Habitual energy expenditure of human climbing and clambering

Author： Elton S. Foley R. Ulijaszek S.J.

ISSN： 1464-5033

Source： Annals of Human Biology, Vol.25, Iss.6, 1998-12, pp. : 523-531

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Abstract

Despite many studies on the energetics of terrestrial, aquatic and aerial locomotion, little work has been done on the costs of arboreal locomotion. There is increasing interest in modelling the bioenergetics of extinct mammalian species, including hominids, but as early hominids are thought to have combined terrestrial bipedalism with arboreal climbing and clambering, absence of data on the energetics of climbing in higher primates limits work on hominid locomotor energetics. In this study, the energetics of climbing and clambering in humans has been investigated to assess the differences in energetic cost between terrestrial bipedal walking and vertical climbing and clambering. Energy expenditure during climbing and clambering, walking and standing was measured in 29 active, nonobese young adults. Anthropometric data were also collected. Analysis using paired t -tests showed that there is a highly significant difference ( p