heavy clothes.

[master splinter]

walking around with weighted clothes. do you think this could build strength by simulating a higher level of gravity? has anyone ever walked all day with leg weights on? when you take them off at night you feel like you can fly.anyone watch dbz? i think piccolo had a weightd cape, thats where i got the idea from. i wonder if midevil knights trained this way?thats crazy... running onto a battle field with a ton of armor on.i wonder if they did jumping jacks?

[shaolinstylee]

weighted vests are popular training tools...

as are leg wieghts.. I used to where them every couple days in college to get ready for our ski season.

[zachsan]

medieval knights had to use their bodies a lot more than we do today. but they would train in their armor all the time as well.

it's not a good idea to wear weighted clothing everywhere. it will just wear down your muscles and possibly injure your joints, especially your knees. it's better to train your muscles in isolated sessions and then give them time to rest in between.

[master splinter]

i thoght it might have some negative effects on joints and stuff.

[shaolinstylee]

extra weight carried on the top half the body has an increased effect on joints on the lower half. Its called a moment... force times distance.

[master splinter]

increase effect? is that good or bad? have you trainied like this? have you seen the chinese stairmaster clip? would that be using the same principle?do i ask to many questions?

[zachsan]

it would be bad.

[plumflower_pm]

look at it this way: Fat people carry around more body weight constantly and they're not necessarily stronger or healthier for it. Their joints suffer too.

ankle weights are different because your body is using it's musculature to lift those weights during activity, your skeleton is not carrying the extra distributed weight as it would be with weighted clothes.

[master splinter]

dam, why is reality so tricky.

[doc]

Ankle weights can cause hip and knee joint problems, got to be careful with those also. Vest weights will add stress to the lumbar spine area, hips, and knees, especially if you run on hard surfaces.

[LeiYunFat]

I always fantasized about if one could gain over 200 lbs of wieght in one day and for two years, work their way back to the running and jumping prowess they held prior to the fat. Then they would lose it all in one night and fly all around the world.

I think it came to me in a dream, and I think I was having a fever. Oh well.

[shaolinstylee]

Ankle weights can cause hip and knee joint problems, got to be careful with those also. Vest weights will add stress to the lumbar spine area, hips, and knees, especially if you run on hard surfaces.

True, but it can also improve endurance if used "correctly"... meaning you are listening to yourself.

The vest can be good, but not to wear around all day, maybe while doing a few excersises..

[Mike Evans]

PS Most knights as we think of them wore armor which is not nearly as heavy as you think. Movies portraying knights being lifted onto horses do not show the norm. Many stories of knights depict them doing cartwheels and gymanstic horseriding to woo ladies. Many SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism)guys, as well as a few historians, duplicate these feats regularly in replica armor created to specs identical to thase of various periods in Europe.

[master splinter]

do you think that midevil knight armor was more efficient mobility and protective wise v.s. samurai armor? and what of theyre fighting styles? did european knights develop a system or what is a freestyle kind of thing? who do you think would win in a midevil war, samurai, or knights. i personally favor the samurai, for many reasons.

[plumflower_pm]

Medeival Japanese military was professional soldiers in small private armies working for the wealthy. Bushido samurai came later, in the 1600s I think, the Samurai uniting because it was a relatively peaceful time.

After getting thier ass kicked by the turks, european Crusade forces were pretty tight. Knights got paid in land for being good at knightly stuff like slaughter and pillaging, and high ranking leaders of europe's army at the time were well fed and well paid, if they stayed alive long enough to see any of it. Europes forces got seige technology from the Mongols pretty early on too.

The samurai were far superior horsemen and fighting for honor makes you tougher than fighting for money (IMHO), but they would have been outnumbered even if they could have entirely united at that time - and without mass funding, the army would have fallen apart.

so in about 1200 - 1400, my money goes on Knights.

A couple hundred years later, and I change my bet.
oh, and one well trained samurai versus one well trained knight? Samurai wins.