MOPs & MOEs

Our guest for this episode has been on Active Duty for over 34 years, with much of that spent in Special Operations, and he's still scoring 600s on his ACFTs. Our wide ranging conversation covers everything from how he's maintained a high level of physical performance across his long career to the role that physicality plays in developing young leaders. We even dig into ideas for improving the health and fitness culture across our country.

Lieutenant General Steve Gilland commissioned into the United States Army upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1990. As an Infantry Officer, he served in a variety of tactical assignments in Air Assault, Armor, Mechanized Infantry, Ranger, and Special Operations units. He has served in the 24th Infantry Division, the 2nd Infantry Division, the 75th Ranger Regiment, the United States Army Special Operations Command, the 1st Cavalry Division, the 101st Airborne Division, the 2nd Infantry Division, the III Armored Corps, and the United States Military Academy.

Lieutenant General Gilland has commanded at every level up to Division and participated in numerous operational deployments to the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan.

Prior to assuming duties as USMA’s 61st Superintendent, he served as the Deputy Commanding General (Maneuver) of III Armored Corps, Fort Hood (known as Fort Cavazos since 2023), Texas.

Lieutenant General Gilland holds a Master's Degree in Military Operational Art and Science from the Air Force Command and Staff College.

He has the long list of awards you would expect, plus he has earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, and - notably less common than the rest - the Military Free Fall Jumpmaster Badge.

Lieutenant General Gilland has been happily married to his West Point classmate Betsy, for more than 33 years. Team Gilland are the proud parents of three children.

Our guest this week is a key player in two important research and policy initiatives. First, she led the Army Comprehensive Body Composition (ACBC) study that led to the recent updates to body composition policy. Second, she leads the Female Elite Warfighter (FEW) research initiative which focuses on identifying the characteristics that make women successful in elite combat training courses. We discuss both of these ongoing efforts in this conversation.

Holly McClung is a Nutritional Physiologist for the Military Performance Division at the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) in Natick, MA.

She earned her Master of Science Degree in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire and obtained her certification as a Registered Dietitian through course work at Cornell University and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Holly is dual-trained in nutrition and exercise physiology, holding certifications as a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics and Certified Exercise Physiologist.

On the Military Performance Team Holly functions as a principal investigator leading work in the female Warfighter and special populations workspace. Her work group is focused on designing and implementing research to quantify and model individualized energy and nutritional needs of modern Warfighters.

She led the Army’s modern body composition study, and her research supports the 2023 updates to the Army Body Composition Policy (AR 600-9).

Holly has published more than 45 peer-reviewed publications and holds two patents on a mobile metabolic sensor system intended for personal use. Most recently her attention has been on characterizing the physiological, metabolic, and cognitive profile of elite Warfighters going through the modern Ranger Training Course to determine
whether differences exist between sexes.

She also has some really interesting forthcoming research based on the Army body composition study pending publication that we'll keep you guys posted on. And most importantly, she's a member of Leg Tuck Nation.

A selection of her publications:

"Development and cross-validation of a circumference-based predictive equation to estimate body fat in an active population"

"The Rise of the Female Warfighter: Physiology, Performance, and Future Directions"

"Physiology of Health and Performance: Enabling Success of Women in Combat Arms Roles"

"Physical and Physiological Characterization of Female Elite Warfighters"

"Psychological and Sociological Profile of Women Who Have Completed Elite Military Combat Training"

Contracting is a dominant theme in military human performance because so much of the staffing for military human performance teams is handled through large contracts. In this week's episode we break down some of the key issues with defense contracting that make things harder in human performance.

If we can't define the value of coaches, "least price technically acceptable" quickly becomes "lowest bidder." And that creates a race to the bottom for coaching salaries.

Stricter requirements for coach certification might be counterproductive if pay doesn't increase. We've seen other related professions require higher degrees without the salaries to justify the additional schooling.

Personal services contracting only happens within specific exemptions, mostly reserved for medical and special operations. Non-personal services comes with limitations that make it harder to get the right people.

It's hard to come up with who is "at fault" for some of the current problems, because these systems are complicated. But we have to have these conversations if we're going to make any progress.

In this wide ranging and long overdue episode we talk about everything from kettlebell training to data literacy. Our guest is something of a godfather in the tactical strength and conditioning space, and if you don't know who he is you're missing out. He's been around the space in both academic and industry roles and is one of the smartest guys in the game.

Chris Frankel, PhD, has over 40 years of experience, including significant contributions to fitness, sports performance, and tactical training through his roles in academia, coaching, and instructor development.

Dr. Frankel earned his doctorate in health, exercise, and sports science from the University of New Mexico and has developed and delivered evidence-based fitness education worldwide. He is a self-described gym rat and science geek, and he says he's currently fighting the good fight against age-related decline, but based on the handful of sessions where I've trained with him I'd say he's winning.

Chris is the Head of Performance Innovation at BeaverFit USA, and if you're wondering how to better utilize Beaverfit equipment at your unit, he'll blow your mind.

In this episode we answer questions submitted by you guys!

Topics covered include PED use in the military, NCAA athletes now being allowed to smoke weed, hybrid programming considerations, eccentric training, herniated disc recovery, and more.

We discuss several references:

This blog post about physical training in the reserve component

The first ever study on DOMS from 1902

This blog post on the Heavy-Light-Medium programming method

Our fillable, DA form lookalike PT planning guide

Anyone who's familiar with the Army's Pregnancy and Postpartum Physical Training (P3T) program has probably heard pretty negative things about it. Historically, women have avoided participating if they can get out of it, and if they can't they've been disappointed by what they got out of it.

