Heavy Metal

Julian Dupre · Post by **Julian Dupre** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:27 pm

Hail, I need some kind of training to help me while I wear my armor. The thing is I weigh 180 but when I get all my gear on I weigh 250 or more. I want to be able to carry that much gear. It's very close what armed forces carry. Another thing what do you suggest for a weak knee? Thank you all,

Vitus von Atzinger · Post by **Vitus von Atzinger** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:53 am

Josh, Murdock- I have accidentally deleted all the posts made here. I AM SO SORRY. Please re-write them. I would also ask the original poster to please re-post a version of this to the "Ask Duke Paul" forum, because it has disappeared there.
I had to give up coffee, and it shows. Again, I am SO SORRY.

Stefan ap Llewelyn · Post by **Stefan ap Llewelyn** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:14 pm

All the info you could possibly need can be found in the books:

http://www.warriorforce.com/infiniteintensity.html

and

http://www.warriorforce.com/warriorfitness.html

B. Fulton · Post by **B. Fulton** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:36 am

Walk half a mile. Add a piece. Walk another half a mile. Repeat till it's all on. Then go back to zero, start jogging with it.

I wear a helmet, tac vest full of stuff, Interceptor vest, and an M4 on pretty much a daily basis, and yes, it gets heavy (around 12lb for the armor, 5 for the helmet, 7 for the rifle, and about 15 for the tac vest), but you get used to it.

Just wearing most of it all the time will help. Put on the armor, and just walk around in it for several hours.

freiman the minstrel · Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:53 am

B. Fulton wrote:Walk half a mile. Add a piece. Walk another half a mile. Repeat till it's all on. Then go back to zero, start jogging with it.

I wear a helmet, tac vest full of stuff, Interceptor vest, and an M4 on pretty much a daily basis, and yes, it gets heavy (around 12lb for the armor, 5 for the helmet, 7 for the rifle, and about 15 for the tac vest), but you get used to it.

Just wearing most of it all the time will help. Put on the armor, and just walk around in it for several hours.

I really, really suggest not jogging in it. It's too hard on the joints, especially if there is already a weak knee. Vigourous walking can do almost the same thing, with much less chance of injury. An injury can cause you to miss months of practice, much slowing your progress.

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Josh W · Post by **Josh W** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:27 pm

Vitus von Atzinger wrote:Josh, Murdock- I have accidentally deleted all the posts made here.

I don't even remember what I wrote...

Wolf · Post by **Wolf** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:03 pm

josh, all you said that the weight of his adn his size i think was the same to yours. not like you cussed him or anything hahah jk

Murdock · Post by **Murdock** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:58 pm

I posted to this thread?

What did i say?

Ummm i'd tell him to get a puripoint and ditch the weight belt .

If he's doing 15th century as Josh is i'd tell him to get HE's arming doublet and hang everything on that.

Christopher Starling · Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:53 pm

I think that 20 sit ups, and 20 push ups every morning is a start. Slow arm curls (2 sets of 15 each) would also help. Believe it or not, walking is good for this too, minimum 1/2 hr per day.
-----Christopher Starling-----

Aidan Cambel · Post by **Aidan Cambel** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 10:43 am

I am going to give you my 2 cents because I have experience with the wrong thing here.

(1) make sure your armour fits YOU
(2) use period techniques for strapping and supporting. They did this to stay alive, not as a hobby.
(3) make sure your armour fits YOU (this is the most important thing, worht repeating)
(4) Exercise your lower back and upper legs. Crunches and squats.
(5) maintain good posture ALWAYS

Now for where I get this information. I had a templar persona, so armour was limited to cloth and chain. I bought a chain shirt at Gulf Wars off the rack, and was so excited. Of course I am a small guy, so it was too big. Evertime I wore it, I was tired and sore when I took it off. But it was a price I paid for looking, or trying to look, my part. It fit too loosely, it moved funny, and I felt a lot of weight on my shoulders. This was in 2001.

In 2003 or 4, I ditched the chain. It was just too much, I couldn't deal.

In 2005, I had surgery to remove 50% of a ruptured disc that had been bulging for AT LEAST 2 years. I remember not able to fight in most of the battles at GW in 2004 because I was laying in bed hurting.

Granted I have degenerative disc disease. But - I contribute the fact that I was 33 and having back surgery to the fact that I did not follow the advice I gave you above. My lower back muscles could not support the shifting weight from the chain, and my upper back muscles couldn't keep my back straight and deliver the weight to my hips.

Funny thing though - the doc told me that my muscles were amazingly strong, probably BECAUSE of my hobby, and that rehab to strengthen the muscles was going to be boring and pointless. which it was. lol. They were strong enough to support everything out of armour, just not IN armour.

Of course this has just been my experience, so you can take this advice with all other advice and determine what works best for you.