Heavy Metal Hardens Battle: Body Armor Hindered Medieval Warriors

[wulfgar610]

For those people who think one can wear heavy armor and do "tip toe through the tulips" for an extended period.

Heavy Metal Hardens Battle: Body Armor Hindered Medieval Warriors

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2011) — The French may have had a better chance at the Battle of Agincourt had they not been weighed down by heavy body armour, say researchers.


A study published July 19 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that soldiers carrying armour in Medieval times would have been using more than twice the amount of energy had they not been wearing it. This is the first clear experimental evidence of the limitations of wearing Medieval armour on a soldier's performance.
During warfare in the 15th century, soldiers wore steel plate armour, typically weighing 30-50kg. It is thought this may have been a contributing factor in whether an army won or lost a battle.
"We found that carrying this kind of load spread across the body requires a lot more energy than carrying the same weight in a backpack," says lead researcher, Dr Graham Askew from the University of Leeds Faculty of Biological Sciences. "This is because, in a suit of armour, the limbs are loaded with weight, which means it takes more effort to swing them with each stride. If you're wearing a backpack, the weight is all in one place and swinging the limbs is easier."
The research team included academics from the Universities of Leeds, Milan and Auckland along with experts from the Royal Armouries in Leeds, UK. Researchers worked with highly skilled fight interpreters from the Royal Armouries Museum, who wore exact replicas of four different types of European armour. They undertook a range of walking and running exercises, during which their oxygen usage was measured through respirometry masks, providing researchers with a picture of how much energy was being used by the participants.
The study also showed that the armour had a clear impact on the soldier's breathing. Rather than taking deep breaths when they were exerting themselves -- as they would have done had they not been wearing armour -- the interpreters took a greater number of shallower breaths.
"Being wrapped in a tight shell of armour may have made soldiers feel safe," says co-investigator Dr Federico Formenti from the University of Auckland. "But you feel breathless as soon as you begin to move around in Medieval armour and this would likely limit a soldier's resistance to fight."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0719194352.htm

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

WOW, the scientific discovery of the century - armor is heavy.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Armour is heavy - now that is news. Also the study seems flawed as it does not evaluate men trained over time in armour. I know that the more one is trained in heavy exertion the more the muscles learn to be efficient in managing energy and the exertion becomes lighter. This study seems only able to evaluate 'untrained' men.

[wulfgar610]

A study published July 19 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that soldiers carrying armour in Medieval times would have been using more than twice the amount of energy had they not been wearing it.

The oxygen usage doesn't lie!

[DarthLazy]

Surely the guys conducting the study are much more qualified for fighting a battle than the millions of people who actually did wear armor in battles .........................................



















fail

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

Lol, they have to take into account that the adreneline in your system would help you fight for extended periods of time in an actual battle.

[Slaytaninc]

It's not adrenaline or any of taht. It's the fact that they used people who weren't conditioned for battle.

Most noblemen when young had a martial education. They trained for a very long time and were in good condition.

Of course, they also ate A LOT, so when they settled down, they tended to grow fat. Kinda like Henry VIII

[wulfgar610]

The full armors tested were between 30kg and 39kg. There was only one out of the six main types that weighed 53kg.

Major energy chewer appears to be "drag", a full suit will eat energy via friction and resistance. A guy might start out fit in full armor but eventually the fatigue is going to get to them. No matter how well trained, he's chewing energy at twice the rate of a lightly armed counterpart.

A typical weight for the breast and back plate was 12kg, but almost 19kg for the heavy suit. Possibly the heavy suit was the jousting armor referred to as being much heavier than regular battle armor.



It appears you have to pay for articles, but they might be free after one year.

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.o...=and&x=33&y=13

In Medieval Europe, soldiers wore steel plate armour for protection during warfare. Armour design reflected a trade-off between protection and mobility it offered the wearer. By the fifteenth century, a typical suit of field armour weighed between 30 and 50 kg and was distributed over the entire body. How much wearing armour affected Medieval soldiers' locomotor energetics and biomechanics is unknown. We investigated the mechanics and the energetic cost of locomotion in armour, and determined the effects on physical performance. We found that the net cost of locomotion (Cmet) during armoured walking and running is much more energetically expensive than unloaded locomotion. Cmet for locomotion in armour was 2.1–2.3 times higher for walking, and 1.9 times higher for running when compared with Cmet for unloaded locomotion at the same speed. An important component of the increased energy use results from the extra force that must be generated to support the additional mass. However, the energetic cost of locomotion in armour was also much higher than equivalent trunk loading. This additional cost is mostly explained by the increased energy required to swing the limbs and impaired breathing. Our findings can predict age-associated decline in Medieval soldiers' physical performance, and have potential implications in understanding the outcomes of past European military battles.