Our guest on this week's episode is changing that. She's bringing modern human performance to P3T and traveling around the around training leader's on up to date principles and methods.

Kelsey Mathias is a pelvic health Occupational Therapist. Her career has been spent in private practice and working with U.S Military Service Members and Veterans. She currently works as a contractor supporting the U.S Army as an instructor training leaders from interdisciplinary teams on a holistic approach to pregnancy and postpartum physical training.

In the episode Kelsey references the updated policies which can be found in Army Directive 2022-06.

As a reminder, like all of our guests, the views expressed by Kelsey Mathias do not reflect the views of the government.

We reached out to our guest for this week's episode after he testified before Congress and used the opportunity to repeatedly highlight military human performance programs. He was also our first guest to tune in from the Pentagon Briefing Room.

Troy Black is the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the most senior NCO in the entire United States military. We were particularly interested in having him on when we saw that the #2 priority on his strategy document is Holistic Human Performance.

SEAC Black assumed his current post as the 5th SEAC on Nov. 3rd, 2023 following his selection and service as the 19th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he attended recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., in April of 1988 and attended the School of Infantry and Marine Corps Security Force School.

Throughout his career, SEAC Black has been assigned numerous duties to include: Machine Gunner, Machine Gun Squad and Section Leader; Weapons Platoon Sergeant and Weapons Platoon Commander; Drill Instructor, Senior Drill Instructor, Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) Platoon Sergeant and Operations Chief, Series Gunnery Sergeant, DI School Instructor, and RTR Drill Master; First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, 3d Bn, 7th Marines, Combat Logistics Battalion 5, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Marine Logistics Group, and Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

He has deployed in support of Operation Just Cause, Operation Sea Soldier, Desert Storm/Desert Shield, and Sea Angel; Operation Iraqi Freedom II (OIF), Operation Bright Star, Operation Iraqi Freedom IV (OIF) ; Operation Enduring Freedom in 2010; WESTPAC 14.2 and Operation Inherent Resolve.

SEAC Black has a Bachelor of Science in Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies from National American University and graduated from the Joint Special Operations Forces Senior Enlisted Academy December of 2011.

Two years into this and we've fielded a lot of questions that relate to injuries. Since we're not experts in that space, we brought a professional on board! John Romanello is a Physical Therapist with experience in both the conventional Army and special operations. In this episode he breaks down the science behind injury risk, what we can do to prevent injuries, and some of the important considerations to ensure successful rehabilitation after injury.

If this episode has you interested on how you can better rehab your own nagging injuries and lower your risk for reinjury, check out the our blueprints and master plans!

John also wrote a blog post on all of this, including references to relevant research.

At the beginning of the episode we mentioned Shrier, Impellizzeri, and Stovitz's piece about the misguided semantic fights over "injury prevention."

If you need some rehab hype, it's hard to beat Adrian Peterson's comeback from a torn ACL/MCL to MVP of the NFL in the following season.

The ACFT has been a hot topic since the day it was announced. Even now, after a few years, myths and misconceptions persist. We've seen a lot of these in our comments and messages, and we thought it was time to address a few.

In this episode we break down a little bit of the history behind how the test was developed, the reasoning behind a few of the events, and the validity (or lack thereof) of some of the common criticisms of the test.

Here are some of the references mentioned, if you want to dive deeper:

"Prediction of simulated battlefield physical performance from field-expedient tests" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18251329/ )

Pilot testing of two proposed alternative fitness tests, the APRT and the ACRT (https://www.army.mil/article/55446/new-army-pt-tests-army-physical-readiness-test-army-combat-readiness-test/)

"Correlations between Physical Fitness Tests and Performance of Military Tasks: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA607688.pdf )

"Development of a New Army Standardized Physical Readiness Test" (https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD1011066.pdf )

Final report of the BSPRRS study published (https://www.iadlest.org/Portals/0/AD1097586%20Baseline%20Soldier%20Physical%20Readiness%20Requirements%20Study.pdf )

Our episode with Dr. East, who was involved in much of the work linked above: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0vjeGEOqUwnkokRrSrgJKL

Jessie Graff is probably best known for her athletic achievements on the obstacle course show American Ninja Warrior. In 2016, she became the first woman ever to complete Stage 1 of the Las Vegas Finals course. In 2017, she became the first woman to compete in, and to successfully finish, Stage 2.

Her athletic evolution started with circus classes, which led her to gymnastics, then pole vault. All of that, combined with a base of martial arts training and a theater major in college led her to stunt work. She has made stunt double appearances in X-Men: First Class, Bridesmaids, John Carter, Sons of Anarchy and The Mandalorian. She both acted in a doubled Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman 1984.

As you might expect from her career, she has had her fair share of injuries, we won't spoil the full list, but a theme you'll hear in this conversation is the mindset, resilience, and adaptability to navigate those challenges.

It's also fitting that this episode comes shortly after our home gym conversation, because Jessie takes that to an entirely different level. While most of us live in homes that happen to have some gym equipment in them, Jessie lives in a gym that happen to has a home in it.

You might notice that when she talks about being a top finisher competitively she doesn't talk about her place among the women, she only talks about her ranking among everyone, including the men.

Cooking a meal while hanging from the ceiling

Pushing the limits of the kinds of activity her house makes possible (including a zip line)

Jessie navigating her stairs and hallway without touching the floor

Jessie building her gym home