Sam D Blacker

Sam D Blacker
University of Chichester · Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences

BSc, PhD

About

180
Publications
24,668
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Introduction
A scientist with a doctorate by research and broad experience conducting applied research and consultancy delivering evidenced-based solutions to improve human performance. Experienced in industry and academia undertaking laboratory and field based research and lecturing. Accredited by the British Association of Sports and Exercise Sciences (BASES) for Scientific Support and Research and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Additional affiliations
May 2013 - present
University of Chichester

Publications

Publications (180)
Article
Full-text available
Intake of New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract for 7 days has been shown to improve high-intensity intermittent running (HIIR) performance. Objectives: We examined the repeat response of NZBC extract on HIIR performance. Methods: Sixteen active males (age: 23 ± 3 yrs, height: 179 ± 5 cm, mass: 79 ± 11 kg, V˙O2max: 55.3 ± 5 mL∙kg⁻¹∙min⁻¹, velocit...
Article
Athletes and physically active individuals consume sport nutrition supplements to enhance competitive sport performance and exercise recovery. Polyphenols have emerged as a promising area of research with application for sport and exercise nutrition owing to affecting physiologic mechanisms for exercise performance and recovery. The anthocyanin is...
Article
Introduction Military personnel must manage a multitude of competing physiological and cognitive stressors while maintaining high levels of performance. Quantifying the external workload and cognitive demands of tactical military field exercises closely simulating operational environments, will provide a better understanding of stressors placed on...
Article
Full-text available
BACKGROUND: There is a requirement for British Army personnel to operate in/around water. Assessing role-related swimming/water competence will support personnel to conduct their job-roles safely and effectively. OBJECTIVE: To undertake a Job-Task Analysis (JTA) of British Army personnel when working in/around water and use this information to deve...
Article
Full-text available
Bouts of military load carriage are rarely completed in isolation; however, limited research has investigated the physiological responses to repeated load carriage tasks. Twelve civilian men (age, 28 ± 8 years; stature, 185.6 ± 5.8 cm; body mass 84.3 ± 11.1 kg and maximal oxygen uptake, 51.5 ± 6.4 mL·kg⁻¹ min⁻¹) attended the laboratory on two occas...
Article
Nootropics are compounds that enhance cognitive performance and have been highlighted as a medium-term human augmentation technology that could support soldier performance. Given the differing ethical, safety and legal considerations associated with the pharmaceutical subset of nootropics, this analysis focuses on dietary supplementation which may...
Article
Load carriage is a vital role related task for military, emergency service, and search and rescue personnel, through the transport of critical equipment. From an external validity perspective, a common oversight in previous research is the effect of multiple stressors during load carriage; for example, the inclusion of adverse environmental conditi...
Article
Full-text available
The aim was to use a robust statistical approach to examine whether physical fitness at entry influences performance changes between men and women undertaking British Army basic training (BT). Performance of 2 km run, seated medicine ball throw (MBT) and isometric mid‐thigh pull (MTP) were assessed at entry and completion of Standard Entry (SE), Ju...
Article
Full-text available
This study assessed the effect of a commercial carbohydrate menthol drink on cycling time trial (TT) performance in hot and humid conditions compared with a carbohydrate only drink. Ten participants (5 women; V̇O2max: 52.3 ± 8.6 mL kg⁻¹ min⁻¹, Peak Power Output: 286 ± 56 W) completed a 40‐min cycling preload (50% V̇O2max) followed by a 15‐min self‐...
Preprint
Objectives: Bouts of military load carriage are rarely completed in isolation; however limited research has investigated the physiological responses to repeated load carriage tasks. Design: Twelve civilian men, (age, 28 ± 8 y; stature, 185.6 ± 5.8 cm; body mass 84.3 ± 11.1 kg; maximal oxygen uptake, 51.5 ± 6.4 mL·kg-1·min-1) attended the laboratory...
