Lower limb injuries are a continual and serious issue for military personnel. Such injuries have been associated with the requirement to train in military boots (MBs) and might be offset with commercial insoles. In this study, ground reaction forces were measured in seven male participants wearing running shoes (RS), MBs commonly used by Cypriot and Greek Army personnel, and the MBs with two types of shock-absorbing insole. The participants performed 4-min trials at walking pace (5 km·h-1) and running pace (10 km·h-1) at a 5% gradient on a treadmill under all four shod conditions. The treadmill incorporated two force plates under its belt, which provided measurements of key kinetic variables. During walking, RS showed significantly lower values for impact peak force (p < 0.01), maximum force (p < 0.05), and push-off rate (p < 0.05) compared with other conditions, although no significant differences were found during running. Although the RS were rated significantly more comfortable than any other condition, neither insole made the MBs more comfortable to wear. With little evidence to support wholesale adoption of insoles in MBs, their use by military personnel can only be recommended on a case-by-case basis.

Despite the absence of fractures and the low number of upper extremity injuries during the BCT, injury prevalence was high, with ankle- and foot-related injuries to be responsible for a long period of lost training days. Preventive efforts should focus on addressing the high rate of first-time and recurrent ankle ligament sprains and possible protective equipment to limit their frequency and severity.

During BCT, adiposity expressed as BFP and not as BMI can predict the magnitude and type (acute-overuse) of musculoskeletal injuries in Greek cadets.

The intake of several macronutrients (protein, TTFA, total and saturated fat) in this sample of children did not meet the recommended intakes in either time period.

IntroductionCreatine is considered an effective nutritional ergogenic aid to enhance exercise performance. In spite of the publication of several reviews in the last decade on the topic of exercise performance/sports and creatine there is a need for an update related to the military given the lack of information in this area. The aim of this study was to critically assess original research addressing the use of creatine supplements in the military. Methods A search of the electronic databases PubMed and SPORTDiscus, for the following key words: military personnel, trainees, recruit, soldier, physical fitness, physical conditioning, creatine supplementation, creatine ingestion, nutritional supplements to identify surveys and randomised clinical trials from journal articles and technical reports investigating the effect of creatine supplementation on military populations. Results Thirty-three out of 90 articles examined the use of creatine as a dietary supplement in military personnel. Twenty-one studies were finally selected on the basis of stated inclusion criteria for military surveys and randomised clinical trials. Most of the surveys (15/17) in the military indicate a high popularity of creatine (average 27%) among supplement users. In contrast, in most of the exercise protocols used (6/9) during randomised clinical trials creatine has produced a nonsignificant performance-enhancing effect. Conclusions Creatine is one of the most widely used supplemental compounds in the military. It is not considered a doping infraction or related to any adverse health effects but its long-term usage needs further investigation. Experimental research suggests that creatine supplementation does not enhance physical performance in the military. However, limitations in creatine dosage, military fitness testing and sample group selection might have underestimated the ergogenic properties of creatine. Recent studies also indicate positive effects on various aspects of total force fitness such as cognitive-psychomotor performance, bone health, musculoskeletal damage and neuromuscular function.

Body mass index values can not similarly detect the possibility of occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries in army officer recruits, just as other body composition diagnoses related to fat mass or/and free fat mass. However, the cut off-points related to the overall diagnostic performance of each body composition index should be used with caution and in accordance with the aims of each experimental setting.

The addition of carbohydrate (CHO) to an acute creatine (Cr) loading regimen has been shown to increase muscle total creatine content significantly beyond that achieved through creatine loading alone. However, the potential ergogenic effects of combined Cr and CHO loading have not been assessed. The purpose of this study was to compare swimming performance, assessed as mean swimming velocity over repeated maximal intervals, in high-performance swimmers before and after an acute loading regimen of either creatine alone (Cr) or combined creatine and carbohydrate (Cr + CHO). Ten swimmers (mean +/- SD of age and body mass: 17.8 +/- 1.8 years and 72.3 +/- 6.8 kg, respectively) of international caliber were recruited and were randomized to 1 of 2 groups. Each swimmer ingested five 5 g doses of creatine for 4 days, with the Cr + CHO group also ingesting approximately 100 g of simple CHO 30 minutes after each dose of creatine. Performance was measured on 5 separate occasions: twice at "baseline" (prior to intervention, to assess the repeatability of the performance test), within 48 hours after intervention, and then 2 and 4 weeks later. All subjects swam faster after either dietary loading regimen (p < 0.01, both regimens); however, there was no difference in the extent of improvement of performance between groups. In addition, all swimmers continued to produce faster swim times for up to 4 weeks after intervention. Our findings suggest that no performance advantage was gained from the addition of carbohydrate to a creatine-loading regimen in these high-caliber swimmers.

We investigated the effect of an acute creatine loading (25 g per day for 4 days) and longer-term creatine supplementation (5 g of creatine or 5 g of placebo per day for 2 months) on the performance of 22 elite swimmers during maximal interval sessions. After the acute creatine loading, the mean of the average interval swim times for all swimmers (n = 22) improved (44.3+/-16.5 s before vs. 43.7+/-16.3 s after supplementation; P<0.01). Three of the 22 swimmers did not respond positively to supplementation. After 2 months of longer-term creatine supplementation or placebo, neither group showed a significant change in swimming performance (38.7+/-13.5 s before vs. 38.7+/-14.1 s after for the creatine group; 48.7+/-18.0 s before vs. 48.7+/-18.1 s after for the placebo group). We conclude that, in elite swimmers, 4 days of acute creatine loading improves swimming performance significantly when assessed by maximal interval sessions. However, longer-term supplementation for 2 months (5 g of creatine per day) did not benefit significantly the creatine group compared with the placebo group.