Physical Training of Candidates to Professional Military Service in Lithuanian Armed Forces

Abstract

Research back ground and hypothesis. There is a basic military training course (BMT) carried out in the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The aim of this course is to train soldiers for military service that they were able to perform individual tasks and acquire basic military preparation. There is a lack of research dealing with the effect of physical training programmes in military training courses on the changes in soldiers’ physical fitness. We hypothesize that in the course of military training physical fitness of would-be soldiers improves.Research aim was to analyse the structure and content of the BMT programme and the effect of its implementation on the changes in physical fitness for would-be soldiers.Research methods: literature review, analysis of military physical training programmes, physical fitness testing.Research results. During the first testing only 26.8% of would-be soldiers achieved the standards of physical fitness complex test, and during the second testing the standards of the complex test of physical fitness were achieved by 89.5% of service people. In the period of the course VO 2 max and Roufier index improved (p < 0.001). Indices of physical fitness and functional capacity improved more in the first half of the course. At the end of the course the results of adapted military physical fitness of service people were worse compared to the results of their general physical fitness.Discussion and conclusions. The program of general physical training was effective, but more attention should be paid to the improvement of adapted military physical fitness programme aiming at better results. During the basic military training course physical fitness and functional capacity of candidates improved and at the end of the course it reached the normative level of physical fitness.Keywords: physical fitness, adapted military physical fitness, basic military course, testing.