Basic training and physical fitness, Finnish experiences

Tanskanen et al had an interesting study in the March issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research looking at the impact of eight weeks of basic training for military recruits. It’s looking at Finnish military recruits, but it’s interesting for several reasons. First, they are having an obesity epidemic as well which has an impact on military preparedness. Second, in Finland they have compulsory military service – so it’s not like recruits are spending time getting into shape before entering basic training. Third, they are looking at how training, overreaching, and hormonal markers interact.

The study looked at the impact of basic training on 57 subjects. The highlights of the results are:
• After the first five weeks of training, maximal oxygen consumption improved by 11% (mean). It did not improve after that point.
• Maximum heart rate and postexercise lactate were both lower after both week five and week eight of training.
• Subjects lost almost 4% of their fat mass after four weeks of training and almost 8% after seven weeks of training.
• Hormone levels changed as a result of basic training; cortisol and IGF-1 decreased between week four and seven; testosterone increased during the first four week s of training and then decreased from weeks four to seven. Having said that, almost a quarter of the subjects showed an increase in testosterone throughout the study.
• Those subjects with a “high incidence of sick absences” had a lower serum testosterone and lower maximal oxygen consumption than other subjects.
• Those subjects that felt physically and mentally overloaded during the training had a lower maximal oxygen consumption, lower fat free mass, and higher submaximal test heart rate prior to the start of basic training than other subjects.

It’s a very limited subject pool, but there are some interesting things to think about as a result of this study. First, being more fit before entering basic training seems to make it less physically and mentally stressful. This should be an obvious statement, but given how unfit and obese the population is today it is not. Second, gains in physical fitness (at least in this study) peaked halfway through the study. Now, one has to keep in perspective that military recruits aren’t being trained to be athletes, they need enough fitness to perform in their roles so this might be adequate. It’s also possible that this is not intentional (i.e. it is not intentional that fitness peaks halfway through), in which case this is great feedback to modify the basic training conditioning programs. Third, the authors are really concerned about overtraining and military recruits. This is curious because I would think that we’d want to adapt military recruits to be able to function in a physically and mentally stressful environment. One in which they get little sleep, little food, suffer privations, and are constantly in danger.

Tanskanen, M.M., et al. (2011). Serum sex hormone-binding globulin and cortisol concentrations are associated with overreaching during strenuous military training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(3), 787-797.

The Texas obesity epidemic

In February the Texas Comptroller released a report entitled “Gaining Costs, Losing Time: The Obesity Crisis in Texas.” The report can be found at: http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/obesitycost/ . It’s an important document because it provides a great deal of statistical and financial information for lawmakers in Texas.

First the big-picture statistics. According to the Comptroller’s report:
• Two thirds of Texas adults are overweight or obese.
• Almost 30% of Texas adults are obese.
• Both these are higher than the national averages, though not by much.
• More than 20% of Texas children aged 10-17 are obese (not overweight, they are obese), which is higher than the national average.
• Obese individuals spend $1429 per year on health care, which is 41.5% higher than normal-weight persons.
• In Texas, the Comptroller reports that obesity cost Texas businesses $9.5 billion in 2009.

Drilling down into the statistics, the information isn’t surprising but it bears repeating (keep in mind, these numbers are for Texans):
• Older individuals are more likely to be obese.
• Black and Hispanic adults are more likely to be obese. Child obesity is also more common among these populations.
• Education and income impact obesity:
o 22.2% of college graduates were obese vs. 37.4% of individuals without a high school diploma
o 38.1% of Texans earning $15,000-24,999 annually were obese vs. 26.3% of individuals earning more than $50,000 per year
• Obesity directly cost insurance companies (in Texas) $4 billion in 2009. This translates into increased insurance premiums and co-pays for everyone.
• The fitness level of Texas children is terrible. Using the Fitnessgram test results, the following is the percentage of students (by grade) who tested in the healthy fitness zone in 2009-2010:
o 3rd grade: 37.3% of girls, 31% of boys
o 4th grade: 34.2% of girls, 25.3% of boys
o 5th grade: 30.1% of girls, 21.8% of boys
o 12th grade: 8.1% of girls, 8.5% of boys
o Notice a trend as children get older?

So there is a problem. More Texans are obese or overweight, this leads to rising health care costs, disease, early death, and rising insurance costs. The Comptroller’s report has a number of recommendations.

A lot of these are things that should be done, but they won’t help (printing the number of calories in restaurants, education, etc.). I don’t say this to be negative, but the fact is that people understand how they should eat – they just chose not to eat that way.

The recommendations that I like from the report are:
• Study the link between fitness and academic performance. If there is one, this allows one to build a powerful case on why this is important. Performance on the TAKS test means money and prestige to school districts, if one can make the case that improving fitness would improve results…
• Restore the high school PE graduation requirement to 1.5 credits.
• Increase middle-school PE requirements to six semesters.
• The last two bullets at least provide the opportunity to make physical activity a habit and provide some physical activity to Texas’ children.