Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Working out in armour

It should not really come as a surprise...the Leeds armoury did some tests on people wearing armour. They discovered that it is really hard to do any aerobic activity in armour.

Trouble is...how would this test compare to, oh, say, a modern soldier doing the same thing whilst wearing all his kit? THAT might well be a valid comparison. This test merely shows that it is harder to fight while wearing armour than not wearing armour. Well duuuuuhhhhh!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14205147

Nice armour though. Wish we could see more of the results.





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2 comments:

Gregory House said...

To STAG yes to re enactors the result is rather obovious. As has been pointed out elsewhere specific foot combat by knights was not an overly common event in battle. We all know of the famous exceptions so I won't list them. The accounts of knights in 'full'armour over heating and stroking out in extended foot combat are exceedingly common. So as far as I can see the validity this study has is to do with the restriction in breathing. I dearly want to see the rest of the results of this study, though including combat movement I feel would have been a more valid exercise.
Ps thanks for the comment on Red Ned Regards Greg

STAG said...

The direction of the weave of a chain mail shirt is crucial. If it goes up and down instead of sideways, every time you breathe it lifts the whole shirt.

I have proved that by simply making two shirts, identical except for the direction of the weave. One of them, I can run a kilometer, t'other one I poop out at only a quarter km. Pretty significant IMHO.