COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PHYSICAL FITNESS OF NIGERIAN ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0          BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The promotion of physical fitness through physical activity among children, adolescents and adults has become a public health objective. In recent years around the world, there has been serious concern over declining physical activity levels among these segments of the population as a result of more time spent on less vigorous recreational activities, such as Video Games and Watching Television (Dinubile, 1993).

Research evidence has shown that vast technological progress made in modern times has markedly affected lifestyle of many societies and has crept into developing countries at a fast rate, thus changing the whole pattern of our lifestyle, rendering the whole generation inactive, declining their day to day performance at work and during physical activity (Chado, 1992; Montoye, 1985).

Physical fitness is an essential requirement not only for optimal health, but also for better performance and quality of life (Hayward; 1998; Venkateswarlu; 2009, 2010). It is of particular importance to Armed Forces all over the world, not only because of its benefits, but also because it makes the soldiers battle ready. A soldier’s level of physical fitness has direct impact on combat readiness. The many battles in which American troops have fought underscores the important role physical fitness plays on the battle field. The role of regular participation in a sound physical fitness programme and maintenance of healthy weight is to enhance a person’s quality of life, improve productivity and bring about positive physical and mental changes (United States Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sport: USPCPFS, 2005).

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Nigerian Armed Forces personnel are required to be physically fit to meet certain military operational requirements. These include ability to perform under a wide range of geographical and environmental conditions as well as coping with the stress of sustained operations. Thus, physical fitness training forms an important part of the Nigerian Armed Forcesphysical education programme.

The concept of Joint Military Operations requires the personnel of the three Armed Services (Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Air Force) to function as a unit in the theatre of operation. The achievement of results in physically demanding tasks assigned to the personnelhasthus, made it imperative for the Nigerian Armed Forces to have a well-developed physical fitness training programme. This physical fitness programme is developed to cater for cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and body composition. However, the physical fitness of the personnel from the three Armed Services which is measured against the Nigerian Armed Forces Standard Physical Fitness Chart at Appendix II,has been questioned owing to the observevariations in the resultsof physically demanding tasks they perform. These variations paint an unclear picture of the personnel levelsof physical fitness and thus, have negative effects on the operational efficiency of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PHYSICAL FITNESS OF NIGERIAN ARMED FORCES PERSONNEL