US Army changes training methods

J-Fit

http://thenewschronicle.com/the-army-training-warriors-army-training-major-overhaul-1980/031603792/

Though this was interesting. I always wondered when the military would realise that all-out endurance training was the wrong approach to getting soldiers battle ready.

The US Army is set to ‘upgrade’ soldier training to better complement the maneuvers required in a real honest-to-goodness battle: less bayonets and more brute force sprints.
The training update will mark the first major change in the Army’s training regimen ever since men and women began training together in 1980. The change pulls from battlefield experience gained from Afghanistan and Iraq, among others, and aims to ready soldiers more for the rigors required in an actual combat situation.
“We don’t run five miles in combat, but you run across the street every day,” exclaims Frank Palkoska, the head of the Army’s Fitness School in Fort Jackson. “I’m not training long-distance runners. I’m training warriors.”
Palkoska and Fort Jackson’s Fitness School had been working on the training regime change for several years.
“They have to understand hand-to-hand combat, to use something other than their weapon, a piece of wood, a knife, anything they can pick up,” according to 1st Sgt. Michael Todd, a veteran with seven Iraq and Afghanistan deployments under his belt.
The new training setup will focus more on core body power, agility and strength, letting go of the likes of long distance runs and bayonet drills in favor of core muscle development and zigzag sprints. The change also aims to further educate soldiers from a ‘more obese and sedentary generation’, claiming that the soldiers of today probably did not have sufficient physical education all throughout their school years, significantly affecting their bone and muscle strength.
“We just have to take the soldier who’s used to sitting on the couch playing video games and get them out there to do it,” shares Capt. Kenny Fleming, an Army veteran of 10 years.

Cookie_Monster

Interesting and probably required but I'm not sure of the point of totally abandoning the longer distance running. I would imagine its a good way to keep up general fitness

d'Oracle

I think crossfit have some project/campaign to do something similar with the US Marines. But it has met with some resistance.

cmyk

d'Oracle wrote: »

I think crossfit have some project/campaign to do something similar with the US Marines. But it has met with some resistance.

Due to risk of injury perhaps.

Transform

agreed and they are doing it in forthworth at the mo.

do not think its injury related as long running would prove more 'dangerous'

e.g. runners world ran a survey recently and over the course of a year 66% of runners were injured at some point!

d'Oracle

cmyk wrote: »

Due to risk of injury perhaps.

As opposed to what?

There is an injury risk with any physically stressful activity worth doing.

eroo

Endurance will still be a huge part of it. The reason being long route marches with 20-30 kilos. Not much fun.

opinion guy

I would have thought the obvious thing to add in to Army training was Parkour, no ?

cmyk

d'Oracle wrote: »

As opposed to what?

There is an injury risk with any physically stressful activity worth doing.

As opposed to choosing a protocol with a lesser risk of injury. I'm not pro-crossfit and I'm not against it either, just putting forward a possible reason.

d'Oracle

cmyk wrote: »

As opposed to choosing a protocol with a lesser risk of injury. I'm not pro-crossfit and I'm not against it either, just putting forward a possible reason.

Like sitting on ones ass?
Long distance runs in Boots with a gansai load of weight on you carry a high risk of injury. Thats a big part of what they do.

cmyk

d'Oracle wrote: »

Like sitting on ones ass?
Long distance runs in Boots with a gansai load of weight on you carry a high risk of injury. Thats a big part of what they do.

There are options other than crossfit and sitting on one's ass!

I'm fully aware that with any increase in physical activity comes an increased risk of injury, but first and foremost should be the reduction in that risk. I simply put forward a possible reason why they may not want to run with a crossfit protocol.

I didn't advocate long distance runs with weight either, though I can see how a certain part of that would crossover, but then aside from watching full metal jacket etc. I don't really know what sort of tasks they cover in the field.

d'Oracle

cmyk wrote: »

There are options other than crossfit and sitting on one's ass!

Indeed there are.

BobbyOLeary

Good to see, the US Army has a huge sample size so it'll be interesting to see the results. I can't see it having a negative impact anyhow.

I remember reading something by a US Marine about CrossFit where he was saying that it was making big strides in the Marine Corp but wasn't really going anywhere in the Army due to it's huge size. I guess it's harder to make wholesale changes to such a large organisation.

On the injury issue I do believe there's been a few studies (albeit not exactly New England Journal of Medicine stuff) which showed lower injury rates in CrossFit than typical PT. Though that could be due to the fact that the people trained with CrossFit were under the eye of skilled trainers, something that may not occur if spread to such a wide field as the US Army.

cc87

I dont really know much about the army training but i would imagine that part of it would involve enduring minor injuries and carrying on with the training in order to prepare them for when their on duty. Then, at the same time, im guessing for some these minnor injuries lead to bigger and more debilitating injuries.

As for the army using crossfit, i have a pdf of different crossfit or bodyweight workouts and the source for the more extreme ones would be from navy seal training guides
i.e.
4 rounds for time of:
50 pushups
50 situps
50 4ct flutterkicks
or
20 -16-12-8-4 reps of:
One-arm pushups
One-legged squats

So im guessing crossfit style workouts are in the army or marines but just not in the basic training