Article
Background Dismounted military operations require soldiers to complete cognitive tasks whilst undertaking demanding and repeated physical taskings. Objective To assess the effects of repeated fast load carriage bouts on cognitive performance, perceptual responses, and psychophysiological markers. Methods Twelve civilian males (age, 28 ± 8 y; stat...
Presentation
This study demonstrates differences in gym-based fitness test and RMT performance between recruits and in-service soldiers.
Poster
Full-text available
The countermovement jump (CMJ) is widely used in occupational research to assess neuromuscular fatigue and performance. Improved force plate portability, technology, and affordability mean that high fidelity force data can be gleaned more routinely and in field based scenarios. Changes in CMJ variables, which describe modifications in jumping strat...
Article
Full-text available
The intake of anthocyanin-rich New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract (300 mg per day) over a week enhanced 16.1 km cycling time trial (TT) performance in endurance-trained cyclists without acute performance effects. In the present study, the acute effects of an intake of 900 mg of NZBC extract 2 h before performing the 16.1 km cycling TT were exa...
Article
Full-text available
Military training is physically arduous and associated with high injury incidence. Unlike in high-performance sport, the interaction between training load and injury has not been extensively researched in military personnel. Sixty-three (43 men, 20 women; age 24 ± 2 years; stature 1.76 ± 0.09 m; body mass 79.1 ± 10.8 kg) British Army Officer Cadets...
Article
The ability to drag a casualty to safety is critical for numerous physically demanding occupations. This study aimed to establish whether the pulling forces during a one-person 55 kg simulated casualty drag is representative of a two-person 110 kg drag. Twenty men completed up to 12 × 20m simulated casualty drags using a drag bag (55/110 kg) on a g...
Article
Introduction The purpose was to quantify physical performance in men and women during British Army Junior Entry (Army-JE), British Army Standard Entry (Army-SE) and Royal Air Force (RAF) basic training (BT). Design Prospective longitudinal study. Methods 381 participants ((339 men and 42 women) n=141 Army-JE, n=132 Army-SE, n=108 RAF) completed a...
Preprint
Background: Dismounted military operations require soldiers to simultaneously complete cognitive tasks whilst undertaking demanding and repeated physical taskings.Objective: To assess the effects of repeated fast load carriage bouts on cognitive performance, perceptual responses, and psychophysiological markers.Methods: Twelve civilian males (age,...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Investigate the impact of sex, menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptive use on intestinal permeability and ex-vivo tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) release following treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and hyperthermia. Methods Twenty-seven participants (9 men, 9 eumenorrheic women (MC) and 9 women taking an oral contraceptive p...
Article
Full-text available
During military operations, soldiers are required to successfully complete numerous physical and cognitive tasks concurrently. Understanding the typical variance in research tools that may be used to provide insight into the interrelationship between physical and cognitive performance is therefore highly important. This study assessed the inter-day...
Article
Treadmill-based load carriage protocols typically use a single fixed speed; however, these are not representative of occupational load carriage tasks. This study aimed to quantify the metabolic, cardiovascular, thermal, neuromuscular, and perceptual responses to a treadmill-based, military-specific, fast load carriage protocol (FLCP). This protocol...
Article
Full-text available
Military training is characterized by high daily energy expenditures which are difficult to match with energy intake, potentially resulting in negative energy balance (EB) and low energy availability (EA). The aim of this study was to quantify EB and EA during British Army Officer Cadet training. Thirteen (seven women) Officer Cadets (mean ± SD: ag...
Article
Full-text available
Dark-colored fruits, especially berries, have abundant presence of the polyphenol anthocyanin which have been show to provide health benefits. Studies with the berry blackcurrant have provided notable observations with application for athletes and physically active individuals. Alterations in exercise-induced substrate oxidation, exercise performan...
Article
Full-text available
Dietary intake and physical activity impact performance and adaptation during training. The aims of this study were to compare energy and macronutrient intake during British Army Officer Cadet training with dietary guidelines and describe daily distribution of energy and macronutrient intake and estimated energy expenditure. Thirteen participants (...
