In this episode we're discussing endurance training with an extremely qualified guest with a world class competitive ultra marathon resume. Alyssa Clark is a professional mountain runner, coach, podcast host and training plans director for Uphill Athlete. As a military spouse, running and coaching have been the constants she can bring with her no m…

In our episode with LTG Gilland we mentioned Shawn "Big Tires Rollin" Robertson as a future guest, and now he's here! Shawn is a paragon of fitness (consistent ACFT 600s, 2nd place in the European bodybuilding championship) who is also passionate about organizational psychology. He joined us for this conversation about the role of fitness in leader…

In this episode we're diving into the fundamentals of how to get strong, and our guest is one of the best in the game at taking novices to pretty serious levels of strength. Andy Baker began his career in the strength & conditioning industry in 2001, as an intern while attending Texas A&M University. Like many people in the early 2000s he witnessed…

To prepare for this episode we challenged each other to bring our top three fitness tests from any military around the world. Globally there are a wide variety of approaches, from extremely simple to extremely complex. A few of the ones we chose have been previously mentioned on the podcast (or on our social media) but others we've never discussed …

After two years of waiting, the Pose Method episode is finally here! You've asked what we think of it, here are our answers. Pose Method® is a proprietary method for coaching running technique developed by Dr. Nichloas Romanov in 1977 in the former Soviet Union. Pose clinics have been taught around the Army since 2009 and the newest version of FM 7…

We've been talking about having Ray on the podcast for over a year now. He brings a unique perspective as a former infantry Marine NCO turned strength and conditioning coach. And more importantly, he always focuses his insight on the real issues. The military human performance space is more about building the right culture than dialing in the Xs an…

It has been a long time, but we're back with another "101" episode. This time we're breaking down the considerations involved in assembling a week of hybrid training. If you're in the military, you're already doing hybrid training whether you call it that or not. Frankly, just meeting global health guidelines for physical activity amounts to hybrid…

We did a contracting episode a few weeks ago where we aired out a few grievances mostly focused on how strength and conditioning coaches in contracted roles with the military are treated. In that conversation we acknowledged that we have limited experience with contracting, and we were open to having an expert come on and set the record straight. A…

Dr. Chris Frueh is back for his second appearance on the pod! If you missed our previous conversation with him we dove into the dysfunction at the VA, with particular emphasis on the disability system. Dr. Chris Frueh, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. He has over thirty years of profession…

A few weeks ago we got the news that Congress was considering directing the military to investigate the potential for adding creatine to MREs. This spurred a lot of discussion on creatine's effectiveness and dosing strategies, and to really get to the bottom of that we needed an expert. Our guest this week is so much of an expert that he is often r…

Our guest for this episode has been on Active Duty for over 34 years, with much of that spent in Special Operations, and he's still scoring 600s on his ACFTs. Our wide ranging conversation covers everything from how he's maintained a high level of physical performance across his long career to the role that physicality plays in developing young lea…

Our guest this week is a key player in two important research and policy initiatives. First, she led the Army Comprehensive Body Composition (ACBC) study that led to the recent updates to body composition policy. Second, she leads the Female Elite Warfighter (FEW) research initiative which focuses on identifying the characteristics that make women …

Contracting is a dominant theme in military human performance because so much of the staffing for military human performance teams is handled through large contracts. In this week's episode we break down some of the key issues with defense contracting that make things harder in human performance. If we can't define the value of coaches, "least pric…

In this wide ranging and long overdue episode we talk about everything from kettlebell training to data literacy. Our guest is something of a godfather in the tactical strength and conditioning space, and if you don't know who he is you're missing out. He's been around the space in both academic and industry roles and is one of the smartest guys in…

In this episode we answer questions submitted by you guys! Topics covered include PED use in the military, NCAA athletes now being allowed to smoke weed, hybrid programming considerations, eccentric training, herniated disc recovery, and more. We discuss several references: This blog post about physical training in the reserve component The first e…

Anyone who's familiar with the Army's Pregnancy and Postpartum Physical Training (P3T) program has probably heard pretty negative things about it. Historically, women have avoided participating if they can get out of it, and if they can't they've been disappointed by what they got out of it. Our guest on this week's episode is changing that. She's …

We reached out to our guest for this week's episode after he testified before Congress and used the opportunity to repeatedly highlight military human performance programs. He was also our first guest to tune in from the Pentagon Briefing Room. Troy Black is the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the mo…

