Monitoring of Army cadet's body composition, physical and motion fitness, and establishing national norms

The physical fitness of military personnel is one of the main concerns of the military forces; because it is one of the determining factors in their efficiency and performance. The aim of this study was the monitoring of Army cadet's body composition, physical and motion fitness and providing national norms.
For this study, 3,000 students of University of Imam Ali consisting of first to third year entry (every entry 1000 cadets) aged between 18 and 22 were selected according to stratified random sampling method. At first, the height, weight, and body composition of the students were measured. Then physical- (sit-ups, push-ups, pull-up, and 2-mile run) and motion- (30-Ft agility shuttle run, 60-m sprint) fitness tests were performed. To compare body composition, physical and motion fitness of cadets, One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe and Tamhnae post-hoc tests were used. Also, Spearman correlation coefficient was used to show the relationship between body composition and the physical and motion fitness.
The results showed that there was a significant difference between the first, second, and third entry students about values of body composition, physical and motion fitness (p According to the results, cadets received suitable scores in terms of body composition, physical fitness and motion fitness parameters that represent the university achievements in this field.