MILITARY PHARMACY AND MEDICINE

© Military Pharmacy and Medicine • 2012 • 4 • 17 – 20Jerzy Bertrandt at al.: Assessment of the energy expenditure of soldiers of …PhysiologyAssessment of the energy expenditure of soldiers of theRepresentative Battalion of the Polish Army during three daysof drill training as part of preparations for the celebration of theNational Independence Day of November 11 thJerzy Bertrandt, Anna Kłos, Roman Łakomy1Department of Hygiene and Physiology, Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Warsaw, Poland.Author’s address:Jerzy Bertrandt, Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Kozielska 4, 01-163 Warsaw, Poland; phone:(+48) 22 685 31 34, 601 853 117, e–mail: J.Bertrandt@wihe.waw.pl.Received: 2012.09.27 • Accepted: 2012.11.22 • Published: 2012.12.08Summary:Introduction: The main mission of the Representative Battalion of the Polish Army consists of statelyrepresentation of the Polish Army during state celebrations, various state and military holidays or patrioticand religious events, as well as performing representative tasks at the Presidential Residence or duringofficial visits hosted by the Prime Minister.Aim of the work: The objective of this study was to assess the energy expenditure of soldiers during athree-day grill training as part of preparations for the celebration of the National Independence Day ofNovember 11 th .Methods: The measurements were made on the basis of systolic heart rate as recorded by Polar SportTester 810 pulse meters. The energy expenditure was calculated from the relationship between the systolicheart rate and oxygen consumption.Result: The mean energy expenditure of tested soldiers was 4.93±1.59 kcal/min.Conclusion: Energy expenditure of soldiers during 7 hours of effective drill training as part of preparationsfor the celebration of the National Independence Day of November 11th was different and allowedthe workload to be classified as light to very heavy.Key words: energy expenditure, Representative Battalion of the Polish Army, military service.IntroductionCurrent history of the representative units of thePolish Army dates back to 1944. In that year, onSeptember 14 th , the first post-war Warsaw GarrisonHeadquarters was established in the Pragadistrict. The headquarters fulfilled representativeand garrison tasks which were later taken over bythe Warsaw Garrison Command.As a result of organizational changes in thestructure of units under the Warsaw Garrisonhttp://military.isl-journals.comCommand, the Capital City of Warsaw GarrisonHeadquarters, including representativesubunits, was disbanded as of December 31 st ,2000. The representative tasks were taken overby the Representative Battalion of the PolishArmy. The new unit became operative as of January1 st , 2001. The newly formed unit consistedof three Representative Companies of the PolishArmy, the Polish Armed Forces RepresentativeBand, a salute platoon, a protection companyand staff. Starting from January 1 st , 2009, the17