Two years into this and we've fielded a lot of questions that relate to injuries. Since we're not experts in that space, we brought a professional on board! John Romanello is a Physical Therapist with experience in both the conventional Army and special operations. In this episode he breaks down the science behind injury risk, what we can do to pre…

The ACFT has been a hot topic since the day it was announced. Even now, after a few years, myths and misconceptions persist. We've seen a lot of these in our comments and messages, and we thought it was time to address a few. In this episode we break down a little bit of the history behind how the test was developed, the reasoning behind a few of t…

Jessie Graff is probably best known for her athletic achievements on the obstacle course show American Ninja Warrior. In 2016, she became the first woman ever to complete Stage 1 of the Las Vegas Finals course. In 2017, she became the first woman to compete in, and to successfully finish, Stage 2. Her athletic evolution started with circus classes,…

If you know the name Matt Chan, then he needs no introduction. Skip this and start listening. His athletic journey started as a high school swimmer and continued as a collegiate water polo player at Western Illinois University. He originally took up CrossFit in his late 20s to help improve his endurance as a firefighter in Denver, Colorado. Despite…

Sidney Jaques has logged quite a few firsts for women in the Army. In 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne she became the first woman assigned to one of their infantry battalions. While serving in that capacity, she attended Ranger Assessment and Selection (RASP2) and was selected to serve as the Ranger Regimental S1. Once she graduated Ranger School she bec…

How to outfit a home gym is always a popular topic, and we get plenty of questions about what equipment we recommend. For this episode we break down our thoughts on a variety of options at different price points. To frame the discussion we broke our options down into less than $100, $100-$500, $500-$1000, and over $1000. We don't agree on every pri…

This episode is long overdue. Spencer Posey is an all star that anyone involved in military health and fitness should be following. As a sergeant and infantryman in the Old Guard he is having an absolutely massive impact far beyond his unit. His passion for health and fitness first led him to becoming the Old Guard's Regimental H2F Lead. Pulling th…

We're back on our mission to get to the bottom of why providing soldiers with healthy food is such a challenge for the Army, and this time we have an insider with decades of experience in running Army food service operations. Jeremy M. Deck is a Vice President at the national insurance brokerage firm HUB International specializing in commercial ris…

Newton Cheng is Google's Director of Health and Performance, but he's also a lot more than that. He started his social media platform focused on his powerlifting. He's a world class masters competitor, so it makes sense to focus on his lifting, and it's certainly impressive. But he quickly found that his messages about mental health and career advi…

Today's episode pulls together a few different important topics, from performing cognitively in crisis situations to how we develop character and leadership in the military. We also discuss the impact of human performance programs among pilots. But mostly this episode is a story of how a pilot handled being hit by an anti-aircraft missile and the l…

This episode definitely involves physical fitness, but on a deeper level it's much more about resilience. The resilience to pursue an education while growing up in rural poverty. The resilience to survive the selection process for the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The resilience to persevere after severe combat injuries including the loss of both legs above…

With our second 101 episode we’re diving into a topic that is foundational to the way we design training: autoregulation. That’s a slightly sciencey word, but it’s a very simple concept. You’ve likely heard of either rate of perceived exertion (RPE) or reps in reserve (RIR) - both of which we discuss in this episode - and these are both popular aut…

We're going back overseas with this episode, this time to Norway. The Norwegian military has a reputation for high fitness standards, and therefore their special operations forces take fitness to another level. This week we'll be digging into the training and testing of the Marinejegerkommandoen, more commonly known in English as MJK or NORNAVSOC (…

Based on feedback from you guys we are kicking of a "101" series. Don't worry, we'll continue to have the episodes with guests where we deep dive interest topics, but many listeners have asked for some episodes where we focus on the fundamentals. We're starting with recovery because there have been so many questions about different recovery modalit…

Our guest this week is the creator of Ninety-Pound Rucksack, a podcast that examines the stories that made the 10th Mountain Division famous as well as those history has forgotten. Equal parts real-time research, intimate conversation and revelatory journalism, Ninety-Pound Rucksack explores not only the conventional wisdom about the 10th, but the …

This week we're diving into the topic of combatives, and it would be hard to find a more qualified guest to discuss the topic than the one we have today. From bare-knuckle boxing the ROK Marines' Taekwondo champion to establish the US Army Combatives School, he has done it all. Matt Larsen is a former United States Army Ranger and combatives instru…

This week's podcast is special because we have a chance to provide a platform for someone who is really making a difference in improving quality of life got service members. Rob Evans is the creator of Hots & Cots, an app built to be the "yelp for enlisted life" that is simultaneously increasing transparency and accountability for dining facilities…

