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Thread: The Army’s Running Problem | Capt James Rodgers

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    Default The Army’s Running Problem | Capt James Rodgers

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    It is a staple of Army life: groups of soldiers running together alongside a road in the pre-dawn darkness. It is something that has been a part of the Army’s culture for as long as anyone can remember. We encourage running as a healthy and important part of any Physical Training (PT) regimen, as an absolutely necessary base of fitness that every soldier needs to obtain in order to be effective.

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    I doubt many people on this board disagree with the overall analysis of this article. However, if you’re in the military (at least the US military) you are going to have to run. You can explain to your squad leader all day how your squat max is more important than your two mile time, but he isn’t going to care and you’re still going to get substandard evaluations. And if you keep falling out of your unit’s morning runs you’re gonna be the platoon pariah.

    As a field grade officer I now have a lot of leeway in regards to what I do for PT. I took the new US Army ACFT and did better than all the other officers in my brigade. So, my leadership doesn’t really give me a hard time anymore and just think I’m a meathead. I don’t think lower enlisted Soldiers can have that sort of freedom. It’s a tough nut to crack.

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    I don't think Capt Rodgers is saying that you don't have to run. Everybody understands that you do. He's just explaining why "leadership" is composed of fools and military bureaucrats, and we're happy to publish it for the record.

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    Quote Originally Posted by atw_abn View Post
    I doubt many people on this board disagree with the overall analysis of this article. However, if you’re in the military (at least the US military) you are going to have to run. You can explain to your squad leader all day how your squat max is more important than your two mile time, but he isn’t going to care and you’re still going to get substandard evaluations. And if you keep falling out of your unit’s morning runs you’re gonna be the platoon pariah.

    As a field grade officer I now have a lot of leeway in regards to what I do for PT. I took the new US Army ACFT and did better than all the other officers in my brigade. So, my leadership doesn’t really give me a hard time anymore and just think I’m a meathead. I don’t think lower enlisted Soldiers can have that sort of freedom. It’s a tough nut to crack.
    I submitted it here with the intent of giving junior leaders who want to train their people in a rational manner some ammunition when they argue against distance running. I hope that enough junior leaders who get is will end up in positions of responsibility to start making better decisions about training practices. I do not have any hope of convincing people at the top, so I submitted it here so that it would actually get read by some people who are my peers, other junior leaders. I tried to submit my analysis of the task list and the effects of distance running up the chain of command for my commander and right now that document is collecting dust on some LCol's desk who thinks that because it's not been published in a peer reviewed journal, so therefore it's wrong because it disagrees with the official military exercise science people's conclusion that we need to do more running so that running causes less running injuries. On the bright side, I have had a few peers approach me and thank me for giving a damn about training, so there are still people out there who care.

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    As former enlisted, yeah running is the deal whether you want to or not. Most of my LTs were long distance runners who believed a sub 6 minute mile was the only true test of a soldier’s fitness.

    We had joes that could run 4:10 miles that were held up as paragons of fitness until you got them on deployments with a combat load and they crumpled under stress.

    By the end of deployment, these little guys would gain 20 lbs because all we could do was lift, patrol, eat, and sleep (mind you the lifting part was a bunch of nonsense).

    Stateside, as team leaders and squad leaders, we got input into the PT our soldiers did, but going to the gym to lift was a rare allowance. Our platoon sergeant was really the one who managed our fitness so there is potential for a strength based approach from that individual.

    Honestly, the worst thing about military PT is that as enlisted, you don’t know what you don’t know. These joes learn that running is what is important, they rank up and push the same thing they were taught.

    One of the issues that would need to be addressed, is logistics. Our infantry regiment had more soldiers than the brigade gym could ever manage, even if they stripped all the machines and treadmills out of there and replaced them with power racks.

    It’s good to see that the Army has moved past the APFT, but until basic training brigades change their PT methods, I fear it will only be a few platoons here and there focused on strength accumulation.

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    My thinking is at the lower ranks it's due to a lack of resources, education and clear direction. Those are all problems that can be attributed to leadership not doing any deep thinking about why they do the things they do. Within the leadership I think the reluctance to adopt new training practices is due to a very conservative culture that rewards conformity over creativity and innovation. There is no way to be in charge of anything important if you want to do things differently.

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    Quote Originally Posted by stef View Post
    It is a staple of Army life: groups of soldiers running together alongside a road in the pre-dawn darkness. It is something that has been a part of the Army’s culture for as long as anyone can remember. We encourage running as a healthy and important part of any Physical Training (PT) regimen, as an absolutely necessary base of fitness that every soldier needs to obtain in order to be effective.

    Read article
    I really enjoyed your two articles.

    I call PLQ-L "a filter for men with bad knees". I do not think I have meet anyone who failed PLQ-L because they could not meet the POs' standards. On the other hand, I have come across many men who were RTU'ed from PLQ-L because their knees could not tolerate the excessive running (typically men with a history of ACL injury). Yet there is no actual requirement for any running beyond a very short distance (as a means to accomplish something else, like seeking cover).

    For the record, I personally enjoy running. I just disagree that running has become the most important variable to predict one's ability to complete PLQ-L.

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