2007, Piran, Slovenia

Working environment
DISCUSSION
These results allow us to conclude that Combat BT improves physical fitness as reflected in
laboratory and field tests. The improvement was marginally higher in females than in males,
resulting in slight narrowing of the gender differences. Nevertheless, there are still significant
physical fitness differences between the genders. Among many ethical and physiological
questions associated with integrating women soldiers into combat units there are two practical
issues that have to be further investigated: (1) whether a better sorting process before
recruitment would bridge the inherent differences between genders; and (2) whether a pre-BT
course for females would be of value to further narrow the gender differences in physical
capacity.
DISCLAIMER
Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and are
not necessarily endorsed by the U.S. Army and the Israeli Defense Forces.
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