People have asked us many times what we think of CrossFit, so it's about time we just laid it all out. In this episode we work our way through CrossFit's various philosophies, protocols, and teachings and highlight where we agree and where we don't. In general, the first half of the conversation is more critical while the second half is more positi…

This week we're diving into what it takes to build strong communities, and how many organizations (including the military) go about it completely wrong. Our guest cuts right to the heart of the issue and provides both intense criticism and practical guidelines for improving. From the crucial role of breaking bread together (yes, this ties into a DF…

This week we're diving into a conversation about mountain warfare, and our guest is about as qualified as they come. Captain Paul Rogers is the commander of the Special Operations Mountain Warfare Training Center (SOMWTC). He is the first Officer to graduate all USSOCOM Mountain Operator Courses and has tackled some extreme mountain objectives. The…

In this week's episode we're focusing on breathing in some pretty extreme circumstances. Our guest is Lt Col Justin "Astro" Elliott (depending on when you're listening to this, possibly Colonel already). It's hard to find someone more qualified to talk about breathing for extreme physiological demands - Astro has flown 30+ different airframes, comm…

On this week's episode we're handing over the reins to our guest Brendon Huttmann. Brendon was our guest on episode 3 almost two years ago, where we learned about his transition from Major League Baseball to the Army's H2F program. This time, though, the tables are turned and Brendon is asking the questions. He came much more prepared for hosting d…

On this week's episode we're diving into some unique human performance considerations for close air support pilots. Everything from cognitive performance to neck strength to how pilots go to the bathroom in single seat aircraft... Major Ridge "KELSO" Flick is a military pilot with over 2000 cumulative flight hours in the T-6, T-38, and A-10C. He fl…

We have another research focused episode for you guys this week, and we're diving into the recently published article "Demographic, psychosocial, and physical fitness predictors of successful graduation from U.S. Army Ranger School." We're joined by the lead author, LTC Timothy Benedict, who has a unique background as both an infantry officer and a…

On this episode we each brought five books that have shaped the way we think about human performance and discussed why they had such an impact. And in classic form, we each also brought a few honorable mentions as well. Drew's books are a little more focused on strength and conditioning, while Alex's books (somewhat unexpectedly) are largely focuse…

On this week's episode we're headed across the pond. WO2 Steve Turner is a Quartermaster Sergeant Instructor in the British Royal Army Physical Training Corps, and he's here to help us understand how the British Army approaches physical fitness. If you're in the US military, it's worth noting up front that Warrant Officers in the British Army are n…

On this week's episode we're diving into how strength and conditioning coaches are trained and educated, and we have a perfect guest to tackle this topic. Coach Scott Caulfield is one of the most well-known collegiate strength and conditioning coaches in the industry. He spent 11 years at the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as…

This is our heavily anticipated episode on the weight loss drugs that have been receiving a ton of media attention recently, including Ozempic and Wegovy (semaglutide), Mounjaro and Zepbound (tirzepatide), and others. Since these drugs are intimately involved with our bodies' hormone regulation, we had to bring in an hormone expert to break it down…

This episode is all about nutrition in America: How did we get here? (Hint: there are actually some very good reasons for all the processed food) What problems is our diet creating? (Hint: it's more than just obesity) And what can we do to start fixing it? That's a huge topic, but our guest is one of the most qualified person to tackle it. Dr. Dari…

We have Kechi Anyadike-Danes back for round two to discuss the second installment of his planned three part research series looking into the divide between human performance research and education and the reality of actual coaching practice. This episode is specifically focused on periodization. We chart the history of how periodization theory deve…

On this episode we have John Mackersie joining us for a little end of year reflection. John is a strength and conditioning coach with over 15 years of professional experience in collegiate athletics and military special operations. He began coaching in Division I athletics and has been working with special operations since 2013. He has spoken and l…

We're back with another foray into some topics that are often considered outside the scope of military human performance, but play important roles in whether these programs achieve their goals: mental health, veteran healthcare, and the veteran disability system. Our guest brings 15 years of experience working as a clinical psychologist in the VA, …

You asked, and now we've delivered. We know the Army runs on checklists. Medevac? There's a checklist for that. Call for fire? There's a checklist for that. Breaching an enemy obstacle? There's a checklist for that. And all of these are simple enough that they can be laminated and stuck in a cargo pocket, or even boiled down to an easily memorized …