Originally Posted by www.ndtv.com

Army revises training to deal with unfit recruits

Fort Jackson, South Carolina: Dawn breaks at this, the Army's largest training post, with the reliable sound of fresh recruits marching to their morning exercise. But these days, something looks different.

That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.

This is the Army's new physical-training program, which has been rolled out this year at its five basic training posts that handle 145,000 recruits a year. Nearly a decade in the making, its official goal is to reduce injuries and better prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat in rough terrain like Afghanistan.

But as much as anything, the program was created to help address one of the most pressing issues facing the military today: overweight and unfit recruits.

"What we were finding was that the soldiers we're getting in today's Army are not in as good shape as they used to be," said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees basic training for the Army. "This is not just an Army issue. This is a national issue."

Excess weight is the leading reason the Army rejects potential recruits. And while that has been true for years, the problem has worsened as the waistlines of America's youth have expanded. This year, a group of retired generals and admirals released a report titled "Too Fat to Fight."

"Between 1995 and 2008, the proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose nearly 70 percent," the report concluded.

Though the Army screens out the seriously obese and completely unfit, it is still finding that many of the recruits who reach basic training have less strength and endurance than privates past. It is the legacy of junk food and video games, compounded by a reduction in gym classes in many high schools, Army officials assert.

As a result, it is harder for recruits to reach Army fitness standards, and more are getting injured along the way. General Hertling said that the percentage of male recruits who failed the most basic fitness test at one training center rose to more than one in five in 2006, up from just 4 percent in 2000. The percentages were higher for women.

Another study found that at one training center in 2002, 3 recruits suffered stress fractures of the pubic bone, but last year the number rose to 39. The reason, General Hertling said: not enough weight-bearing exercise and a diet heavy on sugared sodas and energy drinks but light in calcium and iron.

The new fitness regime tries to deal with all these problems by incorporating more stretching, more exercises for the abdomen and lower back, instead of the traditional situps, and more agility and balance training. It increases in difficulty more gradually. And it sets up a multiweek course of linked exercises, rather than offering discrete drills.

There are fewer situps, different kinds of push-ups and fewer long runs, which Army officials say are good for building strength and endurance but often lead to injuries. They also do not necessarily prepare soldiers for carrying heavy packs or sprinting short distances.

"We haven't eliminated running," General Hertling said. "But it's trying to get away from that being the only thing we do." (The new system does include plenty of sprinting.)

Some of the new routines would look familiar to a devotee of pilates, yoga or even the latest home workout regimens on DVD, with a variety of side twists, back bridges and rowinglike exercises. "It's more whole body," said First Lt. Tameeka Hayes, a platoon leader for a class of new privates at Fort Jackson. "No one who has done this routine says we've made it easier."

The program was largely the brainchild of two former gym teachers who now run the Army Physical Fitness School based here. They are a military version of Click and Clack, finishing each other's sentences and wisecracking with the alternating beat of gas-fired pistons.

One, Stephen Van Camp, is a former professional kick-boxer who unwittingly ran a marathon with a fractured ankle. "That's not tough. That's stupid," he now says. The other, Frank Palkoska, is a former Army officer and West Point fitness instructor who adorns his office here with black-and-white photographs of 19th-century exercise classes and an assortment of retrograde equipment like medicine balls and wooden dumbbells.

"It's back to the future," Mr. Palkoska says before starting into a lament about the Xbox generation. "Technology is great, but it's killing us."

As he and Mr. Van Camp started developing what became a 434-page manual, they began by considering what combat soldiers do and came up with a checklist of things like throwing grenades and dodging gunfire.

Then they matched those needs with exercises. Some of those are already in use by the Army, but others are new and still others are drawn from century-old routines. There are drills that mimic climbing, that teach soldiers how to roll and that require swift lateral movements. Some are done in body armor.

The old style of physical training, he said, was less relevant to soldiers' tasks, which entail lots of jumping, crouching and climbing. "What we did in the morning had nothing to do with what we did the rest of the day," Mr. Palkoska said.

Under General Hertling, the new regimen will also include a makeover of the mess halls at its training bases. At Fort Jackson, there are more green leafy vegetables, less fried food, and milk instead of soda. The food line includes color-coded messages to encourage privates to eat low-fat entrees (marked in green). And there are other changes: no more assaulting tires with bayonets, but more time spent on rifle marksmanship and fighting with padded pugil sticks.

The trick now will be to push the program into the rest of the Army, where evidence suggests many soldiers are becoming overweight, particularly during or soon after deployments. The Army Training and Doctrine Command recently distributed the new fitness policy to the entire Army, officially replacing a physical fitness field manual that was first published in 1992.

