Physical fitness in a submarine community as determined by the U.S. Navy Health and Physical Readiness Test.

This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that personnel assigned to submarine duty would display less physical fitness as compared to shore-based personnel. A message was submitted to all naval activities at a Naval Submarine Base requesting individual test scores from the annual Health and Physical Readiness (H&PR) Test. The results from the statistical analysis showed that the majority of personnel in both populations were classified as "good," which is an average level of physical fitness as determined by the Navy's fitness classification table. In both populations, 1% were classified as "outstanding," while approximately 10% failed to meet the minimum physical fitness requirements. A body fat value greater than 22% was the cause for the majority of test failures. In conclusion, the results of the analysis of H&PR data do not support the widely held belief that submarine personnel are less physically fit than their shore-based counterparts.