Article
Aim To develop evidence-based role-specific physical employment standards and tests for National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) specialist paramedics. Methods Sixty-two (53 men, 9 women) paramedics performed an array of (1) realistic reconstructions of critical job-tasks (criterion job performance); (2) simplified, easily-replicable simulations...
Article
Full-text available
Military personnel are required to complete physically demanding tasks when performing work and training, which may be quantified through the physical stress imposed (external load) or the resultant physiological strain (internal load). The aim of this narrative review is to provide an overview of the techniques used to monitor work and training lo...
Article
New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract is a rich source of anthocyanins and in order to exert physiological effects, the anthocyanin-derived metabolites need to be bioavailable in vivo. We examined the plasma uptake of selected phenolic acids following NZBC extract supplementation alongside maintaining a habitual diet (i.e. not restricting habitua...
Article
Objectives We aimed to determine the agreement between actual and predicted core body temperature, using the Heat Strain Decision Aid (HSDA), in non-Ground Close Combat (GCC) personnel wearing multi terrain pattern clothing during two stages of load carriage in temperate conditions. Design Cross-sectional. Methods Sixty participants (men = 49, wo...
Article
Supplementation with anthocyanin-rich blackcurrant increases blood flow, cardiac output, and stroke volume at rest. It is not known whether cardiovascular responses can be replicated over longer timeframes in fed trained cyclists. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover design, 13 male trained cyclists (age 39 ± 10 years,VO 2 max 55.3 ± 6.7 ml·kg...
Article
Full-text available
New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract has shown performance-enhancing effects during cycling, running and sport climbing. We examined effects of NZBC extract on (1) voluntary and twitch force of the quadriceps femoris muscles during repeated isometric contraction-induced fatigue, (2) twitch force during recovery and (3) muscle fiber-specific effe...
Article
Full-text available
Anthocyanin supplements are receiving attention due to purported benefits to physiological, metabolic, and exercise responses in trained individuals. However, the efficacy of anthocyanin intake over multiple testing days is not known. We compared a placebo and two doses of anthocyanin-rich New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract (300 and 600 mg·day...
Article
New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) contains anthocyanins, known to moderate blood flow and display anti-inflammatory properties that may improve recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage. The authors examined whether NZBC extract supplementation enhances recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage after a half-marathon race. Following a randomized...
Article
Vine, CA, Coakley, SL, Blacker, SD, Doherty, J, Hale, B, Walker, EF, Rue, CA, Lee, BJ, Flood, TR, Knapik, JJ, Jackson, S, Greeves, JP, and Myers, SD. Accuracy of metabolic cost predictive equations during military load carriage. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-To quantify the accuracy of 5 equations to predict the metabolic cost of load ca...
Conference Paper
Purpose: Advances in wearable technology have improved objective measurement of physical activity (PA) in free-living environments. In the military, accelerometry and heart rate (HR) are used to measure activity intensity, but it is unclear whether pre-defined thresholds of PA intensity agree between these methods. This study compared classificatio...
Article
Intestinal fatty acid binding protein (IFABP), a 15 kDa protein present in the cytosol of mature enterocytes, is rapidly released into the circulation following enterocyte injury and is a sensitive measure of gastrointestinal (GI) barrier damage following exertional heat stress (1). Exertional heat stress protocols typically employ running or cycli...
Article
Background: The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) works on behalf of each National Health Service (NHS) Ambulance Trust in England to strengthen national resilience and improve patient outcome in challenging pre-hospital scenarios. Objective: To conduct a Job Task Analysis and describe the physical demands of NARU roles. Methods: A foc...
Article
Full-text available
Wearable physical activity (PA) monitors have improved the ability to estimate free‐living total energy expenditure (TEE) but their application during arduous military training alongside more well‐established research methods has not been widely documented. This study aimed to assess the validity of two wrist‐worn activity monitors and a PA log aga...
