MOPs & MOEs

We have ongoing conversations here about fitness in the military, disability policies, changes to testing, and so much more. Because many of these are hot topics, they often attract media coverage, which can have both positive and negative consequences. To help shed some light on the complex relationship between the media and the military, especially with regard to health and fitness issues, we brought in an expert for this episode.

Todd South is Editor-at-large for Military Times, which publishes Air Force Times, Army Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times. Todd has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd served as a Marine in the Iraq War, and some of his favorite topics include marksmanship and fitness.

As a special bonus, stay tuned until the end of the episode to get some pro tips on how to put together Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from someone who has extensive experience doing them.

Todd makes several references throughout the episode to places you can go to learn more about journalism, here are the links if you want to go check them out:

The Braindead Megaphone: the titular essay from this collection by George Saunders presages some of the modern social media problems with which we’re all now grappling.

All I know is What I Read in the Papers (explains what the public gets wrong about reporters and how they do their work in a very funny way). This essay is available either as a Kindle single or in the essay collection titled “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs.”

The News: A User's Manual which Todd describes as being how news should be viewed, read and frankly, produced. Many of the sentiments expressed had rattle around his head starting with his first bylines in 2004. He wishes all creators and consumers of news media would read it.

Intimate Journalism: The Art and Craft of Reporting Everyday Life, which he describes as simply a classic that should be studied more by journalists at every level.

This episode offers an awesome lens into a really unique corner of the human performance world: NASCAR pit crews. These teams perform physically and cognitively demanding tasks under highly stressful conditions where speed and teamwork are both vital. Our guests are not only accomplished pit crew athletes in their own right, but also coaches who have led teams to achieve at the highest levels.

Shaun Peet and Mike Metcalf are the co-founders DECK Leadership and co-authors of 12 Second Culture. They are working to transforming the modern workplace by uncovering opportunities for Diversity, Efficiency, Culture, and Kindness rooted in the principles of a pit crew experience. Together they have over 25 years of experience in NASCAR and have worked with many Fortune 500 companies. They are Co-Head Pit Crew Coaches and Directors of Culture and Community at Trackhouse Racing.

Shaun played hockey in the Ivy League at Dartmouth College, where he picked up a double major in Psychology and Sociology. He then played eight years in the minor leagues. A chance meeting with a fan then afforded him an opportunity to work in NASCAR as a Jackman on a pit crew for the next 12 years where he was a part of the Red Bull Racing Crew that won the 2008 World Pit Crew Championships.

Mike was a fullback for Appalachian State University football and then entered the world of motorsports in 2006 as a member of a NASCAR Pit Crew. In addition to competing he started coaching in 2012. He's also very engaged with several volunteering efforts in his community.

Tune in to find out what principles they use to build elite pit crew teams, and how this episode only came to be thanks to chance meeting following a car wreck in a tiny French village.

You can order their book 12 Second Culture here.

We're back with another practical episode, and this time it is how to implement autoregulation into your coaching and/or training. We start out by laying out the foundational concepts that underpin autoregulation, specifically the difference between external and internal load, then we discuss rating of perceived exertion scales. But most importantly, we talk through the reasons why we think it's important and some strategies for incorporating it into your training.

Autoregulation is particularly important in tactical populations because of its utility in adjusting group workouts when the group contains a wide diversity of fitness levels. Equipping them with an understanding of RPE is an easy way to start individualizing training even when you can't necessarily individualize the programming itself.

There aren't a whole lot of research references for this episode since we focused on practical application, but here are the ones we mentioned and a few we didn't:

Barbell Medicine's great article on autoregulation and RPE.

As part of their discussion on measuring the intensity of physical activity, the CDC actually has a page on RPE.

Small scale research indicates that athletes can learn to accurately apply RPE in as little as a few weeks.

Self-selected exercise improves athlete's enjoyment of training due to the higher levels of autonomy they experience (but on average they're less likely to self-select higher intensities).

Self-selected cardiovascular training intensity correlates more strongly with ventilatory threshold than percent of peak heart rate (this ties to some of our conversations about how to determine "zone 2").

LTG (R) Mark Hertling may be best known these days as a national security correspondent for CNN, where you'll often here him discussing the latest developments in Ukraine. But throughout his accomplished military career his interest in the health and fitness of soldiers was a major theme.

His 2012 TED Talk "Obesity is a National Security Issue" has over three million views on YouTube, and is frequently cited in conversations about how obesity and lack of physical activity impact the readiness of our military. But we can trace his interest in fitness much earlier than that. He got his Masters in Kinesiology in 1984 before heading off to instruct in West Point's Department of Physical Education. Shortly after that assignment he wrote his 1987 CGSC thesis titled "Physical Training for the Modern Battlefield: Are we Tough Enough?" Ultimately, he applied much of this knowledge as TRADOC's Deputy Commander for Initial Military Training where he oversaw a major overhaul of the Army's Basic Combat Training.

His involvement in these issues certainly didn't end when he took off the uniform, he went on to serve on the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, as well as serving on the board of Mission: Readiness. More recently he authored "Growing Physician Leaders" and he has held several leadership roles in the healthcare space.

LTG Hertling's unique perspective on some of the topics we discuss here most often makes this episode particularly valuable. You'll hear about the challenges our leaders face, even at the highest levels, trying to make real change in how the military approaches fitness, nutrition, and health.

We have a quick bonus (emergency?) episode here to address the rampant confusion around some Congressional language that has taken the internet by storm the last couple days. On page 17 of the executive summary of the NDAA markup by the Senate Armed Services Committee, one particular sentence alarmed many of you:

"Restores the Army's Physical Fitness Test (APFT) as the test of record and requires a 24month pilot program, briefing to Congress, and a one year waiting period before a new standard can be implemented."

