Health-related physical fitness of military police officers in Paraiba, Brazil.

Abstract

An adequate relationship among health-related physical fitness (HRPF) components improve the professional performance of military police officers (MOPs). To investigate the correlation among HRPF components for Special Police Operations (BOPE) and Traffic Police (BPTRAN) Battalion MOPs. The sample comprised 47 male MOPs aged 26 to 49 years old divided in two groups BOPE (N=25) and BPTRAN (n=22). The participants were subjected to a test battery-anthropometric measurements, sit-and-reach test, 1-minute sit-up test, elbow flexion test, and 20-meter shuttle run test-for evaluation of the HRPF morphological, cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular components. Both groups exhibited moderate-to-strong correlation of waste circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) with localized muscle resistance (LMR) (r=-0.589; r=-0.404; r=-0.637) and dynamic muscle strength (DMS) (r=0.592; r=-0.416; r=-0.651) (p<0.05). Significant positive and negative correlation was found between maximum oxygen consumption and WC, BMI, BFP and LMR (p<0.05) but not with flexibility for BOPE. There was strong correlation between the HRPF morphological, cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular components, except for flexibility among BOPE MPOs. The study findings allow inferring that HRPF is a global variable.