The Effect of Long Time Simulated Voyage on Sailors’ Athletic Ability

Abstract

Due to the special task condition, sailors of oceangoing vessels have to conduct monotonous tasks in environment isolated from outside information. During a long voyage, such isolated environment may lead to the decline of the sailors’ physical and mental state and decrease in task motivation, which may directly influence the health and capability of sailors, and even result in human error and task failure. The purpose of this study was to investigate how sailors’ athletic ability changes under the long-time isolated condition. In the experiment, participants worked in a lab module isolated from outside for a period of time. The participants should not only finish the tasks on the watch, but also conduct regular physical fitness tests with professional equipment, including hand muscle strength, upper limb muscle strength, lung capacity, body flexibility, body balance and coordination. By analyzing the data collected at different time points during the experiment, comparison and significance analysis were conducted to evaluate the changes in the athletic ability of the subjects in the long-time isolated environment. Generally, the strength of upper limb muscle, body flexibility, and body balance and coordination slightly decreased. However, the fine muscle strength of the hands increased significantly. This phenomenon may relate to the handicap of wide body movement in isolated narrow space. More influence factors should be considered in future studies.