Comments by "Mat Broomfield" (@matbroomfield) on "How do you use a medieval PEASANT HANDCART?" video.

There's absolutely NO WAY that people pushed that cart except in special circumstances. Pushing, you'd constantly be exerting energy against the ground as well as against the load. Your leg muscles would work relatively poorly and your body weight would be driving diagonally downwards. Alternately, you'd have to resist the tendency of the handles to push your arms backwards. It would be very inefficient. Pulling, your legs are working in essentially the same way but it would be more like controlled falling, with your body weight working to move the load, rather than to balance it. I strongly suspect that it would have been used roped to the waist or with a harness.
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