Recent research has demonstrated body mass (M) bias in military physical fi tness tests favoring lighter, not just leaner, service members. Mathematical modeling predicts that a distance run carrying a backpack of 30 lbs would eliminate M-bias. The purpose of this study was to empirically test this prediction for the U.S. Army push-ups and 2-mile run tests. Two tests were performed for both events for each of 56 university Reserve Offi cer Training Corps male cadets: with (loaded) and without backpack (unloaded). Results indicated signifi cant M-bias in the unloaded and no M-bias in the loaded condition for both events. Allometrically scaled scores for both events were worse in the loaded vs. unloaded conditions, supporting a hypothesis not previously tested. The loaded push-ups and 2-mile run appear to remove M-bias and are probably more occupationally relevant as military personnel are often expected to carry external loads.
- allometric scaling,
- backpack,
- weight bias
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/paul_vanderburgh/3/
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article of the same title that ran in the journal Military Medicine; it is provided here with the permission of the publisher. The article available in the repository is the author's accepted manuscript; the version of record may contain minor differences that have come about in the copy editing and layout processes.
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