THE Fighting Illini

Danger Room reports:

“More troops than ever are flipping tractor tires, lobbing 50-pound kettle bells and conquering the Three Bars of Death in an effort to become “tougher, faster, hard-bodied freedom fighter[s].” But some of them are also working out until they puke, faint or suffer permanent organ damage. Now, a team of medical researchers have a message for recruits: You’re probably not fit enough for CrossFit.”

“Our number one concern is growing anecdotal evidence of injuries,” CHAMP medical director Col. Francis O’Connor tells Danger Room. “Military leaders are interested in knowing how to handle these programs, and want more information, and we just don’t have adequate solid data.”

I’ll admit it: I drink the CrossFit kool-aid. I gain more in a month of CrossFit than in a year of Army PT. Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors do CrossFit because it works.

Before I got on active duty, I worked out at a CrossFit Affiliate Gym in Oswego. My class included people over the age of fifty, people who had more than 20 pounds to lose, and people with no knowledge or experience in performing the fundamental movements of CrossFit. On Christmas leave, I worked out with CrossFit Will County again, and saw how the same flabby, middle-aged people I had known in the summertime quickly transformed into some hardcore civilians.

My point here is not that there is anecdotal evidence to support CrossFit, but rather that when CrossFit is properly programmed, taught, and executed, it works very well. It is universally scalable to all strength, flexibility, and conditioning levels.

The problems I’ve faced in my unit stem from leaders being unable to tell their soldiers what crossfit actually is. As a result, people print out workouts they find online with little to no guidance as to how a workout schedule should be programmed, or how to do the prescribed movements. Without proper instruction on technique, programming, and recovery, it’s no surprise that soldiers occasionally break themselves doing the workouts. The solution, as I see it, starts with sending at least one leader per platoon to get CrossFit certified (not the Squadron S3, as has happened in my mighty squadron).

The Army has a different plan in mind. Rather than certifying people in CrossFit, there is doctrinal push back evidenced in TC 3-22.20 Physical Readiness Training. I encourage the readership to peruse through this training circular. There are some decent movements, but here’s what there isn’t:

• Moving heavy weight overhead
• Bodyweight exercises with more than 10 repetitions
• Soft tissue work
• Rope climbs

A sample workout – Conditioning Drill 3 (p. 9-20):

1o repetitions each

1.“Y” SQUAT

2. SINGLE-LEG DEAD LIFT

3. SIDE-TO-SIDE KNEE LIFTS

4. FRONT KICK ALTERNATE TOE TOUCH

5. TUCK JUMP

6. STRADDLE-RUN FORWARD AND BACKWARD

7. HALF-SQUAT LATERALS

8. FROG JUMPS FORWARD AND BACKWARD

9. 1/4-TURN JUMP

10. SQUAT JUMP

You’ve.Got.To.Be.Kidding. But wait, there’s more.

From page 5-5:

Corrective Action

5-15. When exercise is used for corrective action, it is often performed incorrectly, promoting overtraining

syndrome, and overuse injuries. Often corrective action mimics “smoke sessions,” punishing Soldiers with little

or no corrective value. Consideration must be given to the number of times per day exercises are used for

corrective action for individual Soldiers and groups of Soldiers to avoid the cumulative effect and limit the

potential for overtraining syndrome. The following guidelines should be followed when employing exercise as

corrective action.

 Only the following exercises should be selected for performance of corrective action.

 Rower.

 Squat bender.

 Windmill.

 Prone row.

 Push-up.

 V-up.

 Leg tuck and twist.

 Supine bicycle.

 Swimmer.

 8-count push-up.

 Only one of the above exercises may be selected for each corrective action.

 The number of repetitions should not exceed FIVE for any one of the exercises listed above.

You read that right. FIVE repetitions.

I can’t link to the manual because it’s restricted to AKO users, but high school football teams have more intense conditioning programs than the United States Army. PRT is pathetic. There’s a reason the most elite warriors use CrossFit and its derivatives, to include Military Athlete. The reason is that the workouts increase strength and work capacity while building the warrior spirit. They’re challenging, they’ll make you puke, and they’ll mess you up if you’re not careful.

Whoever wrote this circular was more concerned with injuries than he or she needed to be. Physical training is supposed to be intense. It should challenge both the body and the mind. The Army is mitigating risk at the wrong level, and seriously needs to HTFU on the matter of Physical Training. What’s more is the disconnect between the Army’s PME program and doctrine on this issue. CGSC has Iron Major CrossFit, and West Point has Black and Gold CrossFit. It’s time that senior leaders had a pow-wow with CrossFit HQ, the NSCA, and Rob Shaul to give the Army the physical training regimen it so desperately needs.