ORIGINAL ARTICLE  BODY COMPOSITION, NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTATION 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2022 April;62(4):508-16

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.21.12190-5

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

A combined training program’s effect on anthropometry, body composition, physical fitness and blood pressure in elite police

Mário SÁ ^{1, 2} ✉, Teresa SANTOS ^{3, 4, 5}, José AFONSO ⁶, Miguel PERALTA ^{1, 5}, Duarte HENRIQUES-NETO ¹, Adilson MARQUES ^{1, 5}

¹ Faculty of Human Motricity, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; ² Personal Security Corps, Special Police Unit of the Public Security Police, Lisbon, Portugal; ³ European University, Lisbon, Portugal; ⁴ Interdisciplinary Health Research Center (CIIS), Institute of Health Sciences, Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal; ⁵ Institute of Environmental Health (ISAMB), Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; ⁶ Center for Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

BACKGROUND: Combined training (CT) simultaneously associates aerobic and strength exercises. Worldwide, studies on CT’s on Police officers’ physical fitness are scarce. This study aims to measure a 4-month CT program’s impact in the Close Protection Unit of the Portuguese Elite Police.
METHODS: A pre-and post-test study included 32 participants (mean age 30.1±2.7 years old). Anthropometry, body composition, physical fitness, and blood pressure assessments were collected. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, 26.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) with a significance level at P≤0.05.
RESULTS: The main results showed an improvement in anthropometrics; aerobic capacity, strength, muscular endurance, and systolic blood pressure. However, a lean mass decrease, a fat mass increase, and worse results in other bioimpedance measures were observed.
CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the poor body composition results may imply a closer look for health concerns, although physical fitness has improved. Thus, it might be suggested that a CT program is helpful to increase physical fitness in elite police officers. Yet, improvements for its future application can be suggested, namely to include and address hydration level, nutrition, and rest/sleep moments. Moreover, because a high physical fitness level is needed in these population throughout their lifespan, ministerial policies should develop specific training programs, that can reduce morbidity and premature mortality, and have a major cost-effectiveness impact on public health.

KEY WORDS: Anthropometry; Physical fitness; Body composition