Fall 2022 - 21

P
ost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is
an important public health and military
problem since PTSD symptoms are thought to
occur in as many as 15 to 20% of individuals
exposed to combat.
However, the temporal course of PTSD
development is difficult to quantify in an
experimental setting, according to MK Taylor
et. al., 'Physical Fitness Influences Stress
Reactions to Extreme Military Training,' Military
Medicine, Vol. 173, Issue 8, August 2008.
The purpose of Taylor's study was to
examine whether physical fitness influences
the impact of stressful events during military
survival training, hypothesizing that physical
fitness would buffer these stress reactions and
that this observed effect would be mediated
through attenuations in trait anxiety.
" There is substantial literature documenting
the beneficial effects of physical activity,
exercise, and/or fitness relative to stress
reactivity, anxiety, depression, as well as
neurogenesis, and cognitive function, " Taylor
wrote. " Georgiades et al., for example,
studied the effects of exercise and weight
loss on mental stress-induced cardiovascular
responses in individuals with high blood
pressure. After six months, participants
in an exercise group and participants in
a behavioral weight loss group (including
exercise) had lower levels of systolic blood
pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total
peripheral resistance, and heart rate both at
rest and during mental stress, compared with
inactive controls. "
Taylor found that aerobic fitness was
inversely associated with the impact of
stressful events, and the relationship may be
mediated by fitness-related attenuations in
trait anxiety.
In a separate study conducted by Taylor
in 2020, entitled 'Trauma Exposure and
Functional Movement Characteristics of Male
Tactical Athletes,' Journal of Athletic Training,
he explored the associations of combat and
trauma exposure with functional movement
(FM) characteristics of male tactical athletes,
and the confounding influences of age and
physical injury history as well as the mediating
role of bodily pain.
Below is an excerpt from Taylor's 2020
study, involving the associations of combat
and trauma exposure with FM characteristics
of male tactical athletes, namely US Navy
Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel.
Chronic physical stress increases the risk
of musculoskeletal injury. For example, load
carriage was implicated in 1 in 5 injuries
of the back and lower limbs in the military
setting, with muscular stress identified as
the mechanism of injury in more than half
of these events. In fact, single load-carriage
events have been reported to result in a
high incidence of lower extremity injuries in
military personnel and recreational hikers alike.
Similarly, stress fractures are prevalent among
military members, particularly in training
environments. To date, studies of stress
fractures in athletes have included only small
samples, which cannot be directly compared
with a military population. Military and tactical
organizations typically use physical training
to address these threats, which is a rational
strategy in light of solid evidence linking
fitness to decreased injury risk.
Paradoxically, physical training is also a
profound source of injury in the military sector,
likely due to excessive training volumes and
inadequate rest. Jones and Hauschild identified
physical injury as the leading cause of medical
tacticaltrainingandconditioning.com | 21
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Fall 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fall 2022
