Field test of self-paced work capacity: Ifugao rice farmers

This article reports results of a field test of work capacity on 30 male farmers ranging in age from 15-54. It involved a self-paced walk from the valley floor, up the mountain wall, and return, with heart rate monitoring. The route was 2.21 km long with a vertical rise of about 200 m. At its steepest, the grade was about 34 degrees, requiring long runs of steps cut into the mountain face. The purpose of this research was to determine whether biological and behavioral traits of individual men help to explain household economic productivity to which they contribute. The traits included anthropometry and a new measure of self-paced, voluntary work capacity (heart rate x time). Income per productive adult increased as did the relative fitness index (heart rate increase above resting x min taken to finish the course). However, the number of rice bundles earned per family, expected to increase with more fit workers, increased with the number of household adults and sitting height (adjusted R(2) = 0.392), but not with self-paced fitness markers. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 12:192-200, 2000. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.