But one thing that I noticed on more of the serious documentaries and films on going through Army Bootcamp was all the running. Since becoming a Strength a Conditioning Specialist a number of years ago, I always wondered "Why do they make them run so much? When would a soldier ever run in a straight line, at a sub-maximal level, for 10 miles?"
I came across this article that talks about how basic training in the Army is getting it's first major makeover in 30 years. It looks like they're coming up with some good stuff and trying to make what they are training from a physical standpoint more like what a soldier would face in combat.
Adapting to battlefield experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army is revamping its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades by nixing five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and honing core muscles.
Trainers hope the switch will better prepare soldiers physically for the pace of combat, with its sudden dashes and rolling gun battles. They also want to toughen recruits who are often more familiar with Facebook than fistfights.
I don't mean to criticize our Armed Forces but, makes me wonder why it took so long for them to get to this point. Even before Afghanistan and Iraq, you still didn't see situations in Vietnam or WWII where soldiers were running 5 miles in a straight line.
Seems that when a soldier is out on patrol, there's walking, and walking, and walking (with a lot of extra weight from the gear on you), and then all of a sudden bursts of speed needed, along with zig zag movements. And that would appear to be the rule, not the exception.
The new training also uses "more calisthenics to build core body power, strength and agility," Palkoska said in an office bedecked with 60-year-old black and white photos of World War II-era mass exercise drills. Over the 10 weeks of basic, a strict schedule of exercises is done on a varied sequence of days so muscles rest, recover and strengthen.
Again, this sounds just like how it would be in combat. You're going to have times where you need quick power and speed, but other times where you'll have time to recover (even if that time is very short).
It's also interesting to see that they are taking the fact that Army Bootcamp isn't immune to the obesity epidemic (which I talked about once in this post):
Another aim is to toughen recruits from a more obese and sedentary generation, trainers said.
Many recruits didn't have physical education in elementary, middle or high school and therefore tend to lack bone and muscle strength. When they ditch diets replete with soda and fast food for healthier meals and physical training, they drop excess weight and build stronger muscles and denser bones, Palkoska said.
Continues near the end of the article:
Fleming said those who had some sort of sports in high school can easily pick up on the training, while those who didn't have to be brought along. One hefty soldier in a recent company he trained dropped 45 pounds and learned to blast out 100 push-ups and 70 sit-ups, he said.
"We just have to take the soldier who's used to sitting on the couch playing video games and get them out there to do it," Fleming said.
This is going to be real interesting to see how it all plays out but I think if anything, it makes Army Bootcamp closer to an anaerobic "activity" rather than an aerobic one and that's going to go a long way.
www.leanbodytraining.com
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