Posted on Jul 31, 2015
"Professor awarded $2.52 million to study army physical fitness"
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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/
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/
Fitness
Army
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 22
I really hope she can use some of that money to buy a new wardrobe. Just saying.
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COL (Join to see)
You guys got way off track. I have emailed back and forth with this professor about six months ago, providing her some alternative viewpoints for her study. Unfortunately my offer to provide another control group was too complicating by adding more variables to the study. It seems like quite a bit of money to study field grade officers doing PT at Command & General Staff College, but at the end of the day, what they are comparing is running tradition PRT versus a dominant metabolic circuit training in a more competitive and coached environment. They will have data, I am sure it will show better results than soldiers doing traditional PRT that is not led by specialized coaches.
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CPT (Join to see)
COL (Join to see) - I agree that I am way off. I never took it seriously in the first place.
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Capt Daniel Goodman
I don't think it's that bad, honest...then again, my taste in clothing, esp.female,.is obv deplorable, so.clearly I know absolutely zero about such stuff, certainly, though honestly, guys, I don't think it's so awful, just my tthought, of course...I actually.like the colors, to tell the truth, then again, what do I know, ya know!
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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.
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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."
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."
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SSG Richard Reilly
I knew I wasn't the only one who thought that. I was avoiding commenting becuase I wanted to be nice...thank you!
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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
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CSM Carl Cunningham
It is funny you bring up the NFL. A lot of NFL-ish workouts are in the PRT manual. They Army did not use everything that the NFL does because of cost. PRT is having issues because we do not have NFL caliber trainers in the Army.
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SGT Augusto Juarez
CSM Carl Cunningham that and a lot of the NCOs insist on doing their own thing and that they know better and PRT iS sToOpiD.
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I really don't think this person is in a good position for this job at this time.
http://www.gofundme.com/z3qyhs
http://www.gofundme.com/z3qyhs
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The fight for marriage equality is not over. Although most of the gay community is overjoyed with the Supreme Court ruling, some are trying to circumvent the ruling using the laws that remain in place for their own personal gain. Especially when it comes to the other side of marriage equality, wh...
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MAJ (Join to see)
Seriously, the only thing all of you can come up with are sexist comments about her clothing? There are so many things to disagree with here (the academic concept and a focus on CrossFit type activity, for example). Why focus on her attire? Perhaps have a look at her CV and accomplishments before judging her ability to take on such a project based on attire: http://www.k-state.edu/kines/faculty/HeinrichCV_2015.pdf. Also, have you no idea how academic grants work?
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CPT (Join to see)
Respectfully, do you scrutinize the appearance of male professors so closely? How is that comment at all relevant to the topic?
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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?)
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?)
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SPC Robert Coventry
When I was in they weighed me and that was it, I was in Great shape and had to do remedial PT until the pinch test
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