Cardiovascular and Neuromuscular Performance Responses Induced by 8 Weeks of Basic Training Followed by 8 Weeks of Specialized Military Training

IntroductionThe 1.5-mile best-effort run is used in the British Army to assess the fitness of all recruits and trained service personnel by means of the physical fitness assessment (PFA). The 1.5-mile run is a basic measure of fitness and slower times have been associated with an increased risk of musculoskeletal injury (MSkI), particularly during this early stage of training. The aim of this study was to establish whether 1.5-mile run times were associated with subsequent MSkIs among female recruits during their 14-week basic training.MethodRetrospective data were analysed from female recruits who had undertaken basic military training between June 2016 and October 2017. This included retrieving the results of their week 1 PFA; recording the type, cause and week of MSkI if they had sustained one; and noting down their outcome from basic training. Run times were statistically analysed in relation to MSkI occurrence of 227 female recruits using binomial logistic regression with an accepted alpha level of p value <0.05.Results1.5-mile run time predicted risk of MSkI (χ2 (1)=12.91, p<0.0005) in female recruits. The mean run time for injury-free recruits was faster than for injured recruits (12 min 13 s compared with 12 min 43 s). Every 10 s increase in run time was associated with an 8.3% increase in risk of injury.ConclusionSlower 1.5-mile best-effort run time, as a surrogate of aerobic fitness, is associated with increased risk of MSkI in female recruits during basic training.

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Prediction of Performance in Basic Training of Women Soldiers

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1988.62.2.369 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 62 (2) ◽

pp. 369-370

Author(s):

Norman A. Milgram ◽

Chana Pinchas ◽

Yael Ronen

Keyword(s):

Military Training ◽

Intellectual Ability ◽

Performance Ratings ◽

Women Soldiers ◽

Predictive Test ◽

Composite Measure ◽

Basic Training ◽

Occupational Role ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

And Performance

128 young Israeli women in compulsory military training were administered a predictive test battery at the start and performance ratings at the close of basic training. A composite measure of intellectual ability, attitudes toward women's occupational role, and discomfort with the routines of basic training were substantially correlated with officers' and peers' performance ratings, in descending order of magnitude.

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Neuromuscular Performance and Hormonal Profile During Military Training and Subsequent Recovery Period

Military Medicine ◽

10.1093/milmed/usy176 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 184 (3-4) ◽

pp. e113-e119 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mika Salonen ◽

Jukka Huovinen ◽

Heikki Kyröläinen ◽

Jarmo M Piirainen ◽

Jani P Vaara

Keyword(s):

Military Training ◽

Recovery Period ◽

Subsequent Recovery ◽

Hormonal Profile ◽

Neuromuscular Performance

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Incidence and Time to Return to Training for Stress Fractures during Military Basic Training

Journal of Sports Medicine ◽

10.1155/2014/282980 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-5 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Alexander M. Wood ◽

Richard Hales ◽

Andre Keenan ◽

Alexandra Moss ◽

Michael Chapman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stress Fracture ◽

Military Training ◽

Return To Sport ◽

Stress Fractures ◽

Basic Training ◽

Military Population ◽

Epidemiological Database ◽

Recovery Times ◽

Time Required ◽

Rehabilitation Time

Currently, little is known about the length of time required to rehabilitate patients from stress fractures and their return to preinjury level of physical activity. Previous studies have looked at the return to sport in athletes, in a general population, where rehabilitation is not as controlled as within a captive military population. In this study, a longitudinal prospective epidemiological database was assessed to determine the incidence of stress fractures and the time taken to rehabilitate recruits to preinjury stage of training. Findings demonstrated a background prevalence of 5% stress fractures in Royal Marine training; femoral and tibial stress fractures take 21.1 weeks to return to training with metatarsal stress fractures being the most common injury taking 12.2 weeks. Rehabilitation from stress fractures accounts for 814 weeks of recruit rehabilitation time per annum. Stress fracture incidence is still common in military training; despite this stress fracture recovery times remain constant and represent a significant interruption in training. It takes on average 5 weeks after exercise specific training has restarted to reenter training at a preinjury level, regardless of which bone has a stress fracture. Further research into their prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation is required to help reduce these burdens.

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The Hmong and the Communist Party of Thailand: A Transnational, Transcultural and Gender-Relations-Transforming Experience

TRaNS Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia ◽

10.1017/trn.2020.11 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Ian G. Baird

Keyword(s):

Communist Party ◽

Gender Relations ◽

Military Training ◽

Basic Training ◽

Mountainous Areas ◽

Training Centre ◽

Thai Language ◽

Southern Thailand ◽

And Gender ◽

Hmong People

Abstract Beginning in the early 1960s—and especially by the end of the decade—a large number of the ethnic Hmong people in Thailand aligned themselves with the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT). By the 1970s, most of the CPT's “liberated areas” were located in remote, mountainous areas populated by Hmong people. In this paper, I situate Hmong involvement in CPT through the literature related to the multi-ethnic connections being made through the organisation of armed groups and argue that Hmong involvement with the CPT was transnational, transcultural and gender-relations-transforming. The first Hmong Thai to join the CPT was recruited in neighbouring Laos. Other Hmong in Thailand heard about the CPT through radio broadcasts from Laos in Hmong language. Furthermore, many of the early CPT recruits travelled from their homes in Thailand for political and military instruction at a basic training centre called A-30, which was located somewhere in northern Laos near the border with China. There, most Hmong CPT recruits learned to speak, read and write central Thai language. Hmong CPT also started to meaningfully interact with other Thais, including those from northeastern and southern Thailand and Chinese Thais from Bangkok. Later, those deemed to have particular potential were sent to study in China or in Vietnam for specific military training. Some Hmong sent their children to study with the CPT; others went on their own. The Hmong also interacted with people from other communist movements in Southeast Asia.

