"Professor awarded $2.52 million to study army physical fitness"

2015-07-31T14:56:56-04:00

From: K State Collegian

Katie Heinrich, assistant professor of kinesiology, has been awarded a grant for approximately $2.52 million to study how the U.S. military conducts physical fitness.

Heinrich said there have always been concerns about how well the army physical fitness program prepared soldiers for combat. One concern, obesity, has also been increasing in the military – just as it has in the general population.

“What we’re proposing is a new type of physical program that honestly is already being done on a lot of our installations,” Heinrich said. “But we’re proposing a clinical trial to randomize people to either the usual physical training program that they do, or this high intensity functional training program to see which one works better at addressing body fat percentage.”

Heinrich is the principal K-State investigator to receive the grant along with Walker Poston of the National Research and Development Institutes in Leawood, Kansas.

“In the last two years, the (Department of Defense) has come out with a new perspective of fitness,” Poston said. “They think that fitness is much broader than the way they’ve been testing it.”

The current army physical fitness test includes two minutes in which soldiers do as many pushups as they can, two minutes in which they do as many sit-ups as they can and run two miles as fast as they can. This is done with 10-20 minute breaks in between each, according to the army physical fitness test manual.

Poston said the military has been working on ways of implementing balance, agility and other types of fitness into their tests. The study Heinrich and Poston is doing involves High Intensity Interval Training, which has some of the same exercises as CrossFit, as well as 400-meter sprints. Poston said the study itself won’t be using CrossFit necessarily, even though CrossFit provides a good model.

“It just so happens that CrossFit is a good template,” Poston said. “It implements a lot of that.”

John Buckwalter, dean of the College of Human Ecology, said the grant Heinrich received is a big deal.

“It’s sort of like the premier grant to get,” Buckwalter said.

Heinrich said the idea for the study came from her experiences in Hawaii, where she started doing CrossFit.

“When I started CrossFit in Hawaii, I met tons of people from all branches of the military,” Heinrich said. “In fact, the owner of CrossFit Oahu was a Navy SEAL. So, here I was working out next to Navy SEALs, and in time got to realize that they’re just regular people.”

Heinrich said soldiers often went to the gym for training similar to military physical fitness, because what their units were putting them through was not challenging enough to improve their fitness test scores. Some would do the gym training in addition to their unit’s training, while some would just do the gym training.

Heinrich said there were stories of people who took each approach and did amazingly well on their fitness tests, even though they weren’t necessarily doing the same type of training as their peers. That was one thing that gave Heinrich the idea for the study, she said.

“That was part of it,” Heinrich said. “The other part is you also have to look at what opportunities are being offered by the government for grants.”

Heinrich said there was a grant which involved addressing the health of military populations. Researchers had the option to look at diabetes, body fat or other measures of health.

Heinrich said she had also done some previous work looking at a study where the DOD examined body composition, and found their rates of overweight and obese soldiers were higher than ideal. She had also done work with a civilian at Fort Riley, who had done another version of the high intensity physical training Heinrich and her team will be using in their research. She said the civilian had seen fitness scores improve in his program.

http://www.kstatecollegian.com/2014/09/10/professor-awarded-2-52-million-to-study-army-physical-fitness/

Professor awarded $2.52 million to study army physical fitness

[Katie Heinrich, along with others from Kansas City and Leawood will conduct research at Fort Leavenworth to improve army fitness program]

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 31 at 2015 2:58 PM

2015-07-31T14:58:13-04:00

I really hope she can use some of that money to buy a new wardrobe. Just saying.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 31 at 2015 3:16 PM

2015-07-31T15:16:18-04:00

So THAT's where PRT came from!

Response by Capt Richard I P. made Jul 31 at 2015 3:20 PM

2015-07-31T15:20:07-04:00

RallyPoint Shared Content This is a worthwhile professional topic. Good Choice. Openings for professional discussion of PT standards, government grants and awarding of public money.

Response by SSgt Alex Robinson made Jul 31 at 2015 3:22 PM

2015-07-31T15:22:27-04:00

How do I sign up to conduct studies for the military?

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Jul 31 at 2015 3:31 PM

2015-07-31T15:31:15-04:00

This aligns with a comment I made the other day.

When we study & take almost any other test or battery of tests, we don't know the answers in advance. We go in blind, and we are scored based on our performance. Why is physical fitness any different?

The services are generally speaking the same. We have a three battery exam, in which we know the answers. It is an upper body test (push ups or pull ups), a lower body or endurance test (run), and a core test (sit ups). Three very simple test.

If this were a mental exam, like the ASVAB, we would be accused of cheating.

We don't actually "train." We practice for the test. There is something inherently wrong with this, especially since this battery of tests is designed to measure HEALTH. In addition to that, it has somehow been tied to things unrelated to health like promotion. How physically healthy someone is not a "promotable standard."

Yes, I get it is a lead by example issue. I don't disagree with that. I do disagree with the metric having DIRECT correlation with promotability.

This article is great because it shows that the US Army is actually willing to invest in how physical fitness is conducted. It challenges the assertion that "this is the best way."

Response by CMSgt Mark Schubert made Jul 31 at 2015 4:32 PM

2015-07-31T16:32:36-04:00

I really don't think this person is in a good position for this job at this time.
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Response by PVT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 31 at 2015 4:50 PM

2015-07-31T16:50:35-04:00

I pick things up and put them back down

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 1 at 2015 2:42 PM

2015-08-01T14:42:03-04:00

Hmmm...she has large hands, no?

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Aug 1 at 2015 7:46 PM

2015-08-01T19:46:24-04:00

Is that a dude?