As this excerpt has made its rounds on the internet, many people clearly thought it was already official. That is far from reality. Nothing has changed, and it is important that we clear up the confusion here. This short episode will explain a bit of the context, plus a little big of bonus insight into Army fitness policy that you might not know about.

You can find the EXSUM that start all of this here.

You can find the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel markup, with its conflicting language, here.

You can find the contents of DA PAM 611-21 (in smartbook format) here.

This episode is a slight detour from our normally military-focused content into the world of wildland firefighting. Katrina Mohr was recently featured on Outside Online where she talked about her path into firefighting as well as the challenges of being a small woman in an extremely physically demanding job. There were some great insights there, so we invited her to join us for a conversation as well.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) DeLellis leads research focused on traumatic brain injury, including managing the longest continually running TBI surveillance project in the Special Operations community and co-authoring more than 30 articles on TBI in SOF. But in this episode we aren't here to discuss the research he's had success in, we're here to discuss the research he hasn't been able to get off the ground. On numerous occasions he has tried and failed to initiate research projects on nutrition for soldiers, and we brought him on to talk about why that might be.

LTC (R) Delellis had a truly incredible career in the Army, with combat service in essentially every conflict the United States has participated in in the last four decades. He was on the ground in Operation Just Cause (Panama,) Operation Gothic Serpent (Mogadishu, Somalia), Operation Uphold Democracy (Haiti), Operation Deliberate Force (The Balkans), and eleven rotations in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

He entered active duty as a Private in 1983 and went on to serve as an Infantryman, Team Leader, Squad Leader, and Battalion Assistant Operations Sergeant for the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield. From 1988 to 1998 LTC DeLellis served as a Team Member and Team Leader in the Army’s Special Missions Unit at Fort Bragg, NC.

Upon graduating from Physician Assistant School, LTC DeLellis served as the Battalion PA for 3rd Battalion, 325th Infantry, 82nd Airborne division, and the Battalion PA for 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group. From 2004 to 2014 he served as a Squadron PA, Family Medicine Clinic Supervisor, and Deputy Surgeon for the Army’s Special Missions Unit. LTC DeLellis served briefly as the Deputy Surgeon for the XVIII Airborne Corps before moving back to USASOC as the Chief of Medical Training and the Deputy Command Surgeon.

Today, DeLellis is the Executive Director of the Fort Bragg Research Institute, a program of The Geneva Foundation, where he continues his important work supporting the operational needs of the warfighter.

Learn more about the Fort Bragg Research Institute here

Learn more about the North Carolina Center for Optimizing Military Performance (NC-COMP) here

We discussed some DoD obesity data which can be found here

We also discussed comparisons in obesity rates between branches which can be found here

This episode is a crossover between the Instagram version of MOPs & MOEs (punchy, oversimplified, sometimes deliberately instigating, etc.) and the podcast version of MOPs & MOEs (more thought out, addressing nuance, etc.).

I (Alex) recently connected with Taylor Starch over a discussion about spinal flexion in strength training. Seeing some of Taylor's subsequent content got me thinking about the outsized influence of powerlifting on strength and conditioning in general, and especially the tactical space. While powerlifting is not alone in this, it does seem to face the least scrutiny - squat, bench, and deadlift are broadly accepted as the core of strength and conditioning.

If you missed my post articulating this, this episode is essentially a discussion about how that conversation rapidly devolved. Since Taylor sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place, we thought we'd include him in the discussion, and he added some really interesting perspective.

Taylor Starch has his bachelors in health and exercise science and health promotion from Colorado State, where he was on the cycling team and competed at the national level. Since then he has accumulated roughly fifteen years of experience from personal training to running his own company and now to tactical. His last six years spent in tactical have included time with Air Force Special Warfare and currently with the 56th Fighter Wing. Along the way he has acquired an astonishingly extensive list of professional certifications, and if you follow him you'll quickly learn that he's a big trail runner.

You can find Taylor on Instagram

Drew mentioned an Elon Musk video discussing first principles

Alex mentioned a study showing mixed results from the Tactical Athlete Performance Center

This is a special episode, in more ways than just being twice as long as the rest. Dr Whitfield "Chip" East literally wrote the book on the history of Army physical fitness, and the incredible depth of knowledge he has on historical physical culture is absolutely astonishing. His insight reveals that many of the problems we're reckoning with today are echoes of extremely similar problems from decades ago.

Dr. East played an integral role in the development and implementation of the ACFT, and you'll see over the course of this episode how it fits into the broader context of Army fitness history. As we chronologically work our way through a couple hundred years of history we pause at key junctures to discuss the implication of these events for our current fitness culture.

I (Alex) have been lucky enough to be both taught by and work alongside Dr. East, and every visit to his office led to a fascinating conversation. This episode is no exception, and you'll definitely learn something interesting. From the origins of Turnverein gymnastics training to the role of political and social trends in military fitness to tracing the history of fitness testing, we cover centuries of relevant history in this conversation.

Most of the episode centers around summarizing key pieces of Dr. East's book A Historical Review and Analysis of Army Physical Readiness Training and Assessment (available as a free pdf here)

Dr. East also makes several references to West Point's Indoor Obstacle Course Test (IOCT). For those who are unfamiliar, these videos provide some context:

IOCT Men's Record: Matthew Bassette

IOCT Women's Record: Elizabeth Bradley