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It's always a great episode when you get to bring a personal friend on the pod! This week's guest was a very physically fit infantry officer when he and Alex were in the same battalion. He went on to join Special Forces, but ended up being medically retired. Holistic approaches to health and fitness have featured prominently in his transition and recovery journey, and we had him on to learn what that has looked like

Will Webb is a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer who now supports Veterans through holistic wellness and mental health work. Growing up in a military family and later graduating from West Point, Will spent a decade in service until a career-ending injury forced him to slow down and confront how deeply the mind, body, and spirit are connected.

That transition led him on a personal healing journey, including a life-changing ayahuasca retreat in Peru that helped him reconnect with his spirituality, face his shadow, and find a new path aligned with service and purpose.

Will now works with Heroic Hearts Project and the Truxtun Foundation, two nonprofits offering holistic options for Veterans. He’s also earning his Master’s in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, specializing in Spiritual and Depth Psychology.

Based in Venice, California, Will shares the practices that supported his own recovery - surfing, yoga, sound healing, and transformational life coaching - helping others regulate their nervous systems, cultivate resilience, and step into alignment with their truth as they navigate the next chapter in their lives.

elevatedventuring.com

Or email him at: [email protected]

Heroic Hearts Project and Truxtun Foundation

https://warriorside.org/

Learn about the use of MDMA with soldiers in Ukraine here: https://www.lucid.news/maps-mdma-assisted-therapy-ukraine-war/

Some examples of Icaros can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ZyDBxPNqRvAUJQEk2hFVC?si=e51a305efd38464f

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This episode covers two primary topics: First, we chat about wearable technology, its evolving accuracy, and how to implement it to change health and fitness behaviors at scale. Second, we discuss the challenges of doing business with the military, particularly in the technology space where innovation is rapid and constant.

Geoff Wylde leads ŌURA’s Human Performance team, delivering technology solutions that help tactical and critical workforce communities optimize physical and mental readiness. Beginning with an illness‑monitoring initiative for the U.S. Air Force, his team has expanded Oura’s programs for first responders, active‑duty military, and veterans to include athletic performance, fatigue risk management, chronic stress management, and holistic health and well‑being. Before ŌURA, Geoff led programs on technology policy and industrial strategy at the World Economic Forum and spent a decade in strategy consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Outside of work, Geoff volunteers and serves on the board of Healing Waters, a nonprofit that brings chronically ill and at‑risk communities into nature through camping and whitewater rafting in Northern California.

Here's a peer reviewed validation study that compares the sleep/HRV accuracy of Garmin Fenix 6, Oura Generation 3, Oura Generation 4, Polar Grit X Pro, and Whoop 4.0.

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Dr. Rich Willy is a new Associate Professor in the PhD program in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The Ohio State University. He holds a PhD in Biomechanics and Movement Science from the University of Delaware and a Master’s of Physical Therapy from Ohio University. He is a licensed physical therapist with over two decades of clinical and academic experience. His research focuses on the biomechanics of running-related injuries, bone stress injuries, and rehabilitation strategies for tactical and athletic populations.

Dr. Willy has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and his work has been featured in high-impact journals such as British Journal of Sports Medicine, Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, and American Journal of Sports Medicine. Dr. Willy contributes to clinical practice guidelines for patellofemoral pain and running injuries. He is a frequently invited speaker at national and international conferences, including symposia for the US and International Olympic Committees, NBA teams, and sports medicine meetings.

His research has been supported by the Department of Defense and APTA Orthopaedics, among others. Current projects include optimizing load carriage biomechanics, developing sex-specific training interventions, and advancing wearable technologies for injury prevention and rehabilitation.

He and his wife also run Montana Running Lab, a hugely valuable resource curating the best clinical evidence for athletes and rehab professionals. We highly recommend their instagram as an evidence based source of information. We'll talk a bit about some of the resources available there at the end of this episode.

Our guest this week recently published an opinion piece criticizing how the Army undermines its health and fitness efforts through the poor nutrition environments on its installations. We dive into that conversation, looking at both the problems with Army nutrition, and the many ways leaders are working to fix them.

MAJ Christina Deehl is a Registered Dietitian from Army's Medical Center of Excellence where she works in the Directorate of Training and Doctrine. Her recent op ed stirred up a lot of conversation about the gap between what Army leads aspire to in the nutrition domain of H2F and the actual food environments on our installations.

Christina has 16 years of active duty service, including time with H2F at the 101st and XVIII ABC, serving as the command performance dietitian for US Army Special Operations Command, a fellowship with the Olympic Committee, clinical time at a couple hospitals, and two stints as a cultural support team leader.

Around the time we recorded, research by a team she was on was also published: Normative fat-free mass index values based on body composition method in Army personnel

Other references from the conversation:

DA PAM 30-22

AR 30-22

Fixing the Randolph Sheppard Act

GAO Report: Food Program:

DOD Should Formalize Its Process for Revising Food Ingredients and Better Track Dining Facility Use and Costs

GAO Report: DOD Food Program:

Additional Actions Needed to Implement, Oversee, and Evaluate Nutrition Efforts for Service Members

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On this episode we revisit a popular debate, but with a few new angles. This is not a typical strength vs cardio conversation, since everyone should obviously do both. Instead we focus on the "optimization" challenge of finding an appropriate balance between the two.

