"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."
In my experience doing medieval reenactment fighting, wearing armor that's well fitted to you, once you're used to it, does not significantly effect your speed or agility, but it does tire you out faster. This study would seem to confirm this, and could be of interest to anyone writing realistic RPG rules.
Journal Reference:
Graham N. Askew, Federico Formenti, and Alberto E. Minetti. Limitations imposed by wearing armour on Medieval soldiers' locomotor performance Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
(open) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0816)
(Score: 4, Informative) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday October 23 2022, @06:40AM (1 child)
The Japanese samurai went the other side of the tradoff with their armor [samuraiswords.store]: it was mostly composed of leather, bamboo, cloth and other soft, lighter materials. It did have some steel bits, but mostly samurai armor was designed to maximize agility and minimize energy expenditure.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Sunday October 23 2022, @08:20AM
One reason for those material choices was the comparative rarity of usable iron and steel in Japan, during the isolationist period before trade with the West. Once that trade began, much armor was made of steel.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by r1348 on Sunday October 23 2022, @09:09AM
More news at 11.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday October 23 2022, @11:20AM (3 children)
But what about the horses they rode? They must have been stronger than average as well.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 23 2022, @11:34AM (2 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destrier [wikipedia.org]
I've speculated on those horses. I kinda disagree with Wikipedia. I believe that those war horses were more related to draft horses than the article suggests. Too bad breeding records haven't survived, or we might find that some of those more common riding horses were bred to draft horses, to get some hybrid animals that were larger than normal. Imagine a Morgan stallion artificially bred to a stable full of Clydesdale mares today. You would probably get something halfway between, heavier and stronger than a Morgan, but not so big and strong as the Clydesdale mothers.
But, that's just speculation.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by inertnet on Sunday October 23 2022, @12:06PM
I don't know anything about horses. The most impressive breed I saw in my youth was the massive Belgian Draught [wikipedia.org], but those would have been totally unsuitable for warfare, apart from heavy hauling. Another breed I saw back then was the Friesian horse, which would probably do better on a battlefield.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Sunday October 23 2022, @01:14PM
I've always heard that Percherons were the descendants of knight's horses, where the Clydesdales were descendants of medieval draft horses. This is supposed to account for their different build.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by KritonK on Sunday October 23 2022, @02:28PM
This reminds me of Terry Jones' Crusades [wikipedia.org] TV series, where at one point he donned crusaders' armor and tried to walk in the desert. He didn't manage to go very far.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday October 23 2022, @02:29PM (1 child)
I've seen MUCH more weight on a Walmart mobility scooter.
A note to people who don't lift weights or have no engineering "common sense", 50 KG is only about one petite blonde cheerleader, its not that much.
Another weird analogy is nothing ever really changes; your average US army backpack, fully loaded, is about the same 30 to 50 KG depending on what you're hauling around.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday October 23 2022, @05:45PM
So depending on what you like, you could tote either the cheerleader or a hefty mid-sized dog around. Both good choices.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday October 23 2022, @05:46PM (1 child)
So would that be good general endurance training, or only something that saps your energy?
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday October 23 2022, @11:14PM
It is good training for strength and endurance.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 24 2022, @03:03PM
I forget the name of the movie, but it was a historical fiction kind of movie. Iron something or other, I think. As far as I can recall it took place in England, but I could be way wrong on that.
There was a major fight scene in the movie where a knight with a stupidly massive claymore like sword is fighting. With which he's kicking butt. The problem you see as the fight progresses, is that while protected, his energy is drained fairly quickly. So you see him going back to stances where he's leaning on his massive sword to catch a breath, while he's kicking butt. It definitely seemed much more realistic than a lot of other "medieval fighting" in movies that I had seen. All of that armor may not significantly impact your movement, but after a while, all that armor + heavy weapon is going to wear you down. You may be nigh untouchable for a while, but you will die, in the event that you have more enemies than stamina. I don't remember, if he died or not.
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