Peak performance and cardiometabolic responses of modern US army soldiers during heavy, fatiguing vest-borne load carriage.

Introduction: Physiological limits imposed by vest-borne loads must be defined for optimal performance monitoring of the modern dismounted warfighter.

Purpose: To evaluate how weighted vests affect locomotion economy and relative cardiometabolic strain during military load carriage while identifying key physiological predictors of exhaustion limits.

Methods: Fifteen US Army soldiers (4 women, 11 men; age, 26 ± 8 years; height, 173 ± 10 cm; body mass (BM), 79 ± 16 kg) performed four incremental walking tests with different vest loads (0, 22, 44, or 66% BM).

Modeling the Metabolic Costs of Heavy Military Backpacking.

Introduction: Existing predictive equations underestimate the metabolic costs of heavy military load carriage. Metabolic costs are specific to each type of military equipment, and backpack loads often impose the most sustained burden on the dismounted warfighter.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop and validate an equation for estimating metabolic rates during heavy backpacking for the US Army Load Carriage Decision Aid (LCDA), an integrated software mission planning tool.

Verification of Maximal Oxygen Uptake in Active Military Personnel During Treadmill Running.

Figueiredo, PS, Looney, DP, Pryor, JL, Doughty, EM, McClung, HL, Vangala, SV, Santee, WR, Beidleman, BA, and Potter, AW. Verification of maximal oxygen uptake in active military personnel during treadmill running. J Strength Cond Res 36(4): 1053-1058, 2022-It is unclear whether verification tests are required to confirm "true" maximal oxygen uptake (V̇o2max) in modern warfighter populations.

Effects of modern military backpack loads on walking speed and cardiometabolic responses of US Army Soldiers.

Introduction: Military leaders must understand how modern military equipment loads affect trade-offs between movement speed and physiological strain to optimize pacing strategies.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of load carried in a recently developed military backpack on the walking speed and cardiometabolic responses of dismounted warfighters.

Methods: Fifteen soldiers (1 woman, 14 men; age, 22 ± 2 years; height, 173 ± 7 cm; body mass (BM), 73 ± 10 kg) completed incremental walking tests with four external load conditions (0, 22, 44, or 66% BM) using the US Army's newest backpack: the Modular Lightweight Load-Carrying Equipment 4000 (MOLLE 4000).