Resumen de Impact of a 12-Week Postgraduate Training Course on the Body Composition and Physical Abilities of Police Trainees
Aleksandar Cvorovic, Filip Kukic, Robin M. Orr, J. Jay Dawes, Velimir Jeknic, Milos Stojkovic
The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of a 12-week physical training program on police trainees at the Abu Dhabi Police College. Anthropometric and fitness testing data for 325 healthy trainees, enrolled in an academic course for qualification as a police officer, were analyzed. The trainees were tested 3 times, during the initial (week 1), midpoint (week 7), and final testing (week 13) phases of the training program. The tested variables included anthropometry (body mass [BM]), body composition (body mass index [BMI]; waist circumference [WC]; waist-to-height ratio [WHtR]), upper-body muscular endurance (1-minute push-up [PU]), trunk muscular endurance (1-minute sit-up [SU]), and aerobic endurance (2.4-km run [RUN]). A 1-way analysis of variance with post hoc Bonferroni adjustment was performed to investigate the changes in anthropometry and fitness across the 3 testing periods with percentages of change calculated at each testing stage. Alpha levels were set at 0.05 a priori. Statistically significant differences (range of p values from p < 0.001 to p < 0.05) were found in all tested variables (BM, BMI, WC, WHtR, PU, SU, and RUN) and between all testing stages (initial, midpoint, and final). A progressive physical training program that incorporates mesocycles and midpoint evaluations can have a positive impact on the fitness of trainees even when undergoing a busy academy program.