While the training posts will have to follow the new program, since they are under General Hertling's command, it is not mandatory for officers in the field. Every unit's exercise routine is determined by its commander, and the current generation of officers has been indoctrinated under the old system.

The key, Mr. Palkoska says, will be to revamp the Army's fitness test, which is taken twice a year. It measures a soldier's ability to do situps, push-ups and a two-mile run. Since soldiers often train to the test, those are the exercises most of them do.

Mr. Palkoska and Mr. Van Camp hope the Army will revise that test by including new kinds of exercises and perhaps eliminating the situp.

"We know kids today are less fit," Mr. Palkoska said. "We have to adjust."

Originally Posted by LordEden (Post 2819265)

Linky



Is this a step back in the fight with childhood/adult obesity? Seems counter-intuitive to me, "Well, our PS3 generation can't handle basic, so let's make it easier." All the friends/family I know that joined the military training BEFORE going to basic. They made sure they could run long distances and able to do most types of cardio (pushups and situps) prior to taking the physical fitness test.

Just seems like we need to be combating this problem not by cutting back on how hard we train our soldiers and the preliminary tests to get in.

Is this a good change for the military or a step in the wrong direction?

Originally Posted by G~man (Post 2819307)

I am with snowy on this one. I was in the military back in the early 80's and spent six weeks running everywhere carrying a telephone pole between 5 of us. Never did carry a pole after basic training. I also ended up with a fractured ankle and had to spend weeks in rehab. It seems most of the exercises were a way to further break your spirit so that the "military doctrine" was easier to install.

These days, working with the USFS I see a lot more of the "modern" techniques of fitness being employed. There is a greater emphasis on total fitness rather than just pure stamina. My crew even does yoga---tis harder than one might think.

Originally Posted by Slims (Post 2819403)

To add to Kirstang's comments:

I went through basic under the old program and my 2 mile run time went from a 17+ minute two mile to a 12:20 two mile at the end.

We used to run nearly every day. It was extremely challenging (for someone fresh to the Army and PT) but resulted in a nearly 100% pass-rate (except for a couple injured guys) and the average score was at least 260 IIRC.

I can tell you that my career has involved running with full-kit through the mountains in Afghanistan at altitude...Cardio is still rule #1. Also, life in the Army proper is not easy unless you are in a support MOS...you may survive basic under the new program only to be broken by your new unit. If you are Infantry a PT score test of less than 270 is frowned upon and you will be expected to run nearly every day. Rightly so.


The Army is lowering it's standards not because it wants to but because it has no choice. People who would not have passed Basic under the old program will now go to their units and be liabilities...ticking time bombs who may not break until they are deployed and others depend upon then to be able to suck it up and perform.

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru (Post 2819280)

Beggers can't be choosers.

They need to keep the rosters full, and so they're dealing with a social issue that's a hindrance. It might, on the surface, seem like they're lowering their standards and/or making training "easier." However, the reality is that their recruits are increasingly getting injured. If you know anything about fitness training, it's important to gauge it to the individual. You can always bring people up to a physical standard.

Just because it happens more gradually, it doesn't mean it's easier. It takes longer, but the goal should be the same: combat-ready personnel.

I wouldn't criticize the U.S. Army for their strategy. I would rather criticize social conventions, a lack of public education, and a failure of personal responsibility for the terrible shape recruits find themselves in.

Originally Posted by Starkizzer (Post 2820236)

What I have never understood, is why not have an extended boot camp regime for those that are overweight or less fit but still really have the urge to enlist.

Originally Posted by chriswin8 (Post 2820275)

I would love the Boot camp life thing. I always wanted to join the military but they wouldn't take me when i graduated from HS. I have a heart issue that medically dqed me.

I think its great that they are re working there PT program. There are easier ways to get the same results, and now they are learning that. I know the old PT was more for breaking a persons will more then there health but if your going to be badly injured from it perhaps there are other ways of doing that.

Originally Posted by Walt (Post 2820536)

Nobody loves Basic. It's 3 days of intensive training, that after being slowed down to cater to the lowest common denominator, is stretched out to 3 months of intense boredom.

Originally Posted by Willravel (Post 2820537)

That sounds like 3 days of fucking awesome. What's the harm in splitting people into groups based on physical performance and training each group to maximum efficiency? Is that too expensive or difficult or something? If I can sprint 8 laps and the guy that sat on the bus next to me can't do 1, how are either of us being made all we can be if we're being trained side by side?

Originally Posted by Willravel (Post 2820545)

That doesn't sound like they slow everyone down to the pace of the lowest common denominator, then.