Baseline health guidance (both for Americans and globally) calls for 150 minutes of "moderate to vigorous physical activity" weekly, plus two days of muscle strengthening activity. That provides a starting point for minimum activity levels, but what about performance goals?

We chat about strength and endurance standards from a few different sources, as well as research on dose response to strength training vs cardio.

For the Ranger Regiment data mentioned, the more recent version is no longer available since their human performance page has been deactivated, but here's a link to the older data we discuss.

BYU/University of Minnesota study on dose-response association with mortality

Harvard/Iowa State optimum dose study

Rand study on ACFT associations with injury risk

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This week we're back for round 2 with Brian Carroll. You should definitely go back and listen to our first episode with him before you dive into this one.

We brought Brian back to ask a variety of follow up questions, some our own and some provided by you guys in your responses to the initial episode. The most frequent piece of feedback we got was about his interpretation on MRIs. We get to that a little later in the episode, so stick with it.

Other topics for this discussion include the psychology of recovering from injury, the complexity of the relationship between pain and injury, and for our video viewers he even breaks out some spine models to demonstrate a few of the concepts he discusses.

He mentions Michael Shacklock and neurodynamics a few times, if you want to learn more about that check out their page.

He also mentions a few videos they're making about MRI interpretation, here are links to the first two:

"MRI Case Study: Why They Matter and Why They Don't Tell the Whole Story"

"Does Your MRI Tell the Whole Story?"

Brian also asked that we include the following clarification in response to his exchange with Alex about Elon Musk's role in SpaceX engineering (this is copied directly from Brian's email):

"Elon Musk actually does design rockets and create technology for various aspects of rocket science and aerospace advancement. He oversees engineering and development projects for SpaceX yet only holds bachelor degrees in both economics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He began (but did not complete) a PhD program at Stanford before launching PayPal etc, he lasted 2 days in the program. He credits mentors and reading many books and studies, as have I with MRi's. "

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This week's episode is a crossover with Ray and Travis over at Coaches' AAR. If you're in the tactical human performance space, they're much more focused on the practical aspects of coaching. Where we get into strategic, policy, and cultural issues, they keep it focused on the practitioner's perspective.

Go follow Coaches' AAR on the following platforms!

Coaches' AAR on Instagram

Coaches' AAR on Spotify

MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. ⁠Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic. ⁠ 

MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TrainHeroic and you can ⁠get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.⁠

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On September 30th, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke to an audience of the US military's most senior leaders, announcing a sweeping set of policy reforms. These included a heavy emphasis on fitness, both force-wide and for particular education and training courses.

In this episode we review many of those changes. We start with a rapid overview of the "non-fitness" changes, like grooming standards and adjustments to investigation processes. After than we move into a more focused discussion of the fitness-specific changes and the ramifications these will have.

Drew mentioned our "Fitness Aptitude Test" (FAT), if you want to check that out and try it for yourself, here's a blog post about it.

MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic.  

MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TrainHeroic and you can get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.

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On this week's episode we're breaking down two recently released memos that establish guidelines for medical oversight of the Army's H2F teams.

Across the military embedded human performance is becoming a bigger and bigger part of how we train and care for service members, but having so many medical providers operating outside the clinic creates some policy challenges. Whether it's "integrated operational support," H2F, or something else, policies like these are popping up across multiple services.

The first memo is "Credentialing Policy for Certified Athletic Trainers" and it clears up some grey area about how ATs fit into the Army's medical system.

The second is "U.S. Army Medical Command Responsibility for Clinical Quality Management of Holistic Health and Fitness Program" and it applies to all medical providers on H2F teams (not just ATs). It also has important consequences for facility standards in the spaces that H2F teams provide medical care.

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If you enjoy the discussion on stoicism, pre-order our guest's book now!

On this week's episode we're diving deep (get it?) on an extremely unique corner of the military human performance world. Submariners operate in an environment unlike any other, and trying to maintain health and fitness under those conditions involves a variety of challenges. Our guest is uniquely qualified to provide insights about life in this world.

Commander William Spears is a submarine warfare officer in the U.S. Navy. A native of Pineville, Louisiana, William enlisted in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear propulsion program after high school. Upon completing technical training, he was admitted to the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 2008 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and commissioning as an officer. Today, he also holds defense-related master’s degrees from the Naval Postgraduate School, the Air Command and Staff College, and the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.

William has served in nuclear-powered submarines across a variety of classes and mission profiles, including duty as the Weapons Officer of a fast-attack submarine and the Executive Officer of a Trident missile submarine. Ashore, he has served as a tactical evaluator on an inspection team responsible to assess the combat readiness of U.S. submarines, and he currently works in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD CAPE) in the Pentagon. He will return to sea duty in the summer of 2026.

He has his own passion for exercise, which is not  always a clean fit with the culture of the submarine community, as you'll hear in this episode.

He also writes on leadership, ethics, and military topics. His book Stoicism as a Warrior Philosophy releases in the US in November.