Relationship Between Tactical Athlete Body Morphology Composition and Loaded Circuit Performance

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between characteristics of body morphology, composition, and tactical athlete loaded circuit time to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for physical fitness development. Thirty-six healthy adults (17 male CAF members, 12 CAF females, and 7 civilian females) performed Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scans, and were analyzed for total mass, fat mass, lean body mass, height, length of the humerus, length of the femur, lean mass arm and lean mass leg. Participants then performed a loaded circuit simulating job demands, and total time to completion was recorded. Correlation coefficients for body morphology and composition characteristics were used to measure the relationship with circuit time, and backwards stepwise multiple linear regression analyses were used to determine predictive factors. Overall, we found high variability in body morphology and composition, and that males outperform females on the loaded circuit. In addition, lean body mass showed the strongest relationship with performance time and of the variables measured, fat mass, lean mass arm and lean mass leg were the only variables included as predictors of circuit time from the results of the regression analyses. Therefore, we concluded that developing muscle mass, especially in the arms for females and in the legs for males is key to improving tactical athlete loaded circuit performance.