07-20-2011, 09:19 AM
Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles
In a recent study, scientists put volunteers on a treadmill in full plate armor in order to quantify how much it affected the wearer's endurance.
This last part is pretty interesting.
Leg pains
The scientists also looked at how the volunteers performed while wearing armour compared with carrying the equivalent load on their backs, which is similar to the weight a modern soldier might carry in their backpack.
Dr Askew said: "We found there was a big difference: it is much more 'expensive' to carry the load as a suit of armour than it is to carry the load in a backpack.
"We were interested to find out why that was - and one of the main reasons is that if you wear a suit of armour, a lot of the weight is carried on the legs - about 7-8kg of it.
"And this means when you walk and you swing your legs, you are requiring a lot more muscular effort, and that costs you a lot more energy."
Perhaps this is why so many warriors throughout history, including the Romans, seemed to prefer leaving their legs completely bare.
In a recent study, scientists put volunteers on a treadmill in full plate armor in order to quantify how much it affected the wearer's endurance.
This last part is pretty interesting.
Leg pains
The scientists also looked at how the volunteers performed while wearing armour compared with carrying the equivalent load on their backs, which is similar to the weight a modern soldier might carry in their backpack.
Dr Askew said: "We found there was a big difference: it is much more 'expensive' to carry the load as a suit of armour than it is to carry the load in a backpack.
"We were interested to find out why that was - and one of the main reasons is that if you wear a suit of armour, a lot of the weight is carried on the legs - about 7-8kg of it.
"And this means when you walk and you swing your legs, you are requiring a lot more muscular effort, and that costs you a lot more energy."
Perhaps this is why so many warriors throughout history, including the Romans, seemed to prefer leaving their legs completely bare.
Henry O.