Response by SGT(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 1 at 2015 7:55 PM

2015-08-01T19:55:17-04:00

I have said for years the the Army could get a couple strength and conditioning coaches from the NFL the draw up a plan during the off season that would have the force looking like running backs. would cost a bit more than 3 mill, but you do get what you pay for

Response by SSG (ret) William Martin made Aug 1 at 2015 8:05 PM

2015-08-01T20:05:17-04:00

I hope she won't end up putting shrimp on a treadmill for underwater tests and she'll find out that we need to do is pool workouts.

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Aug 2 at 2015 1:55 AM

2015-08-02T01:55:27-04:00

Do I detect a trace of adam's apple?

Response by SPC Kortney Kistler made Aug 2 at 2015 10:31 AM

2015-08-02T10:31:53-04:00

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The simple fact will always remain that you can do push-ups, sit-ups, and the 2 mile run almost anywhere for an APFT. The problem lies within the training program itself. PT programs themselves are a quandary in a deployment situation. There are far more important things to worry about in a forward area than PT like I don't know, winning the war. It is pretty irritating when you're trying to rollout for a mission and there is a formation running down the main road blocking traffic.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 2 at 2015 3:59 PM

2015-08-02T15:59:04-04:00

I agree that in the past the Army's fitness program has been too limited in the number of exercises during group led sessions and has not in the past utilized enough body weight training combined with high impact cardio training. One size does not fit all.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 4 at 2015 8:40 PM

2015-09-04T20:40:46-04:00

I can't help but think that the government is overthinking this one, especially with regard to obesity. A couple of quotes that could apply that give a pretty good answer to this so-called "difficult" question are as follows:

"Weight is lost in the kitchen, not in the gym."
"You can't outrun a bad diet."

Functional exercises make people better at performing that particular function. As they burn more calories, a phenomenon known as "hunger" occurs as the body tries to offset that caloric burn with increased intake.

The important key here is ensuring Soldiers have ready access to solid nutrition information and are provided the opportunity to make healthier choices in what foods they intake. If they choose not to exercise the healthy route and instead spend their weekends knee-deep in pizza and beer, and they fail the ABCP standards, they have only themselves to blame. Not PRT, crossfit, or any other training program.

Beyond that, if there are mental barriers in the way of making proper diet choices, such as (frequently misdiagnosed) eating disorders, those Soldiers need access to medical care. The Army will also probably need them separated from service, especially during a time of dramatic drawdowns.

Response by SGT Jerrold Pesz made Sep 5 at 2015 8:03 PM

2015-09-05T20:03:47-04:00

Seems to me that they could study PT program for a lot less than 2.5 million bucks.

Response by SPC(P) Jay Heenan made Sep 6 at 2015 8:43 PM

2015-09-06T20:43:07-04:00

Ummm, am I missing something? Hasn't Army Physical Fitness program been studied already? They created two new regulations (one no longer valid)...

Response by PV2 Scott Goodpasture made Oct 16 at 2015 4:59 PM

2015-10-16T16:59:47-04:00

Hey, stop lacing our food with growth hormones. Poof I'm a Ph.D.

Response by SMSgt Roy Dowdy made Oct 25 at 2016 10:58 PM

2016-10-25T22:58:30-04:00

What a boondoggle!

Response by SSG Delanda Hunt made Nov 3 at 2016 9:29 PM

2016-11-03T21:29:04-04:00

I could have saved the Army 2.52 million "It sucks"

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Oct 19 at 2019 9:56 PM

2019-10-19T21:56:15-04:00

That is useful, good catchj....

Response by SGT Augusto Juarez made May 10 at 2020 6:13 PM

2020-05-10T18:13:18-04:00

It’s great that they care about physical fitness, but I don’t think forcing CrossFit on soldiers is the answer, especially if there is no plan to ensure every NCO is proficient in the principles and implementation of CrossFit methodology. (They won’t.) I’ve reviewed the old Army fitness manuals since the early 1900s. They usually are based on sound science and training methods. Army physical fitness training has mostly been good in theory, it’s in the implementation that the breakdown happens.

I have no idea how units run theirs, all I know are the two I was in—both Infantry 5-10 years ago. They prioritized high APFT scores, did a long Monday run and a Thursday ruck. Both were pretty much just meant to break-off people who were slow, and through social shame maybe incentivize them to learn how to run and ruck faster on their own. In one unit soldiers who score 300 are supposedly rewarded by only having to do PT with their unit once a week, though this was never enforced. In both units the physical fitness issue seems to lie in the meathead culture of “just pushing yourself” and bad/lazy/inefficient leadership somewhere in the chain. Physical Training manuals have always been available, yet NCOs insist that smoking their Joes is what will make them stronger, or they are severely micromanaged. PRT was covered in WLC, and every NCO should be familiar with it; all one would have to do is follow the instructions.

This of course comes from a very biased perspective. I have a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science and have 20+ professional fitness certifications, and cannot expect every NCO to have this much specialization in one aspect of the job. But even with my credentials, the only times I have actually been able to use it to improve my team’s fitness was when my Squad Leader gave me free reign to do so. (We worked with our “difficult” guy instead of badgering him, and he actually scored 80 points higher on his APFT. Who knew?)

Response by SSG Greg Miech made Jan 20 at 2021 2:13 PM

2021-01-20T14:13:27-05:00

How do they justify over $2 million for this study? Work out feel better, do not work out, feel bad.
Obesity? Keep in mind about 10% of those with the MOH would not have made the weight standards at the time.