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Materials Handling Ability of Regular and Reserve British Army Soldiers

September 20, 2007 – 12:10 pm

The main objective of this research was to compare the materials handling ability, aerobic power, and body composition of fully trained Reserve and Regular male British Army soldiers (~6-7 years of military experience). Twenty-one Reserve soldiers and 15 Regular soldiers completed fitness tests, including a maximal box lift to 1.45 m and a repetitive 22-kg box lift-and-carry test. There were no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) between the two groups in any parameter measured. The performance levels observed in these fully trained soldiers (maximal box lift ~63 kg, repetitive lift and carry ~34 repetitions) were broadly comparable to those reported previously for new recruits. The physical training performed by the Regular soldiers (both within and beyond their military service) and the Reserve soldiers (predominantly outside their military duties) seems to be of sufficient volume and intensity to maintain performance levels comparable with each other and equivalent new army recruits.

Army forces typically consist of both Regular and Reserve personnel. Regular army soldiers work full-time in the military, undergo sustained initial basic training (e.g., 12 weeks for the British Army), and usually undergo further intermittent occupational training. Reserve army soldiers are either former Regular soldiers or new recruits who undergo initial basic training and usually further intermittent military training. The initial training may be identical to corresponding Regular soldiers (e.g., U.S. Army) or a separate intermittent program (e.g., several training periods, each of several days, within 12 weeks for British (Territorial Army) Reserves). Reserve army soldiers typically have primary employment outside of the military and often only become “full-time” soldiers when called upon during times of conflict, e.g., British and U.S. forces during the recent Iraq conflict.

There is a dearth of information on physical fitness levels in Reserve army soldiers.2 For the British Army, there is just one recent article concerning the physical fitness of Reserve soldiers.3 That article compared the effectiveness of the two initial training programs applied to Reserve and Regular soldiers on joining the army, showing the initial training program for Regular soldiers to be more effective at improving aerobic power and body composition. The intermittent nature of the initial training program for Reserve soldiers compared to the continuous nature of the training for Regular soldiers was identified as a possible reason for this difference in effectiveness between the two training programs. However, it is increasingly recognized that many important military tasks require considerable muscle strength,4-8 yet no data have been published concerning the strength or materials handling ability of British Army Reserve soldiers.

Materials handling can be defined as the movement of heavy and/or awkward objects and materials using human muscle power and is a task often required of military personnel. Military personnel are particularly likely to face the demands of materials handling when mechanical options for the transportation of personnel and personal equipment are prohibitively expensive or not feasible on practical grounds. Essentially, the movement of heavy materials may be required at any time and in any environment, and sufficient human physical capability must be available to achieve the task. Thus, materials handling ability (typically, box lifting and load carriage using backpacks) is important in a military context.5,9

During initial training, British Army Regular recruits show little improvement in materials handling tasks that require muscular strength10 which is concerning. Furthermore, no studies have yet documented the materials handling ability of British Army Reserve soldiers at any stage of their careers. In the British Army, four materials handling tasks have been identified as representative of the tasks that trained soldiers may routinely be required to complete-these tasks are repetitive box lift and carry, single box lift, carry and load carriage using backpacks.5 These tasks form the bases of the British Army’s fitness tests used at the end of initial training and of the annual Basic Combat Fitness Test performed by all serving soldiers. Consequently, the main objectives of this investigation were to assess the ability of fully trained British Army Reserve soldiers to perform the single lift and repetitive lift-and-carry tasks and to make comparisons to the box-lifting ability of fully trained British Army Regular soldiers. We hypothesized that Reserve soldiers would show lower materials handling ability than the Regular soldiers, due to the intermittent nature of their organized military training. We also hypothesized that fully trained Reserve and Regular soldiers would both show lower materials handling ability, lower aerobic power, and less favorable body composition than the previous literature has reported for corresponding British Army military recruits.

The study received ethics approval from the Department of Exercise and Sport Science Ethics Committee of Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. All subjects passed routine medical screening and provided written informed consent. The data were collected between October 2004 and January 2005 at a military establishment in Wiltshire, United Kingdom.

Initially, 38 British Army male soldiers (23 Reserve and 15 Regular) from the Royal Corps of Signals formed two groups, matched as closely as possible for length of military service. Two of the Reserve soldiers withdrew from the study after incurring minor injuries early in the testing period; therefore, the data for these subjects are not presented. Subject characteristics for the 21 Reserve and 15 Regular soldiers who completed all aspects of the study are presented in Table I.

he Reserve and Regular groups were tested on separate occasions but both completed all testing within a 2-day period. Day 1 began with a full explanation of all procedures, followed by completion of a physical activity questionnaire. Next, kinanthropometric characteristics were assessed. The only performance ability assessed on day 1 was the repetitive lift-and-carry test which was conducted after a standardized warm-up using levels 1 to 4 of the Multistage Fitness Test (MSFT)11 and a brief general stretch routine. Day 2 began with the same warm-up protocol as used on day 1 and then continued with the single box lift and a test of aerobic power (MSFT), which were separated by ~2 hours.

Two aspects of habitual physical activity were assessed. Military physical training was assessed via consultation with the militaiy staff in command of the soldiers. All other physical activity was assessed via the Baecke Questionnaire of Habitual Physical Activity12 completed by each individual soldier. The questionnaire is broken down into work, sport, and nonsport leisure indices, which together provide an overall score that represents an individual’s physical activity level. A higher numerical value indicates a higher level of physical activity. Participants were instructed to complete the questionnaire considering only their day-to-day work, their chosen sport or sports, and their leisure time but excluding all military physical training.