The effects of military body armour on the lower back and knee mechanics during toe-touch and two-legged squat tasks.
UNLABELLED
While effective in the prevention of otherwise lethal injuries, military body armour (BA) has been suggested to reduce warfighter's performance and increase injury-related musculoskeletal conditions. Providing the significant role of joint biomechanics in both performance and risk of injury, the immediate and prolonged effects of wearing BA on biomechanics of the lower back and knee during toe-touch (TT) and two-legged squat (TLS) tasks were investigated. The immediate effects of BA were an increase of >40 ms (p ≤ 0.02) in flexion duration of the dominant joint and an ∼1 s (p ≤ 0.02) increase in overall task duration as well as an ∼18% (p = 0.03) decrease in the lumbopelvic rhythm ratio near the mid-range of trunk flexion. In general the prolonged duration of wearing BA (i.e. 45 min of walking) was not found to cause more changes in our measures than walking without BA.


PRACTITIONER SUMMARY
The effects of wearing military BA on biomechanics of the lower back and knee during TT and TLS tasks were investigated. The immediate effects of BA were increased flexion duration, increased overall trial duration and decreased lumbopelvic rhythm near the mid-range of trunk flexion.
['Phillips|Megan|M|', 'Bazrgari|Babak|B|', 'Shapiro|Robert|R|']
D000328:Adult D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena D015444:Exercise D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007719:Knee Joint D008161:Lumbosacral Region D008297:Male D008889:Military Personnel D009141:Musculoskeletal System D060051:Occupational Injuries D011481:Protective Clothing D016059:Range of Motion, Articular D013647:Task Performance and Analysis D016138:Walking D016474:Weight-Bearing
military body armour performance risk of injury military ergonomics prolonged walking