Research Paper Title

Relationship between body mass index and physical fitness in army cadets.

Background

While the importance of physical fitness for cadets is well-documented, no study has ever been conducted to investigate if there is an optimal BMI for physical fitness in army cadets.

The aim of this study was to examine the association between body mass index (BMI) and physical fitness in cadets.

Methods

Cross-sectional study. Male army cadets (n=196, aged 18-19 yr) were examined for weight and height, their BMI was calculated, and they performed three tests:

• 1600 m running;
• 50 m swimming; and
• Pull-ups (aka heaves).

Student t-test was used to examine differences between normal weight and overweight cadets, while a one-way ANOVA examined differences between BMI quartiles with regard to physical fitness.

Results

BMI was directly related to running (r=0.30, p<0.001) and inversely related to pull-ups (r=-0.22, p=0.002), while there was no significant correlation between BMI and swimming time (r=-0.05, p=0.517).

The comparison between normal weight and overweight (n=54, 27.6%) participants revealed differences with regard to running (t192=-2.86, p=0.005) and pull-ups (t194=2.41, p=0.017), but not in swimming (t193=0.52, p=0.605).

One-way analysis of variance revealed also differences between BMI quartiles with regard to running (F3,190=3.91, p=0.010) and pull-ups (F3,192=5.73, p=0.001), but not for swimming (F3,191=0.74, p=0.528).

Conclusions

In summary, the correlation analysis revealed that the higher the BMI, the lower the performance in running and pull-ups. Normal weight performed better in these tests than overweight participants, but BMI did not influence performance in swimming.

The researchers findings confirmed previous observations about the negative effect of overweight on physical fitness. However, since the best performances in running and in pull-ups were achieved by different BMI quartiles, the researchers concluded that the optimal BMI depends on the physical fitness parameter that one is interested in.

Reference

Nikolaidis, P.T. & Zisimatos, D. (2013) Relationship between Body Mass Index and Physical Fitness in Army Cadets. Available from World Wide Web: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256497249_Relationship_between_body_mass_index_and_physical_fitness_in_army_cadets. [Accessed: 12 March, 2017].