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Sex-Specific Changes in Physical Performance Following Military Training: A Systematic Review

Varley-Campbell, J; Cooper, C; Wilkerson, D; Wardle, S; Greeves, J; Lorenc, T; (2018) Sex-Specific Changes in Physical Performance Following Military Training: A Systematic Review. Sports Medicine 10.1007/s40279-018-0983-4. Green open access

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Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Men and women joining the military undergo the same training, often in mixed-sex platoons. Given the inherent physiological and physical performance differences between men and women, it is reasonable to question whether sex differences exist in the adaptation to military training and, therefore, whether sex-specific training should be employed to optimise training adaptations. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the literature evaluating changes in the physical performance of men and women following military training. METHODS: Six database sources were searched in addition to extensive secondary searching. Primary prospective intervention studies (all designs) evaluating physical training interventions in military populations, reporting pre- to post-training changes in physical fitness outcomes for both women and men, were included. RESULTS: We screened 3966 unique records. Twenty-nine studies (n = 37 study reports) were included, most of which were conducted in the USA and evaluated initial training for military recruits. Positive changes were more consistently observed in aerobic fitness and muscle strength (whole body and upper body) outcomes than lower body strength, muscle power or muscle endurance outcomes, following physical training. Relative pre- to post-training changes for all outcome measures tended to be greater in women than men although few statistically significant sex by outcome/time interactions were observed. CONCLUSION: Improvements in some, but not all, performance components were observed following a period of military training. Largely, these improvements were not significantly different between sexes. Further prospective research is needed to evaluate sex-specific differences in the response to physical training in controlled conditions to improve military physical training outcomes for both sexes.

Type: Article
Title: Sex-Specific Changes in Physical Performance Following Military Training: A Systematic Review
Location: New Zealand
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-018-0983-4
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0983-4
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10057059
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