Maturation of Military fitness regimes over the last two decades

So as a runner who handles some big mileage and long races (30-50 miles), I've seen how effective a good training plan can be. What's more, I've seen how terrible a bad training plan combined with habitual overexertion can be for folks long term. I'm talking chronic injuries, hormonal imbalance, mood issues, and long term issues with fatigue. Many people in my sport go super hard for a year, then explode in a flare of injuries. A lot of them don't return at all.

Now what's interesting are how different the training plans can be. A good plan mixes up the types of stress, and tries to match an athlete to the max amount of productive stress they can handle before a race. Its all about long term development, you can see some athletes who on paper didn't have champion fitness explode into serious contenders after a few years with the right plan.

Militaries have to train a ton of people to a high level of physical fitness, and ideally they need to do it without overloading them. How do they handle this? And how has this approach changed in the last two decades? Is training in anyway personalized, or is it basically a "you either handle what we tell you too, or you're out policy".

A friend of mine in the Nat Guard told me you have to do the running training in the shoes they give you. Can't have your own pair, and can't get a different kind. This is one of those distinctions that makes sense when you need to buy 500,000 pairs of running shoes, but totally falls apart when it comes to the actual practice of running. What if the shoe doesn't work for someone! This kind of detail makes me wonder if there's a lot of room for militaries to build better fitness programs

So as a runner who handles some big mileage and long races (30-50 miles), I've seen how effective a good training plan can be. What's more, I've seen how terrible a bad training plan combined with habitual overexertion can be for folks long term. I'm talking chronic injuries, hormonal imbalance, mood issues, and long term issues with fatigue. Many people in my sport go super hard for a year, then explode in a flare of injuries. A lot of them don't return at all.Now what's interesting are how different the training plans can be. A good plan mixes up the types of stress, and tries to match an athlete to the max amount of productive stress they can handle before a race. Its all about long term development, you can see some athletes who on paper didn't have champion fitness explode into serious contenders after a few years with the right plan.Militaries have to train a ton of people to a high level of physical fitness, and ideally they need to do it without overloading them. How do they handle this? And how has this approach changed in the last two decades? Is training in anyway personalized, or is it basically a "you either handle what we tell you too, or you're out policy".A friend of mine in the Nat Guard told me you have to do the running training in the shoes they give you. Can't have your own pair, and can't get a different kind. This is one of those distinctions that makes sense when you need to buy 500,000 pairs of running shoes, but totally falls apart when it comes to the actual practice of running. What if the shoe doesn't work for someone! This kind of detail makes me wonder if there's a lot of room for militaries to build better fitness programs https://ift.tt/A1B7Elk https://ift.tt/5I4kYiD

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