Publications by authors named "B A Spiering"
Soldiers typically perform physically demanding tasks while wearing military uniforms and tactical footwear. New research has revealed a substantial increase of ~10% in energetic cost of walking when wearing modern combat boots versus running shoes. One approach to mitigating these costs is to follow in the footsteps of recent innovations in athletic footwear that led to the development of 'super shoes', that is, running shoes designed to lower the energetic cost of locomotion and maximise performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLooney, DP, Hoogkamer, W, Kram, R, Arellano, CJ, and Spiering, BA. Estimating metabolic energy expenditure during level running in healthy, military-age women and men. J Strength Cond Res 37(12): 2496-2503, 2023-Quantifying the rate of metabolic energy expenditure (Ṁ) of varied aerobic exercise modalities is important for optimizing fueling and performance and maintaining safety in military personnel operating in extreme conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Athletes can face scenarios in which they are confined to bed rest (e.g., due to injury or illness).
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- In 1981, the US military developed body fat standards using circumference-based equations for men and women to encourage physical readiness and combat obesity, but these equations were known to underestimate body fat percentage (%BF).
- A study involving young adult recruits assessed the validity of these circumference-based methods against more accurate Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measurements before and after an 8-week Army Basic Combat Training (BCT).
- Results showed that circumference measurements not only underestimated %BF both at the start and during BCT but also failed to detect changes in women's body fat, indicating these methods may not be reliable for tracking body composition changes in short training periods.
Article Synopsis
- Basic combat training (BCT) leads to significant changes in the bone microarchitecture of soldiers, particularly in the tibia, and is influenced by factors like sex and race.
- A study analyzed 1,605 trainees, measuring bone density and thickness before and after 8 weeks of BCT, finding increases across all groups but notable differences in the degree of change based on sex and race.
- Female trainees showed greater improvements in trabecular bone metrics compared to males, while white trainees had better outcomes than black trainees in certain bone density measures.