British Army on Regular and Reserve Army Personnel. J.

was to compare changes in aerobic fitness and body composition in response to British Army (regular) and Territorial Army (re-serve) basic training. Eleven regular recruits, 14 reserve re-cruits, and 20 controls completed the study (all males). Initially, reserve recruits were significantly older and heavier and had greater fat-free mass (FFM; 64.6 vs. 59.3 kg) and lower maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max; 39.1 vs. 43.9 ml·kg21·min21) than reg-ular recruits. Both regular and reserve training significantly in-creased FFM and V̇O2max and decreased percentage body fat. Regular training produced a greater increase in V̇O2max than reserve training (13.1 vs. 7.6%, p, 0.0005). Reserve training produced a greater increase in body mass (2.2 vs. 0.9 kg, p 5 0.019) and tended to produce a greater increase in FFM (2.6 vs. 1.6 kg, p 5 0.062). Although both training programs improve aerobic fitness and body composition, increasing the volume of physical training in the reserve training program would proba-bly enhance the training adaptations achieved. KEY WORDS. Aerobic fitness, body composition, military per-sonne