Physical readiness in the tactical world has historically been designed to resemble the demands of tactical professions, “sport-specific” if you will. Yet when you walk into any VA hospital or clinic, you see the human cost of such training with musculoskeletal injuries (MSKI) accounting for > 70% of medical discharges from the Army alone. At any given time, > 4% of active duty soldiers are non-deployable due to MSKIs. After discharge, MSKIs account for > 45% of all service-connected disability claims.
In the Army specifically, the tide seems to be turning with the advent of the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) and the Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) program. Assigning a team of physical therapists, dietitians, performance coaches, and athletic trainers at the brigade level is a start, but the overarching cultural issue is a fundamental misunderstanding of what “physical readiness” is.
As a human performance coach, I do a “needs analysis” for each sport I program for. I look at the injury profile, bioenergetic demands, speed/power demands, and strength demands. I then design a program to enhance the systems on which those demands are the greatest while minimizing the risk of the most common injuries. Using combat arms specialties as an example, a needs analysis with demands in order of priority might look like this:
Injury profile: anterior shoulder, lumbo-pelvic, medial knee
Bioenergetic demands: aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity
Speed/power demands: vertical power, acceleration
Strength demands: lower body relative, lower body maximal, upper body relative
So what does this needs analysis actually mean?
It means that the most common injuries soldiers see are shoulder and lower back related - primarily from overuse - with the occasional knee injury - usually traumatic instead of overuse.
The “bioenergetic” demands show what the fitness requirements are based on the body’s different energy pathways. Aerobic capacity, or the ability to use oxygen as a source of energy, is by far the most important energy pathway; more on that later. The secondary fitness demand is anaerobic, which is a combination of two pathways that provide energy in the absence of oxygen.
The speed/power analysis shows what the “fast-twitch” demands are. Soldiers frequently go from prone positions to standing or kneeling very quickly so being able to generate “vertical power” is critically important. Infantrymen, especially, need to get up to fast running speed quickly while moving from cover to cover under fire so acceleration is very important.
The strength demands trend from relative strength - which is proportional to one’s body mass - to maximal - which is more absolute. Lower body strength is generally more important than upper body strength, with upper body relative strength taking priority over upper body maximal strength, depending on where soldiers are on a deployment cycle.
In part 2, we will take a look at what interventions we would implement to meet each of these demands in austere and in garrison environments, and at different points during and in between deployment cycles.