# Applying Force Plate Technology to Inform Human Performance Programming in Tactical Populations
## 1 Introduction  
Although the physical demands and occupational requirements vary across and within tactical populations, muscular strength and power capabilities remain fundamentally vital to most tactical environments [1, 2]. Rates of musculoskeletal injuries are high for many tactical populations, with lower extremities, back, and shoulders being the most common injury locations [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. As a result, musculoskeletal injuries increase missed duty time and require rehabilitation, thereby inhibiting skill maintenance and acquisition, restricting operational capacities, and increasing compensatory workforce strain [2]. This series of events costs significant government funding and resources [9, 13]. One resounding characteristic contributing to musculoskeletal injury rates is unwarranted accumulations of neuromuscular fatigue from monotonous high-volume training periods at initial entry points purported to prepare individuals for their career [2, 7, 14, 15]. For example, in Navy recruits, greater run mileage increased incidences of injury without any further improvement in aerobicfitness [16]. Yet, tactical personnel must be free of chronic musculoskeletal concerns and obtain a suitable level of muscular fitness to achieve operational success, which varies with occupational demands across tactical environments [12; 17; 18]. Adapted concepts originating from [PERSON]'s general adaptation syndrome [19], applied to strength and conditioning programs [14], suggest the primary goal of physical training is to elicit heightened workload capacities over time. The increased ability to withstand greater workloads concomitantly reduces injury incidences during subsequent training [6], which explains the association of injury rates with low muscular fitness [20; 21]. If training loads are increased beyond accustomed levels or adequate recovery from training is not provided, neuromuscular fatigue may result in diminished functional capacities via decreased strength and power production, decreased cardiorespiratory endurance, and/or increased risk for musculoskeletal injuries [5; 6]. Indeed, performance potential may be purposefully sacrificed (i.e., functional overreaching) to facilitate adaptations through certain levels of fatigue but should be monitored to track physical preparedness and prevent undue chronic fatigue. Considering the absolute physical requirements of occupational demands in tactical settings, regardless of physiological stature (i.e., the same equipment load requirements for a 130-pound and 190-pound individual), improving physical performance capabilities may reduce the relative intensity of common occupational tasks and subsequently reduce longitudinal injury risk. A major roadblock in performance monitoring efficacy is buy-in from personnel to reduce attrition, which may be improved by focusing on physical performance capabilities rather than attempting to predict injuries occurrences [22]. Thus, human performance monitoring and profiling initiatives should transition from the perspective of predicting injuries to assessing and improving the potential risk factors for increased injury rates, such as muscular strength and power [21; 23; 24; 25]. For these reasons, the implementation of strategies designed to objectively monitor the acute and chronic effects of training loads is imperative to ensuring desirable performance adaptations and injury risk mitigations are achieved [2]. In human performance monitoring systems, baseline and repeated physical fitness assessments are imperative and provide insight into occupational performance capabilities. For example, dynamic lifting abilities were more predictive of performances during a 5-day combat simulated scenario that aerobic capacity, thus demonstrating the importance of strength capabilities in real-world scenarios [26]. Maximal strength was also associated with specific occupational performances or assessments requiring lower body power (e.g., casualty drag; countermovement jump, CMJ) [27; 28], as well as marsmanship [29].