The Hypershell Robotic Exoskeleton is a Small Step Towards Superhuman Endurance | WERD

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Back in the dawn of time (the 80's) my team was tasked in support of the Natick to help generate data for designing a new boot for the US Army. We were a mountain team and pretty hard on equipment, and it was under harsh conditions.

They were gathering all kinds of data, measuring every aspect of what we did. Weight over distance, calories eaten vs. calories expended, rates of wear on different materials. And this was way before computers were commonly available, so everything was recorded and calculated by hand, over the course of weeks in the White Mountains of NH.

Anyway, because of that, I got the chance to talk to some of the "coke bottle lense" guys about human performance. And one thing that one guy said stuck with me. He said that removing 1 ounce of weight from a Soldier's boots had the same effect on his physical performance as taking a pound off of his back, in terms of cumulative effort expended over time.

The point being that it's not enough for a Soldier to cover W distance, over X terrain, with Y load, in Z time. Getting there is just the first part. He's not a civilian there to take selfies. He has to arrive fit and ready to go straight into a fight with little to no rest.

There is a technique for walking in the mountains, that strangely enough, is called "mountain walking". It simply means that everytime you take a step pushing the weight of your body and equipment forard/upward, you lock your knee on the static leg as the other leg moves forward. This gives the leg muscles of that leg a brief "rest" when they aren't under tension, and allows for much longer distances to be covered with heavier loads.

My point is that, cumulatively, over time, small incremental changes in the equipment and/or techniques on the front-end effort required can have large payoffs on the back-end in terms of performance or recovery.

Everybody gets so wrapped up in the "perfect" solution for tomorrow, that they lose sight of the "good enough" solution that could help today. I would like to see someone more trustworthy do a review of this.

Back in the dawn of time (the 80's) my team was tasked in support of the Natick to help generate data for designing a new boot for the US Army. We were a mountain team and pretty hard on equipment, and it was under harsh conditions. They were gathering all kinds of data, measuring every aspect of what we did. Weight over distance, calories eaten vs. calories expended, rates of wear on different materials. And this was way before computers were commonly available, so everything was recorded and calculated by hand, over the course of weeks in the White Mountains of NH. Anyway, because of that, I got the chance to talk to some of the "coke bottle lense" guys about human performance. And one thing that one guy said stuck with me. He said that removing 1 ounce of weight from a Soldier's boots had the same effect on his physical performance as taking a pound off of his back, in terms of cumulative effort expended over time. The point being that it's not enough for a Soldier to cover W distance, over X terrain, with Y load, in Z time. Getting there is just the first part. He's not a civilian there to take selfies. He has to arrive fit and ready to go straight into a fight with little to no rest. There is a technique for walking in the mountains, that strangely enough, is called "mountain walking". It simply means that everytime you take a step pushing the weight of your body and equipment forard/upward, you lock your knee on the static leg as the other leg moves forward. This gives the leg muscles of that leg a brief "rest" when they aren't under tension, and allows for much longer distances to be covered with heavier loads. My point is that, cumulatively, over time, small incremental changes in the equipment and/or techniques on the front-end effort required can have large payoffs on the back-end in terms of performance or recovery. Everybody gets so wrapped up in the "perfect" solution for tomorrow, that they lose sight of the "good enough" solution that could help today. I would like to see someone more trustworthy do a review of this.

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