The Load Carriage Index (LCI) – Adjusting the Load Carried by the Soldier According to Body Composition Measurements - The 2016 Wingate Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences

Itay Ketko ^1,2,3 Yuval Heled ² Yoram Epstein ² Amir Hadid ³ Ran Yanovich ^1,2

¹The Warrior Health Research Institute (WHRI), The Institute of Military Physiology, Israeli Defense Forces Medical Corps, Israel
²Sheba Medical Center, Heller Institute, Israel
³Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Laboratory, Israel

Lean body mass (LBM), which strongly correlates with absolute maximal oxygen uptake, has been shown to predict load carriage performance. In contrast, fat mass (FM) is considered `dead mass` (DM) that reduces mobility and effectiveness of the carrier. Lyons et al. (2005) proposed that the ratio between LBM and DM can indicate the ability to carry loads. This ratio was found to be highly correlated with the metabolic demand of load carriage; subjects with low fat percentage or high LBM/DM ratio consumed less oxygen (lower energy expenditure) while carrying the same external load (EL) compared to subjects with the same weight but with higher fat percentage. Recently, we implemented this approach as an index referred to as the Load Carriage Index (LCI), as follows: LCI= (LBM)/(FM + EL). We suggest the LCI as a helpful index for better distribution of a given load among a group of soldiers, rather than relying on body mass percentage. At present, this index has been tested on different groups of males. We recommend expanding this approach and testing it on mixed gender groups.