Inflammatory and Oxidant Responses to Arduous Military Training: Associations with Stress, Sleep, and Performance.

Background: Arduous military training frequently consists of prolonged physical activity, sleep disturbance, and stress that increases musculoskeletal injury risk and performance decrements. Inflammatory and oxidative stress responses have been reported in response to arduous training, but with inconsistencies across markers and with underrepresentation of women. The purpose of the current report was to measure circulating inflammation and oxidative stress responses to military training and to correlate biomarkers with subjective measures of stress and sleep quality as well as military fitness test performance.

Allostatic Load Is Associated with Overuse Musculoskeletal Injury during US Marine Corps Officer Candidates School.

Introduction: Overuse musculoskeletal injuries (MSKI) remain a significant medical challenge in military personnel undergoing military training courses; further understanding of the biological process leading to overuse MSKI development and biological signatures for injury risk are warranted. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between overuse MSKI occurrence and physiological characteristics of allostatic load characterized as maladaptive biological responses to chronic stress measured by wearable devices in US Marine Corps officer candidates during a 10-wk training course.

Methods: Devices recorded energy expenditure (EE), daytime heart rate (HR), sleeping HR, and sleep architecture (time and percentage of deep, light, rapid eye movement sleep, awake time, total sleep).