Army News: Less injuries, better performance?

The Army has decided a focus on applying modern approaches to injury prevention and performance similar say sports teams and their elite units. That's something I have been talking about for a decade or so, and a paper published with Dr Kyle Hoedebecke on what could be employed now as it applies to supplements (see comments section below):

The Army is notorious for breaking soldiers’ bodies. But it’s now working on ways to prevent that.

“After we did the pilot, the results were astounding,” he said, with a 43 percent reduction in soldiers on profile for musculoskeletal injuries.

Going forward, the Army is investing in embedding nutrition and fitness experts across the service, a practice that, until now, has been more common only in special operations units

The plan is to put two physical therapists, two registered dietitians, two sports psychologists, seven athletic trainers, 14 strength and conditioning coaches, plus program and facilities managers, into each brigade."

Cont:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-...-prevent-that/

"About time!"-probably half the guys at the VA...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by taekwondopreacher

"About time!"-probably half the guys at the VA...

---

This !
I'm just wondering, since we as a population have become more sedentary and less athletic; are these injuries happening more often?
Bone strength, muscle density and many other things are factors you bring in the military with you. If you've been a couch potato and the most athletic activity you participated in was an event on your TV via a "game", you've been set up to fail.
Fat kids are becoming a National Security issue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Averageman

This !
I'm just wondering, since we as a population have become more sedentary and less athletic; are these injuries happening more often?
Bone strength, muscle density and many other things are factors you bring in the military with you. If you've been a couch potato and the most athletic activity you participated in was an event on your TV via a "game", you've been set up to fail.
Fat kids are becoming a National Security issue.

---

Absolutely. A big driving factor behind the change from PT to PRT was because the Army was breaking a lot of new guys at basic training. Just about anyone in decent shape will tell you that the new stuff feels like it doesn't do shit. All that being said, I saw the article but chose not to read it because it will probably be a while since we see anything at the BDE level and its frustrating since I've been fairly ****ed up for six months now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Averageman

This !
I'm just wondering, since we as a population have become more sedentary and less athletic; are these injuries happening more often?
Bone strength, muscle density and many other things are factors you bring in the military with you. If you've been a couch potato and the most athletic activity you participated in was an event on your TV via a "game", you've been set up to fail.
Fat kids are becoming a National Security issue.

---

I'd say they already are:

“...one in three young adults of military recruitment age in the United States is too overweight to enlist.

“In fact, obesity and overweight is the No. 1 cause of ineligibility in the armed services,” he says. “By the year 2020, only two out of every 10 recruits will be able to meet the weight-fitness qualifications to serve."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...y-risk-n582331

Gee, I dunno......running 3-5 miles 4 or 5 days a week, humping 70+ lbs of gear over distance, jumping out of airplanes? Nah, couldn't be an issue. :rolleyes:

Some things are unavoidable, like the weight-over-distance and jumping out of planes (at least for now).

I have a theory, correct me if I'm wrong Will: young 18-22 year olds are your primary enlistees. Speaking strictly for the Army and Marine Corps infantry (SEALs and PJ's included), if despite the obvious advantage youth gives you in recovery from the immediate aches and pains of heavy exercise, that the body is actually damaged early in it's life and those micro-injuries manifest themselves as these troops age at a higher rate than someone who never served in those capacities.

Example: a 45yo guy who was an Infantry (Army or Marine) puke when he was 19 will likely be experiencing a good deal more aches and pains than his high-school buddy who never served (at least in the mentioned jobs). Nothing is 100% I know, but on average I'd say that's true. In other words you don't always escape the dings and bangs suffered in youth as you age. They come back to haunt you to varying degrees.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ABNAK

Gee, I dunno......running 3-5 miles 4 or 5 days a week, humping 70+ lbs of gear over distance, jumping out of airplanes? Nah, couldn't be an issue. :rolleyes:

Some things are unavoidable, like the weight-over-distance and jumping out of planes (at least for now).

I have a theory, correct me if I'm wrong Will: young 18-22 year olds are your primary enlistees. Speaking strictly for the Army and Marine Corps infantry (SEALs and PJ's included), if despite the obvious advantage youth gives you in recovery from the immediate aches and pains of heavy exercise, that the body is actually damaged early in it's life and those micro-injuries manifest themselves as these troops age at a higher rate than someone who never served in those capacities.

Example: a 45yo guy who was an Infantry (Army or Marine) puke when he was 19 will likely be experiencing a good deal more aches and pains than his high-school buddy who never served (at least in the mentioned jobs). Nothing is 100% I know, but on average I'd say that's true. In other words you don't always escape the dings and bangs suffered in youth as you age. They come back to haunt you to varying degrees.

---

I’m 27 and my two biggest physical ailments are both injuries I received from HS football, or directly related to them. I think you’re correct in that statement, more often than not.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ABNAK

Gee, I dunno......running 3-5 miles 4 or 5 days a week, humping 70+ lbs of gear over distance, jumping out of airplanes? Nah, couldn't be an issue. :rolleyes:

Some things are unavoidable, like the weight-over-distance and jumping out of planes (at least for now).

I have a theory, correct me if I'm wrong Will: young 18-22 year olds are your primary enlistees. Speaking strictly for the Army and Marine Corps infantry (SEALs and PJ's included), if despite the obvious advantage youth gives you in recovery from the immediate aches and pains of heavy exercise, that the body is actually damaged early in it's life and those micro-injuries manifest themselves as these troops age at a higher rate than someone who never served in those capacities.

Example: a 45yo guy who was an Infantry (Army or Marine) puke when he was 19 will likely be experiencing a good deal more aches and pains than his high-school buddy who never served (at least in the mentioned jobs). Nothing is 100% I know, but on average I'd say that's true. In other words you don't always escape the dings and bangs suffered in youth as you age. They come back to haunt you to varying degrees.

---

I think the point of their focus is to reduce injuries, etc to reduce loss rates and reduced capabilities of existing troops vs what comes to be a problem post service per se. In stands to reason less preventable injuries outside of required training and or due to required training, less future issues post service, but that's not the focus it seems. Smart training vs hard training. If that reduces injures by a wide margin, that's less loss due to injuries in training and perhaps the field, and no doubt people coming into the service less physically prepared, making them even more likely to get injured. Then there's "the female Problem" which the article discusses also.

When I read the article my primary take away was that the experiment was going to track these guys from enlistment forward and provide the additional care to prevent or immediately treat these injuries as they occur.
Ok, that makes a certain amount of sense, really rather common sense.
Just an observation from my 20+ years. Guys didn't generally hurt themselves in the controlled environment of physical training. Rarely did I see someone have an injury during PT, most of those injuries I did see were things happening in day to day operations and maintenance.
When you're young and dumb and full of piss and vinegar, most of the pain and injuries are self induced as you try and out perform the norm, whatever that standard might be. Somethings are going to hurt, using a bit of common sense, might take that and keep it at the uncomfortable level and not at the injury level.
If that's the case, if you have a Soldier that injuries himself going above and beyond, what part of that is your responsibility?
All and all, this is a great idea, implementing it in Basic and AIT however may not get you the results you are looking for. Perhaps going in cold to a Brigade and starting with guys who are already serving might give you a better test. You're not starting from scratch, but you're going to get an idea of the Army as a whole.

There were a couple of times in my service when my physical training was left totally up to me to handle on my own. I didn't do PT in a group, there were big boy rules about staying in shape and I actually did better then than when attached to a unit where we did physical training en mass.