we release every last drop of air, spit it out, flutter the lips, stick out the tongue, and use all of these tiny soft tissues involved with that ‘purging’ exhale, we are physically releasing these soft tissues and transforming muscles from a state of latent tension to a state of full relaxation. We want this release to be global, full-body as well, not just the lips and mouth, but shaking out the whole body as needed to release tension as we empty ourselves of 100% of air. The next key is receiving the inhale, not taking it, nasally, and that means breathing in so slowly that we do not hear the inhale at all. If we hear the inhale, this indicates we are using shallow muscles rather than expanding from the center using diaphragm. Then, repeat the purging exhale again out of an open, relaxed mouth. This should be repeated until we are pain-free and without tension through full range of motion, and then we can begin strengthening, and finish with balancing. This page of my ‘Healing is free, not easy’ publication has a post with a video showing a 60min version of a ‘five element balancing’ flow that you might dig: https://healingisfree.substack.com/p/60-minute-qi-gong-dao-yin-five-element
Thanks again for sharing brother David, please stay in touch and keep me posted how goes it for you!
Sorry for delay. Sixteen days no internet and then stuff sort of flooded in. Yeah it sounds like you've experimented with stuff that I'm starting in to and you have some of the reasons why it's good. I'm copying your answer out and will get cracking on it. --David
I sort of figured out the “tensegrity” word—I thought integrity under tension although it could also be compression—and I looked it up finally and got:
“tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension”
[visuals are me with my head cocked sideways and a bag of rice sort of sideways on my head]
Buckminster Fuller! I could just wander off thinking about living life with the name Buckminster! Maybe he wore it on his head!
Yes think of the cervical spine (as one does, naturally). See the bones, yes but really the ligaments and small muscles of the multifidi, the scalenes. When we find our center column ( look for yours in light- not to miss!) and then float or with Doc’s program- resist gravity or bags of beans, all of the pieces that make up the circus tent column pole of our c-spine (balance tension integrity system) must organize around that center column. And badda bing! The brain stem/ vagus nerve is no longer harassed and we all achieve physical and spiritual creaminess. And it absolutely beats keeping up on current events.
Multifidus must mean multi-faithful. And okay the scalenes are three pairs of neck muscles. Man I'd love to see mine in light--maybe one day. I'm pleased to see this hint that I might be doing something good for my vagus connection merely by enjoying a head carry. I'll return to your advice and that of Doc in due course. I haven't really got into Doc's thing yet, but already I'm using rice bags a little like he uses those [Indian?] balls. I mean I'm tipping a little, is all. I stopped carrying anything on my head for three days last week (rain and foot injury) and I got neck pain!
Awesome! I developed this as a bodyworker, and I don’t think I could have done it without that experience…what style of bodywork do you do? Kmp how it goes for you!
Craniosacral Therapist here. I will mention for your benefit that the words inhalation and exhalation in craniosacral therapy (cst) are not referencing the breath but rather the flow of cerebrospinal fluid- the pulse. Which is independent of the breath. Inhalation is flexion at the spheno- basilar joint, nothing to do with lungs. When you are a practitioner of cst inhalation/flexion FEELS like an inhalation. Sutherland called it “the breath of life”.
Super cool, I love that modality and use it quite a bit, more and more as I have learned how powerful it is to work on the head/neck. I took a couple CST classes at BTI and remember the term the ‘breath of life’, and feeling that sort of wave and expansion/contraction that occurs. I think this headloading method works partly by creating space and expansion within all of these spaces such as the spheno-basilar joint…it rly expands the skull, and so much more. I am glad you mentioned tensegrity bc that is a whole other aspect I need to write about!
Very cool Doc Smith.
Thank you Brad! Have you tried any of the method yet? Please kmp if you do, I would love to get your feedback and answer any questions you might have, happy to do that here in the comments or feel free to message me any time.
Trying to walk tall with my head up
Awesome! The goal of the method and practice is to create a new normal, so doing this regardless of whether there is weight on the head is great. Enjoy that spinal erection my friend!
