Date of Award
Fall 10-8-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Kinesiology (PhD)
Department
Kinesiology
First Advisor
Kaylee Bandy
Second Advisor
Mark Asanovich
Third Advisor
Jeffrey Williams
Abstract
Tactical athletes, including military personnel, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and security professionals, must maintain high levels of physical readiness despite unpredictable schedules, demanding occupational requirements, and elevated injury risk. Traditional training models may not adequately address the need to simultaneously develop multiple components of fitness while remaining adaptable to irregular work demands. Nonlinear periodization has been proposed as a flexible training strategy capable of improving several fitness characteristics concurrently. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an eight-week nonlinear periodized training program on tactical athlete performance across multiple domains of physical fitness. A repeated-measures quantitative design was used. Seven volunteer tactical athletes participated in the study. Participants completed baseline and post-intervention assessments of upper-body muscular endurance, lower-body muscular endurance, upper-body strength, lower-body strength, muscular power, aerobic capacity, and agility. Testing measures included repeated push-ups, repeated squats, 5-repetition maximum (5RM) bench press, 5RM trap bar deadlift, standing broad jump, Cooper’s 2.4-km run, and the Agility T-Test. Statistical analyses included Shapiro–Wilk tests, paired-samples t-tests, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and effect size calculations. Results demonstrated statistically significant improvements across all measured fitness categories following the intervention. Significant gains were observed in bench press strength (p = .018), trap bar deadlift strength (p = .002), agility (p = .036), aerobic capacity (p = .035), broad jump distance (p = .047), push-up endurance (p = .018), and squat endurance (p = .028). Effect sizes ranged from large to very large, indicating meaningful performance improvements. These findings suggest that nonlinear periodization may be an effective and practical training approach for concurrently improving multiple components of tactical fitness while accommodating demanding occupational schedules. However, the study’s small sample size, variable observations across outcomes, and low statistical power limit generalizability. Future research using larger, supervised samples is recommended to further evaluate the effectiveness of nonlinear periodized training in tactical populations.