The Relationship between Physical Fitness and its Perceived Estimation in Military Forces

Fitness is one of the most important factor in military health and a positive attitude towards fitness it could have major effects on job performance. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness and its perceived estimation in military forces.
In this descriptive study, 60 people (30 men and 30 women) were randomly selected from ground forces based on the Odinsky table to complete the questionnaire of perceived estimation of physical fitness designed by Delignieres et al. The measured variables included physical characteristics such as age, weight, height, body mass index, percentage of body fat and physical fitness factors: cardiorespiratory endurance (shuttle run), strength (hand grip) and the whole body strength (dynamometer), flexibility (Sit and reach) and body composition (three sites measurement of skinfold thickness). Pearson correlation coefficient and independent t test were used to determine the relationship between the perceived estimation of health-related fitness with its actual levels, and to compare health-related fitness between male and female military forces, respectively.
The findings showed a significant inverse correlations between the perceived estimation and the actual level of fitness factors in army women (P˂0.05) (except in strength). There were no significant direct relationship in factors for men (except in cardiorespiratory endurance and flexibility). In other words, neither men nor women had sound estimation regarding their fitness status.
Due to inaccurate estimation of physical fitness factors in the studied military forces, it may be necessary to participate in physical activities to promote physical fitness and homogeneous perceived appraisal of true physical fitness.