EFFECTS OF TEAM SIZE ON THE MAXIMUM WEIGHT BAR LIFTING STRENGTH OF MILITARY PERSONNEL

Teamwork is an essential element in the majority of critical Army lift ing tasks. Therefore, an understanding of the relationship between ind ividual and team lifting capacity is of: great tactical importance. Tw enty-three male and 17 female U.S. Army soldiers were randomly assigne d to single-and mixed-gender teams of two, three, and four persons. In dividual lifting strength was the one-repetition-maximum (1RM) load li fted from floor to knuckle height using a weight bar. A square-shaped bar was used for two-and four-person lifting, and a triangular-shaped bar was used for three-person lifting. Team lifting strength as a perc entage of the sum of individual lifting strength (%sum) did not change with team size. The %sum for teams of men (87.3%) was less than for t eams of women (91.1%, p < 0.05). The %sums for both single-gender team s (all men and all women) were greater (p < 0.01) than for mixed-gende r teams (80.2%). The number of people lifting a large object was incre ased to four with no decrease in the effectiveness of the individual l ifter beyond that found for two persons. The 1RM loads presented in th is paper were Lifted under ideal conditions by young soldiers and do n ot represent norms for an industrial population.