The Assessment of Training Load During British Army Phase One Training

Abstract

The physical demands of British Army Phase One Standard Entry (SE) training have previously been reported to be high and linked to musculoskeletal incidence in recruits. As such the SE Phase One training program was revised in 2015 to reduce these demands, primarily by decreasing running distance and including self-paced training sessions. With the advent of technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), external training loads (distance and speed) can now be quantified and compared to measures of internal training load (heart rate [HR] and ratings of perceived exertion [RPE]). PURPOSE: To quantify the internal and external training load of the revised British Army Phase One SE training program. METHODS: Following completion of an initial medical assessment, 26 female (21 ± 4 yrs, 61.8 ± 8.4 kg, 1.64 ± 0.05 m) and 24 male recruits (22 ± 4 yrs, 77.6 ± 9.7 kg, 1.78 ± 0.08 m) were fitted with a combined heart rate and GPS device (Polar Team Pro, Polar Electro, Oy, Finland). Recruits were monitored during waking hours (06:00 – 22:00 hrs) for 10 days in weeks 1 and 2 of training and reported whole-day RPE (0-10). RESULTS: Recruits completed an average daily distance of 12.07 ± 4.27 km at an average speed of 0.80 ± 0.25 km·h-1. The mean HR reserve (HRR) was 31 ± 7% and average RPE was 4 ± 3. Correlation analysis indicated that RPE had a significant positive relationship with %HRR (r = 0.467, P < .001) and daily distance (r = 0.616, P < .001). CONCLUSION: This is the first study to report external training loads (distance and speed) of British Army recruits during Phase One training using GPS which provides a framework for further investigation. Distance was a key determinant of perceptual daily training stress, as measured by RPE, suggesting this is an important characteristic of training that should be managed. Future work should attempt to link the external and internal training loads with injury risk, which could be a key approach to optimise training to maximise adaptation whilst minimising risk of fatigue and injury. This research has been sponsored by the UK MOD (Army).