Yeah I bring in all my groceries on my head. About fifteen pounds for three miles and twenty pounds for two miles round trip. I bet I could do a lot more weight, though I'm not sure about height. I don't need my hands as that stuff just naturally stays put. But above twenty inches it suddenly gets much tippier. I also do yoga standing poses with boxes on my head. At big intersections I pretend to trip and fall. On trash day I go around balancing people's trash on my head. There's a patriarch and big family from India across the road here and they don't find me amusing at all. I use a round bushel basket in higher winds and if it's not too windy I use a blue recycling bin. To me it feels a lot like sailing and I watch for leaves and flags to see how strong the wind is. I also have a comedy routine in grocery stores where I put a big bag of dog food topside and go around asking people if they've seen the dog food. Lots of people talk to me about their mothers and grandmothers in Africa, India, and South America. For comic effect I sometimes load a recycling bin heavily on one side so the box leans way out over my head sideways. I also walk backwards, but if I have a load topside I go quite slowly. If you live in Beamsville in Niagara Ontario or south London Ontario you've probably seen me. Look for me next in a town called Terrace in British Columbia, then next winter in Brownsville, Texas, and then for two years I'll be the old guy living in a slum in Jakarta, Indonesia, learning bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) by walking around carrying large objects on my head. --david
Is that you in your profile pic? If so, I am surprised that the skin on your face does not look more taut and toned with all of that loading of the head you are doing! Glad you are having fun either way though, thanks for the comment and comic relief.
Yeah I’m a saggy old coot. That picture was two years ago and I’m probably saggier now. On the other hand, I had only started doing light weight then. I had just started walking backwards. I had a wife who didn’t approve of me goofing around with stuff on my head. She ditched me in November. Either because I was too saggy or made too many jokes. So really it’s only been four months that I’ve been carrying heavy loads. I got the idea from seeing I think Nigerian woman on a video. Just plastic buckets, like I now routinely carry everywhere. I figured I was the only male in the world who did this until my aunt told me that in India male porters would swing her suitcases onto her head. Sorry, their heads. Though “her head” is funnier. Doc, you’ve been great to see. I always suspected that it was actually good for one to load up topside. I mean I used to do ten-minute headstands when I was 193 pounds. I have a very large head, so subtract 25 pounds from 193 and whatever that is was on my neck for ten minutes, right? So in theory we should be able to carry women on our heads. How come I’ve never seen that? In the first month of fifteen-pound loads I would get minor peripheral pain more in the shoulder really, but I’ve never experienced pain in the neck, unless you count my wife ha ha. I did your five minute thing and I have a question—when you say all the air out of the lungs do you mean just relax until there’s no more air going out or do you mean really blow out all the bottom part of the lungs so they’re really empty? In Wim Hof I think you’re supposed to cheat a bit and call it “all the air out” when it’s really about two-thirds, which is at the relaxed position. Anyway, it’s very encouraging to have you say not only that carrying loads isn’t bad for you but it’s outright good. And it’s nice to hear that it could make me less saggy-faced. I certainly never heard that. Ideally I would like to get up to thirty pounds and then I could do ultralight hiking. Go five or ten miles and then sleep. Not thirty miles like the crazy speed hikers. I should probably get one of those heavy balls I glimpsed you working out with. Not for hiking, obviously.
This is great stuff brother, thank you for sharing! Yes, it is an inherently funny thing to load the head, to USE the head in that way, as a tool…it keeps me entertained daily as I walk about 3-5 miles per day with my two friends who are huskies!
