U.S. Army Physical Demands Study: Development of the Occupational Physical Assessment Test for Combat Arms soldiers

International consensus on military research priorities and gaps — Survey results from the 4th International Congress on Soldiers’ Physical Performance

“…Another free text question asked of the respondents was -"If your military/country is not addressing it (the most important factor pertaining to soldiers' physical performance), what is the main reason? The responses to this question could be clearly grouped into three categories -lack of resources including funds and expertise (number of respondents = 32), lack of understand-ing/commitment (26), and efforts in early stages (15). Not all survey respondents provided an answer to this question, and some identified more than one reason for the lack of response.…”

“…In addition, significant research has been conducted in this area by the militaries of Australia, 23,24 Canada, 25 and the United States. 26 The most important emerging threat identified was resilience or psychological fitness of recruits. Mental health and resilience have been identified as important factors for success in military environments in previous studies.…”

The Effects of Sleep Loss on Military Physical Performance

“…Many military tasks require sustained physical activity, such as road marches, land navigation, manoeuvring obstacles and evacuating casualties over long distances [32]. Individuals with the ability to maintain aerobic fitness under demanding conditions of sleep loss and prolonged physical activity have a greater capacity to sustain military tasks and optimise combat performance [9].…”

Development of a physical employment standard for a branch of the UK military

“…The RAF Fitness Test was introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of the RAF Fitness and Health Strategy, established in 1994 to improve the fitness and health of its personnel. A similar test, employed by the US Army, which consists of a 2-mile run, and maximum number of press-ups and sit-ups in 1-minute, correlated poorly with performance in US Army tasks (Foulis et al, 2017). Military tasks also require high levels of strength, power and anaerobic endurance, which should be prioritised (Nindl et al, A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2016).…”