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Sustained Pushing Force With an Aspis
#1
My wife is working nights now, so I had some time to mess about last night and perform an experiment based on some discussions I've had with James Sulzen on the pushing force tha can be generated by a man with an aspsis.

Setup

- A 1 foot square "force plate" (a digital bathroom scale that locks at a sustained load) was mounted 1 yard off the floor fixed to the wall by a pair of hooks.
- Myself with Aspis, 270 pounds, 6'4" tall (you can see the picture in the Greek Hoplite thread above Smile

Methodology

Obtain 10 measurements of sustained force while pushing from two postures:

- Side on with the aspis set on the shoulder and thigh at right angles to the body
- Square to fore with the aspis on the shoulder and curving down across the left chest and resting on the thigh

In both situations the aspis was set against the plate on the upper curve in as close to the same position as possible.

The maximum force I could apply was sustained for 10 seconds, and then the scale checked for a locked measure.

I alternated between pushing postures to minimize the effect of fatigue on the results.

Problems:

The apparatus was imperfect, and I only got a "locked" reading around 50% of the time.

Results:

Side on: The force generated varied between 160 and 170 pounds.
Square to fore: The force generated varied between 130 and 140 pounds.

Both generally declined as the experiment proceeded.

Commentary

It was sweaty work, and the apparatus was cranky. A couple of articles on the physiology of pushing have given me some ideas for a better way to measure, but that will take some material sourcing and time.

With regard to the people, a larger number of subjects would also allow some comparisons with height and weight, and it would be nice to generate some data at varying heights from the floor.

Have fun!
Cole
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