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Tactical Strength and Conditioning

(31) THE HAMSTRING TO QUADRICEP STRENGTH RATIO ACROSS A POLICE TRAINING ACADEMY

Saturday, July 13, 2024
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM East Coast USA Time
Location: Exhibit Hall
Abstract Details: Police officers undergo a pre-employment training academy in preparation for becoming a law enforcement officer. While the specifics vary across the country, most police training academies have a physical training requirement in addition to a rigorous academic component. Unfortunately, police officers are often injured on the job. However, the potential for the training academy to reduce injury risk on cadets is not yet fully understood.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in the hamstring to quadriceps strength ratio in police officer recruits across the academy.

Methods: Twenty-eight participants currently enrolled in a local police training academy (age = 26 ± 6 years, BMI = 28.2 ± 4.5 kg/m2) completed three laboratory visits in which the hamstring to quadriceps (H:Q) strength ratio was assessed. The three visits were separated by approximately 10 and 12 weeks, respectively, along the course of the police training academy. During the academy, supervised physical training was conducted 5 times per week and consisted of ~1–1.5 hours of high-intensity, multi-modal (i.e., running, weightlifting, calisthenics), functional training following linear periodization. For strength testing, participants were seated on a commercial, isokinetic dynamometer with their dominant leg secured in accordance with manufacturer guidelines. Following a brief warmup, participants performed two isometric maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) of the dominant leg extensors and flexors. Participants were instructed to “kick out” or “pull back as hard and fast as possible” for 3-5 seconds. Torque signals were captured from the dynamometer using a digital-to-analog converter at 2222 Hz for offline analyses using custom-written software. Peak torque was calculated as the highest 500ms epoch. The highest peak torque from the two trials was used to quantify the hamstring (flexion) to quadricep (extension) ratio. A one-way analysis of variance was employed to assess the effect of time (pre-, mid-, and post) on H:Q. When appropriate, Bonferroni-Holms post hoc procedures were employed. An alpha level of p < 0.05 determined statistical significance. All data were reported as mean ± SD.

Results: Only 14 police officer recruits completed the entire training academy. There were no statistically significant changes in H:Q across the police training academy (F = 0.356, p = 0.705).

Conclusions: The present study suggests that training procedures in the police academy may not have a significant effect on the H:Q ratio. Future studies may aim to examine the effect of a police training academy on other modalities of strength (i.e., isokinetic) or movement screeners to better understand the potential for injury risk reduction. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Strength and conditioning practitioners who aim to improve the H:Q ratio in tactical athletes may need to employ additional training modalities. Specifically, using exercises which primarily strengthen the posterior chain (i.e., flexors) may be advantageous to consider.

Acknowledgements: none