Regarding the question about exhaling fully, the answer is yes. What I am referring to here is within the Dao Yin or Qi Gong practice what is called ‘purging’ exhale, because we are actually detoxing/purging energetically, primarily, and the breath is the master key for that. When we release every last drop of air, spit it out, flutter the lips, stick out the tongue, and use all of these tiny soft tissues involved with that ‘purging’ exhale, we are physically releasing these soft tissues and transforming muscles from a state of latent tension to a state of full relaxation. We want this release to be global, full-body as well, not just the lips and mouth, but shaking out the whole body as needed to release tension as we empty ourselves of 100% of air. The next key is receiving the inhale, not taking it, nasally, and that means breathing in so slowly that we do not hear the inhale at all. If we hear the inhale, this indicates we are using shallow muscles rather than expanding from the center using diaphragm. Then, repeat the purging exhale again out of an open, relaxed mouth. This should be repeated until we are pain-free and without tension through full range of motion, and then we can begin strengthening, and finish with balancing. This page of my ‘Healing is free, not easy’ publication has a post with a video showing a 60min version of a ‘five element balancing’ flow that you might dig: https://healingisfree.substack.com/p/60-minute-qi-gong-dao-yin-five-element
Thanks again for sharing brother David, please stay in touch and keep me posted how goes it for you!
haven't forgotten this...busy is all...more soon...see also my interaction with SunnyFlowers below who seems to agree with you... --david
Sorry for delay. Sixteen days no internet and then stuff sort of flooded in. Yeah it sounds like you've experimented with stuff that I'm starting in to and you have some of the reasons why it's good. I'm copying your answer out and will get cracking on it. --David
I’ve just asked for a bag of beans from my hubbys next grocery trip. As a bodyworker I think you are on to something, tensegrity and all.
I sort of figured out the “tensegrity” word—I thought integrity under tension although it could also be compression—and I looked it up finally and got:
“tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension”
[visuals are me with my head cocked sideways and a bag of rice sort of sideways on my head]
Buckminster Fuller! I could just wander off thinking about living life with the name Buckminster! Maybe he wore it on his head!
Yes think of the cervical spine (as one does, naturally). See the bones, yes but really the ligaments and small muscles of the multifidi, the scalenes. When we find our center column ( look for yours in light- not to miss!) and then float or with Doc’s program- resist gravity or bags of beans, all of the pieces that make up the circus tent column pole of our c-spine (balance tension integrity system) must organize around that center column. And badda bing! The brain stem/ vagus nerve is no longer harassed and we all achieve physical and spiritual creaminess. And it absolutely beats keeping up on current events.
Multifidus must mean multi-faithful. And okay the scalenes are three pairs of neck muscles. Man I'd love to see mine in light--maybe one day. I'm pleased to see this hint that I might be doing something good for my vagus connection merely by enjoying a head carry. I'll return to your advice and that of Doc in due course. I haven't really got into Doc's thing yet, but already I'm using rice bags a little like he uses those [Indian?] balls. I mean I'm tipping a little, is all. I stopped carrying anything on my head for three days last week (rain and foot injury) and I got neck pain!
Interesting about multifidus! Have fun playing with your balls my friend 😂 and kmp how it goes for you!
I’ll be back!
So much better than current events, the multi-dimensional creaminess!
Awesome! I developed this as a bodyworker, and I don’t think I could have done it without that experience…what style of bodywork do you do? Kmp how it goes for you!
Craniosacral Therapist here. I will mention for your benefit that the words inhalation and exhalation in craniosacral therapy (cst) are not referencing the breath but rather the flow of cerebrospinal fluid- the pulse. Which is independent of the breath. Inhalation is flexion at the spheno- basilar joint, nothing to do with lungs. When you are a practitioner of cst inhalation/flexion FEELS like an inhalation. Sutherland called it “the breath of life”.
Super cool, I love that modality and use it quite a bit, more and more as I have learned how powerful it is to work on the head/neck. I took a couple CST classes at BTI and remember the term the ‘breath of life’, and feeling that sort of wave and expansion/contraction that occurs. I think this headloading method works partly by creating space and expansion within all of these spaces such as the spheno-basilar joint…it rly expands the skull, and so much more. I am glad you mentioned tensegrity bc that is a whole other aspect I need to write about!
But they're plastic....