Load assessment of the static posture and weight holding in terms of pulmonary ventilation and heart rate.

The aim of this study was to explore appropriate index for load evaluation by analyzing the changes of pulmonary ventilation (VE) and heart rate (HR) in 35 student volunteers under the condition of static posture and weight holding. Each subject was asked to perform 7 kinds of static postures and 2 kinds of weight holdings. The HR was continuously measured by a remote detecting device. VE was recorded by a ventimeter for an average of 5 min. The results showed that HR was positively correlated to VE under static activities (r = 0.89), which suggested that VE as well as HR could to some degrees reflect the static load. It was better to use VE to indicate the load of weight holdings than to use HR, which, on the other hand, was more sensible in reflection of the posture load. It is better to use relative value of both of VE and HR to reflect the static load. In addition, arm-overheaded posture increase HR more significantly than any other activities.