Body Composition and Physical Performance Applications for the Military Services (1990) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Body Composition and Military Performance: Origins of the Army Standards
3 Body Composition and Military Performance: Origins of the Army Standards
Pages 31-56
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 31... ...
Army's fitness emphasis to ensure that forces "possess the stamina and endurance to fight in extreme climatic and terrain environments" (Study of the Military Services Physical Fitness, 1981~. For most of the past century, weight-for-height has been a key physical discriminator of a recruit's fitness for military service, but until recently, these standards were used only to exclude underweight candidates.
|
From page 32... ...
Army Weight Control Program (AR 600-9, 1986) and the objectives of this regulation will be outlined here, as well as earlier policies and how the Army arrived at the current policy, standards, and method of assessment.
|
From page 33... ...
Army Weight Control Program. The commander is required to provide motivational programs to the soldier, including nutrition education sessions and exercise programs.
|
From page 34... ...
. Army Physical Fitness and Weight Control Program regulation is released with new tables (AR 600-9)
|
From page 35... ...
Sanitary Commission to perform an ambitious study on soldier physique with detailed demographic and anthropometric measurements on 23,785 soldiers studied at various Civil War camps, and with substudies on
|
From page 36... ...
Although the study was curtailed by the Secretary of War, it successfully outlined some anthropometric relationships with respect to age, health, and strength among Civil War soldiers (see Figure 3-2~. Gould tested several proposed relationships between adult weight and height and concluded that the weight/height2 formula of the Belgian scientist, Lambert A
|
From page 37... ...
1 1 ~ 1 1 ~ 1 .` A- - ~ ~ ~ I i , I jar, \N L\__~ T FIGURE 3-2 Dr. Gould's "andrometer", one of several devices designed for anthropometric and physiological data collection on Civil War soldiers.
|
From page 38... ...
He found that the bigger men were the stronger soldiers, with mean lifting strength equal to about 2.25 to 2.5 times their body weight, although Iroquois Indians far surpassed all other subjects in this measure (Gould, 1869~. Gould also warned about a significant bias that is still a problem for military data collected today: the data are limited because they pertain to only one gender and "to those ages, for that sex, in which the physical changes are least marked." The ultimate report consisted of only a portion of what the Sanitary Commission had hoped to present as "an incidental contribution to military and anthropological knowledge." The National Academy of Sciences proposed to follow up on Gould's work with a study of World War I draftees, but the study was turned down by the War Department as inappropriate during the national emergency (Davenport and Love, 19211.
|
From page 39... ...
In former times, when it was necessary to make use of a ramrod in loading a musket, men of a certain height were absolutely necessary for the service; but in these days of breech-loading arms, a man from 5 feet to 5 feet 4 inches in stature, and well proportioned in build and weight is, ceteris paribus, as serviceable a soldier as can be desired. Thus, it was a physician's subjective assessment of a recruit's suitability to the demands of military service that determined Civil War selections, and this evaluation emphasized adequate weight, height, and chest size.
|
From page 40... ...
FRIEDL TABLE 3-4 U.S. Army Standards for Weight and Chest Girth, 1917 Standard Accepted Measurement Permissible Minimum Variation*
|
From page 41... ...
WORLD WAR II HEIGHT-WEIGHT STANDARDS The U.S. Army height-weight tables used for World War II draftees still contained no upper limit of body weight, only prescribing desirable standards and lower limits for weight and chest circumference (Foster et al., 1967~.
|
From page 42... ...
only suggested that "according to standard height-weight tables, these men could be classified as unfit for military service" based on the qualifier, "if an allowance of 15 percent above the average values in the tables is considered as the upper limit." They proposed instead that a body density of 1.060, corresponding to an estimate of about 17 percent body fat by the Siri equation (1961) , be used as the discriminator for the rejection of the obese.
|
From page 43... ...
Development of Current Accession Standards In 1960, the standards applied to candidates for military service (accession standards) established minimum weights for height and in 5-year age increments maximum weights for height for men and women (AR 40-501, 19601.
|
From page 44... ...
The current U.S. Army Physical Fitness Test assesses primarily aerobic fitness with a 2-mile run test in addition to push-up and sit-up tests; these standards are for retention, not accession, and are more leniently enforced than body fat standards.
|
From page 45... ...
combined the U.S. Army Physical Fitness and Weight Control Program regulations.
|
From page 46... ...
Army Weight Control Program, with a secondary body fat assessment for the high-risk individuals. More stringent weight screens and body fat standards extend down to the youngest age category (17 to 20 years)
|
From page 47... ...
Army Body Fat Standards In 1980, President Jimmy Carter, another health- and fitness-minded President, asked for an assessment of military physical fitness programs. A review was conducted by a panel of government scientists (Study of the Military Services Physical Fitness, 1981)
|
From page 48... ...
Health concerns brought body fat assessment into the recommendations. However, health was construed to be a subset of military performance in terms of "man hours lost due to minor illnesses and lack of vigor." The panel's report (Study of the Military Services Physical Fitness, 1981)
|
From page 49... ...
Thus, the current Army body fat standards were adopted as best guesses of performancerelated standards, with consideration given to existing weight standards. At the time these standards were required to be enacted, the 20 percent body fat standard for young men was a relatively soft relationship, and the other values were not based on any empirically determined performance relationships.
|
From page 50... ...
, even though some never achieve their fat standards and are later eliminated under provisions of the U.S. Army Weight Control Program regulation.
|
From page 51... ...
Because this was a cross-sectional study, it did not validate the use of the equations to follow individuals over periods of weight loss or body composition change. In fact, there is some question about whether anthropometric equations, in general, can be accurately used to follow percent body fat change during weight loss, although they are routinely used this way.
|
From page 52... ...
Thus, the second change from previous standards is that current body fat standards draw a precise line, without confidence intervals, for acceptable fatness; these standards take into account neither the strength of the association between body fat and military performance nor the reliability of the method of estimation. Previously, a physician made the final subjective determination that a soldier was unsuited to the Army because of his or her obesity, but this was subjective and had little impact on offenders of military appearance.
|
From page 53... ...
1986. The body composition project: A summary report and descriptive data.
|
From page 54... ...
Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. Study of the Military Services Physical Fitness.
|
From page 55... ...
"The Army Physical Fitness and Weight Control Program." November 30. Washington, D.C.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.