Conference Paper
Introduction: The development of heart rate (HR) measurement using photoplethysmography (PPG) in commercially available wrist-worn activity monitors provides the potential to quantify physical activity using cardiovascular strain. The HR measured via wrist-worn activity monitors which use PPG has not been compared to the validated approach of a che...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
INTRODUCTION The Royal Marine Commandos (RM) provide the United Kingdom Armed Forces’ amphibious Ground Close Combat (GCC) capability; consequently, specific swimming-based tasks can be critical to both mission success and sea survival. The aim of this research was to develop a Swimming Representative Military Task (RMT) based on the job tasks perf...
Poster
Full-text available
INTRODUCTION The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) works on behalf of each National Health Service (NHS) Ambulance Trust in England to strengthen national resilience and improve patient outcome in challenging pre-hospital scenarios. Specialist NHS Ambulance personnel are trained to attend marauding terrorist firearms (MTFA) incidents. Howev...
Conference Paper
INTRODUCTION The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) works on behalf of each National Health Service (NHS) Ambulance Trust in England to strengthen national resilience and improve patient outcome in challenging pre-hospital scenarios. NHS Ambulance specialist operators are trained to deal with hazardous or difficult situations and mass casual...
Article
Objectives: To develop a statistical model to predict 8mile Loaded March (LM) performance and quantify differences in physical characteristics for men and women British Army Personnel. Design: 135 trained soldiers (87 men; 48 women) completed two sessions, seven days apart. Methods: Session 1: Participants' stature, body mass, Fat Free Mass (F...
Conference Paper
The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) undertakes special operations in the UK as the Hazardous Area Response Team (HART), Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) staff and Marauding Terrorist Fire Arms (MTFA) teams. Personnel wear personal protective equipment when completing physically demanding tasks in these roles and as a re...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Purpose Conducting boarding operations (boarding a vessel from either a small craft or from a helicopter) was identified as an important, physically demanding and unique role related task undertaken by Royal Marines (RM). Data are required to quantify the physical demands of boarding operations to inform the development of a Physical Employment Sta...
Conference Paper
Purpose: Total training load has been shown to affect the development of aerobic fitness during training in athletic populations. However, the relationship between total training load in military training quantified by physical activity level (PAL) has not been investigated. This study aims to estimate energy expenditure (EE) of British Army Office...
Article
Full-text available
PURPOSE: Conducting a job task analysis (JTA) is fundamental to determine the specific tasks that employees are required to perform in their job role. Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC) tasks by stretcher are a criterion military task and require muscle endurance, muscle strength, and aerobic endurance for successful performance; the aim of this study w...
Article
Background: Blood glucose and insulin are elevated after intake of carbohydrate, with levels returning to normal in about 2-3 hours after ingestion. We examined the effects of daily New Zealand blackcurrant intake over 7 days on fasting glucose and insulin levels and the responses of glucose and insulin during an oral glucose tolerance test (i.e. O...
Article
Full-text available
The National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) works on behalf of each National Health Service Ambulance Trust in England to strengthen national resilience and improve patient outcome in challenging pre-hospital scenarios. Specialist ambulance responders are trained to deal with hazardous or difficult situations, particularly incidents such as situa...
Article
Full-text available
New Zealand blackcurrant (NZBC) extract has been shown to enhance high-intensity intermittent treadmill running. We examined the effects of NZBC extract during the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST) which involves 5 × 15 min blocks with intermittent 15-m maximal sprints, interspersed by moderate and high-intensity running to simulate tea...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether loads carried in a backpack, with a load mass ranging from 0 to 20 kg, causes respiratory muscle fatigue. Methods: Eight males performed four randomised load carriage (LC) trials comprising 60 min walking at 6.5 km∙h-1 wearing a backpack of either 0 (LC0), 10 (LC10), 15 (LC15) or 20 kg...