Washington had his troops. Patton had his tanks. Nimitz had his carriers, Grant his cannons, and LeMay his bombers. Todays' fighting forces have all those things and more. Modern soldiers rely on high tech tools to fight that are just as indispensable as guns and bullets, such as drones, GPS and robotics. Yet when push comes to shove, fighting the good fight always comes down to an individual solider putting forward his or her best effort.
History is replete with examples where a single solider made a difference. Most notable are those instances where individual heroism under impossible circumstances saved lives or changed the course of battles. But for every Medal of Honor winner there are thousands of other less significant moments where a single solider had to make a decision on how to proceed that made a difference. And so just as weapons systems have been improved, so too should the means to maximize the mental and physical abilities of individual troops be brought up to date.
Recognizing this the Army has retooled its overall guidance on fitness. When last published as the FM 7-22 "Army Physical Readiness Training" manual in 2012, it was long on pushups. Chapter 6 is 116 pages long with headings like "Modified Triceps Extension" and "Leg Tuck and Twist." An explanatory note in chapter 1 says it all: "Military leaders have always recognized that the effectiveness of Soldiers depends largely on their physical condition. Full spectrum operations place a premium on the Soldier's strength, stamina, agility, resiliency, and coordination. Victory—and even the Soldier's life—so often depend upon these factors." Put simply, being able to hump a 60-pound pack in the rain in the dark up a hill can indeed mean the difference between life and death.
But there was a recognition that while physical strength is important, it is just one component of the job. And that's why the new FM 7-22 manual released this month is titled "Holistic Health and Fitness." It's not that the ability to scale a wall or ford a stream isn't important anymore. It's just that everything we've learned over the past several years about how to function at peak efficiency involves more than just strength and stamina, whether the hostile takeover you're dealing with is at the office or on the battlefield.
To be sure, soldiering requires a high level of bodily engagement, more so than doing battle in a court of law. And so physical readiness is still front and center. But rather than focusing on reps of single leg dead-lifts and flexed arm hangs, this new approach looks at fitness in terms of movement. It's the precision, progression and integration of that movement in running, marching or swimming that leads to the highest levels of performance. And the manual lays out that approach in detail.
What's also new is the weight given to the other components of being a healthy, well-rounded individual. There are chapters on nutrition, stressing vegetables and whole grains. There are sections on mental readiness, focusing on the need for cognitive, emotional and interpersonal balance. There are discussions of proactive and preventive health, as well as best practices during rehabilitation, pregnancy and even postpartum physical training.
Sleep readiness is also a major topic, since, as stated in the introduction, "Sleep is necessary to sustain not only alertness, but also higher order cognitive abilities such as judgment, decision making, and situational awareness." As with any Army policy, good sleep habits are broken down every possible way. This include best practices during travel, off time and leadership's roll in setting an example. They also recommend naps as integral part of the plan, saying that "When routinely available sleep time is difficult to predict, Soldiers might take the longest nap possible as frequently as time is available." By that metric, I should be in in the Rangers.
In the past, many advances first pioneered in the military were pushed to civilian life, such as digital cameras, superglue and duct tape. In this case, the Army is doing the reverse, talking best practices that have been culled from everything from spas to Soul Cycle and making them part of their regimen. They used to say an Army marches on its stomach. Perhaps that needs to be amended to an Army travels on its leafy green vegetables while finding its well-rested sense of self. That, and drones.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford naps like a Green Beret. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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