Basic Training

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.

Running to breaking point? The relationship between 1.5-mile run time and injury risk in female recruits during British Army basic training

2019 ◽  
Vol 166 (E) ◽  
pp. e3-e7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalie Heller ◽  
H Stammers
Keyword(s):  
Injury Risk ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Military Training ◽  
P Value ◽  
British Army ◽  
Basic Training ◽  
Best Effort ◽  
Fitness Assessment ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Run Time

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.

scholarly journals Dietary Intake and Nitrogen Balance in British Army Infantry Recruits Undergoing Basic Training

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Chapman ◽  
Alex J. Rawcliffe ◽  
Rachel Izard ◽  
Kimberley Jacka ◽  
Hayley Tyson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Intake ◽  
Nitrogen Balance ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Protein Intake ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
British Army ◽  
Basic Training ◽  
Training Centre ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
G 11

We assessed dietary intake and nitrogen balance during 14 weeks of Basic Training (BT) in British Army Infantry recruits. Nineteen men (mean ± SD: age 19.9 ± 2.6 years, height: 175.7 ± 6.5 cm, body mass 80.3 ± 10.1 kg) at the Infantry Training Centre, Catterick (ITC(C)) volunteered. Nutrient intakes and 24-h urinary nitrogen balance were assessed in weeks 2, 6 and 11 of BT. Nutrient intake was assessed using researcher-led weighed food records and food diaries, and Nutritics professional dietary software. Data were compared between weeks using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with statistical significance set at p ≤ 0.05. There was a significant difference in protein intake (g) between weeks 2 and 11 of BT (115 ± 18 vs. 91 ± 20 g, p = 0.02, ES = 1.26). There was no significant difference in mean absolute daily energy (p = 0.44), fat (p = 0.79) or carbohydrate (CHO) intake (p = 0.06) between weeks. Nitrogen balance was maintained in weeks 2, 6 and 11, but declined throughout BT (2: 4.6 ± 4.1 g, 6: 1.6 ± 4.5 g, 11: −0.2 ± 5.5 g, p = 0.07). A protein intake of 1.5 g·kg−1·d−1 may be sufficient in the early stages of BT, but higher intakes may be individually needed later on in BT.

Guarding the Body

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Erika Robb Larkins
Keyword(s):  
Lower Class ◽  
Private Security ◽  
The Body ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Basic Training ◽  
Security Guards ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Private Security Industry

Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the private security industry, this article focuses on the training of low-level guards, examining the centrality of the body and embodied experience to their work in hospitality settings. In a racially stratified society in which lower-class, dark-skinned bodies are oft en equated with poverty and criminality, security guards are required to perform an image of upstanding, respectable, law-abiding citizens in order to do their jobs protecting corporate property. Guards learn techniques of body management at security schools as part of their basic training. They also learn how to subdue the bodies of others, including those of white elites, who represent a constant challenge to their authority. Working from my own experiences as a student in private security schools, I argue for the relevance of an understanding of the body and its significations to private security work.

Military Training in the British Army, 1940-1944

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Timothy Harrison Place ◽  
Timothy Harrison Place
Keyword(s):  
Military Training ◽  
British Army

The Changing Nature of Reserve Cohesion: A Study of Future Reserves 2020 and British Army Reserve Logistic Units

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Bury
Keyword(s):  
British Army ◽  
Army Reserve ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Exclusive Focus ◽  
Academic Study

For too long military cohesion scholars have focused on regular infantry forces. This article examines the impact of the Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) policy on cohesion, professionalism, and discipline among British reserve logisticians. In doing so, it makes three significant contributions to the cohesion literature. Firstly, addressing scholars’ almost exclusive focus on regular infantry, it presents the first academic study on cohesion in British reserve logistics forces. Secondly, in detailing how cohesion in these forces is based on interpersonal rather than professional bonds, it argues that the locus of cohesion and discipline in these forces is different to that recently identified in the regular professional infantry. Thirdly, the article argues that while FR20 is gradually changing many of British reserve norms, the organizational realities of reserve service continue to limit the policy's impact. The evidence presented may be theoretically applicable to other reserve and noncombat forces in future cohesion research.

scholarly journals Editor's Introduction

Screen Bodies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. v-vi
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Ball
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Animal Advocacy ◽  
Film Series ◽  
The Way

The six essays in this in this issue of Screen Bodies explore what we might call the affective modalities of media, that is, each author examines the potential of emerging and traditional media to transform individual and collective relations through the strategic use of embodied affective experience. Three essays in the issue focus on new and emerging technology. In, “The iAnimal Film Series: Activating Empathy Through Virtual Reality,” Holly Cecil examines the potential power of virtual reality to generate empathy in users. In particular, she looks at the way animal advocacy organizations combine documentary film and virtual reality to communicate the embodied experience of living and dying in a factory farm to provoke feeling and widespread opposition to the industry.

Hormonal contraceptive use, bone density and biochemical markers of bone metabolism in British Army recruits

2021 ◽  
pp. bmjmilitary-2020-001745
Author(s):  
Charlotte V Coombs ◽  
T J O'Leary ◽  
J C Y Tang ◽  
W D Fraser ◽  
J P Greeves
Keyword(s):  
Bone Density ◽  
Bone Metabolism ◽  
Cortical Bone ◽  
Biochemical Markers ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
Military Training ◽  
Hormonal Contraception ◽  
Hormonal Contraceptive ◽  
British Army ◽  
Army Recruits

IntroductionHormonal contraceptive use might impair bone health and increase the risk of stress fracture by decreasing endogenous oestrogen production, a central regulator of bone metabolism. This cross-sectional study investigated bone density and biochemical markers of bone metabolism in women taking hormonal contraceptives on entry to basic military training.MethodsForty-five female British Army recruits had biochemical markers of bone metabolism, areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and tibial speed of sound (tSOS) measured at the start of basic military training. Participants were compared by their method of hormonal contraception: no hormonal contraception (NONE), combined contraceptive pill (CP) or depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) (20±2.8 years, 1.64±0.63 m, 61.7±6.2 kg).ResultsaBMD was not different between groups (p≥0.204), but tSOS was higher in NONE (3%, p=0.014) when compared with DMPA users. Beta C-terminal telopeptide was higher in NONE (45%, p=0.037) and DMPA users (90%, p=0.003) compared with CP users. Procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide was higher in DMPA users compared with NONE (43%, p=0.045) and CP users (127%, p=0.001), and higher in NONE compared with CP users (59%, p=0.014). Bone alkaline phosphatase was higher in DMPA users compared with CP users (56%, p=0.044).ConclusionsDMPA use was associated with increased bone turnover and decreased cortical bone integrity of the tibia. Lower cortical bone integrity in DMPA users was possibly mediated by increased intracortical remodelling, but trabecular bone was not affected by contraceptive use.

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