Training diagnosis for a load carriage test

To explore the possibility of training diagnosis for a 3.2-km loaded march with a 25 kg load, 50 men trained for 10 weeks using either running, marching, and endurance- based circuit training (Circuits), or running, marching, and resistance training (Resistance). The march was performed before and after training, and other measurements related to loaded marching were conducted before training only. Each group was ranked by improvement in the loaded march, and divided into significantly different subgroups of 'good' and 'poor' responders (improvements of approximately 20% vs. 10%). For Circuits, there were significant differences between good and poor responders to training in the pretraining ratios of shuttle run: isometric lift strength (p 5 0.031) and shuttle run: isometric back extension strength (p 5 0.033). Stronger subjects with lower endurance responded better to Circuits. Resistance tended to show the opposite effect (p , 0.2). These are the first objective data on which to prescribe training for load carriage on an individual basis