Relationship Between Soldier Performance on the Two-Mile Run and Beep Test

Abstract

Aerobic fitness is vital for military personnel to perform their physically demanding job tasks. The Army currently uses a two-mile run (TMR) as part of the Army Physical Fitness Test to measure aerobic fitness levels. The Beep Test (BT) is also currently being used by the Army as a pre-enlistment screening test. Both tests have been validated to predict an individual’s aerobic capacity. An advantage of the BT is that it can be performed indoors, offering an alternative to the TMR when outdoor conditions could affect performance. A comparison of the results of these two tests has not been made. PURPOSE: To determine the relationship between the TMR and BT and to compare their VO2max estimations. METHODS: 404 male and 128 female soldiers participated in this study. The TMR results were self-reported from their most recent APFT. To screen for maximal effort, all soldiers included reached a post BT heart rate within 10 bpm of their age-predicted maximal heart rate (220-age). Correlations and simple linear regression were used to analyze the relationship between TMR and BT. RESULTS: The regression model obtained for predicting TMR time (min) from BT shuttles (#) was TMR = 19.101 - 0.067*BT, R2=0.53 (p<0.001), SEE=1.137 min. For example, completing 60 and 30 shuttles would be similar to TMR times of 15.08- and 17.09 min, respectively. The mean TMR time was 15.01 min (range: 10.9-22.2 min). The mean BT score was 61 shuttles (range: 16-113 shuttles; test duration: 2.2-12.2 min). There is a significant moderate correlation between the TMR and BT estimated VO2maxes (R2=0.64; p<0.001), with mean VO2max values for TMR and BT 50.5 ± 5.1 and 39.4 ± 6.1 mL·kg-1·min-1, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A significant moderate relationships exist between both TMR times and BT shuttles and TMR and BT estimated VO2maxes. Further, in the same individuals TMR estimated VO2max was 22% higher than what was predicted by BT performance. Reasons for this large discrepancy could include inflation of their performance on the TMR due to subject recall, motivational differences to perform to their maximum, and/or significant differences in the ability of these two tests to actually estimate VO2max. Additional studies are needed to concurrently measure TMR, BT, and a laboratory measure of VO2max in the same individual.