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Functional Movement Assessments Are Not Associated with Risk of Injury During Military Basic Training

Military Medicine ◽

10.1093/milmed/usz118 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 184 (11-12) ◽

pp. e773-e780 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sarah J de la Motte ◽

Daniel R Clifton ◽

Timothy C Gribbin ◽

Anthony I Beutler ◽

Patricia A Deuster

Keyword(s):

Military Service ◽

Injury Risk ◽

Proportional Hazards ◽

Smoking Status ◽

Military Training ◽

The United States ◽

Cox Proportional Hazards ◽

Basic Training ◽

Balance Test ◽

Functional Movement

Abstract Introduction Musculoskeletal injuries (MSK-I) in the U.S. military accounted for more than four million medical encounters in 2017. The Military Entrance Processing Screen to Assess Risk of Training (MEPSTART) was created to identify MSK-I risk during the first 180 days of military service. Methods Active duty applicants to the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps between February 2013 and December 2014 who consented completed a behavioral and injury history questionnaire and the MEPSTART screen [Functional Movement Screen (FMS), Y-Balance Test (YBT), Landing Error Scoring System (LESS), and Overhead Squat assessment (OHS)] the day they shipped to basic training. Male (n = 1,433) and Female (n = 281) applicants were enrolled and MSK-I were tracked for 180 days. Binomial logistic regression and multivariate Cox proportional hazards modeling were used to assess relationships among MEPSTART screens and MSK-I independent of age, BMI, sex, Service, injury history, and smoking status. Analyses were finalized and performed in 2017. Results The only functional screen related to injury was the LESS score. Compared to those with good LESS scores, applicants with poor LESS scores had lower odds of MSK-I (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.30–0.97, p = 0.04), and a lower instantaneous risk of MSK-I during the first 180 d (HR = 0.58, 95%CI = 0.34–0.96, p = 0.04). However, secondary receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses revealed poor discriminative value (AUC = 0.49, 95%CI = 0.43–0.54). Conclusions Functional performance did not predict future injury risk during the first 180 days of service. Poor LESS scores were associated with lower injury risk, but ROC analyses revealed little predictive value and limited clinical usefulness. Comprehensive risk reduction strategies may be preferable for mitigating MSK-I in military training populations.

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Basic Training

Making War on Bodies ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474446181.003.0002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 31-53

Author(s):

Dan Evans

Keyword(s):

Military Training ◽

Ethnographic Research ◽

British Army ◽

Embodied Experience ◽

Basic Training ◽

Affective Experience ◽

Army Reserve

This chapter adds to an increasing body of work on the embodied sociology of war and militarism by detailing the affective experience of basic training and the insights this provided into the nature of habitus formation within the British Army and how bodies react to and are transformed by military training. Unlike more dramatic insights into the embodied experience of soldiering, however, this account of basic training mainly focuses on the banal, everyday ways that recruits learn what Stephen Atherton calls the domestic element of soldiering – the embodied routine and rhythm of barracks life. The chapter is a reflection on a centrally important part of the author’s own enactive ethnographic research into life in the British Army reserve and the ‘enduring modification of the bodily schema’ (in Loïc Wacquant’s words) that basic training entailed.

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Distance travelled by military recruits during basic training is a significant risk factor for lower limb overuse injury

BMJ Military Health ◽

10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001445 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. bmjmilitary-2020-001445

Author(s):

Richard S. Whittle

Keyword(s):

Risk Factor ◽

Lower Limb ◽

Overuse Injury ◽

Military Training ◽

Stress Fractures ◽

Overuse Injuries ◽

Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome ◽

Basic Training ◽

Stress Syndrome ◽

High Incidence

IntroductionMilitary initial training results in a high incidence of lower limb overuse injuries (stress fractures and medial tibial stress syndrome). This study aimed to determine whether the distance travelled by recruits, both on and off duty, was a risk factor for overuse injury.Methods14 male airborne infantry recruits from three training platoons carried global positioning system receivers throughout the first 19 weeks of basic military training. Total distance travelled each day was recorded. This was compared with time of clinical manifestation of 52 lower limb overuse injuries (stress fractures and medial tibial stress syndrome) collected from the 276 airborne infantry recruits in the period immediately preceding the study.ResultsRecruits travelled significantly farther than the UK average male population in 17 of 18 measured weeks. Pearson correlation between distance travelled per week and injuries was not significant (p=0.4448); however, correlation between distance travelled per week and injuries two weeks later was significant (p=0.0263). A generalised linear model found distance travelled as a significant covariate (p=0.0144) to the expected number of injuries two weeks later.ConclusionRecruits travel long distances during basic training, particularly in the first few weeks when they are not yet conditioned. This distance travelled is likely a contributing risk factor to the high incidence of overuse injuries seen during training, and strategies to reduce this distance should be explored.

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