The US Navy, body fat, and sustainable exercise

  • "Men ages 18 to 21 will stay at the previous 22 percent body fat max, but from 22 to 29 they're allowed up to 23 percent, 24 percent between 30 and 39, and up to 26 percent over 40."
  • "For women, it's 33 percent from 18 to 21, 34 percent for 22 to 29, 35 percent for 30 to 39 and 36 percent over 40."

Why did the Navy do this?
  • "It started with the Navy realizing that there's no "one size fits all" in fitness and certainly not in body composition."
  • "…he'd [Vice Adm. Bill Moran, chief of naval personnel] like a system that could end the twice-yearly testing cycles, and instead actively gauge fitness and health on a year-round basis."
  • From World Magazine: "With the pressure to fill military occupations such as drone operator or cyber-warfare officer, for which body weight might not matter, many are wondering whether body fat standards are even necessary."

How is Nordic walking relevant?
  • The US military has a set budget for exercise equipment and facilities. The Nordic walking poles are a relatively inexpensive investment.
  • Given the interest in year-round fitness, Nordic walking offers a viable way to have a sustainable exercise program. There are enough variations of Nordic walking types of activities to provide something for everyone. For example:
    • Interval training can create a higher intensity experience.
    • Integrating body weight exercises like pushups during the walk can stress different parts of the body.
    • Running and bounding can also add intensity to the activity.
    • The benefits of the full body exercise also contribute to calorie and fat burning as well as muscle toning.

Poles

The experts agree: Nordic walking is good for you

Several researchers compared the health benefits of Nordic walking with brisk walking and jogging. They concluded the following:
  • "...with regard to short- and long-term effects on heart rate, oxygen consumption, quality of life, and other measures, Nordic walking is superior to brisk walking without poles and in some endpoints to jogging."
  • "Nordic walking exerts beneficial effects on resting heart rate, blood pressure, exercise capacity, maximal oxygen consumption, and quality of life in patients with various diseases and can thus be recommended to a wide range of people as primary and secondary prevention."

This particular article was a review of research articles that involved  randomized controlled trials (participants are divided into groups and go through different types of tests; the results are then compared) and observational trials (participants undergo the same test and the results are analyzed). The tests described in those articles involved 1,893 people, a pretty impressive number of people.

In addition to the above broad conclusions, the researchers observed:
  • Nordic walkers increased their lung capacity and improved their overall cardiorespiratory fitness because the activity engaged more muscles.
  • Nordic walking filled an intensity level between regular walking and running.
  • Nordic walkers also lowered their body mass index (BMI) , total fat, LDL cholosterol, triglycerides, and waist circumference.  They also increase HDL cholesterol.


This is a very encouraging statement: "Current [research] literature unanimously identifies Nordic walking as a safe, feasible, and readily available form of endurance exercise training, which exerts a panoply of beneficial effects in a wide range of people with various diseases and the healthy."
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