MOPs & MOEs

On the week's episode we're getting "clickbaity with integrity" in the words of our guest, Dr. Alyssa "Lyss" Olenick. Between her social media presence as @doclyssfitness and her powerhouse training business The Lyss Method she's a big deal as both a coach and a science communicator. We've been working on getting her on the podcast for over a year, and she definitely delivered. You'll hear about e...

We first became aware of the story at the heart of this episode over three years ago. Details were scarce at the time, but we knew that heat casualties had been a major issue for units at Defener Pacific... except for one company that was completely unaffected. And as it turned out, that company had been doing afternoon physical training to deliberately prepare for the heat (plus leveraging H2F ex...

This one is a bit of a current events episode. We're diving into two hot topics in Army human performance: First we dig into the ongoing drama around cutting Athletic Trainers from H2F teams, including the efforts to reverse the decision. This touches on everything from contracting policy to the difference between measuring performance and measuring effectiveness. Embedded Athletic Trainers in...

Michael Moss is the author of the #1 NYT bestseller Salt Sugar Fat that rocked the processed food industry (which has been so impactful that it's still in print a decade later, now in 22 languages). He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and a trusted keynote speaker to global audiences. His latest bestselling book Hooked explores ad...

On Monday the Army announced some major fitness testing changes that include removing the Standing Power Throw (SPT) and introducing sex-neutral standards for 21 "close combat" military occupational specialties (MOSs). These changes are marked with a shift from Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) to the new name: Army Fitness Test (AFT). In this episode we break down the changes and some of the most f...

In 2016 the American Heart Association called for Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF), generally measured using VO2max, to be included as a vital sign . They said: “The underlying premise of this statement is that the addition of CRF for risk classification presents health professionals with unique opportunities to improve patient management and to encourage lifestyle-based strategies designed to redu...

This episode is all about identifying the right approach to endurance training for different types of athletes. Some people are genetically predisposed to strength and power, while others are built for stamina. While most of us fall somewhere on a spectrum between the two, knowing your athlete archetype can help you determine your optimal approach to training. This episode is built on Drew's b...

The human performance community often focuses on physical fitness at the expense of other domains. Recent holistic approaches have improved the ways we address other domains, especially nutrition, mental health, and spiritual fitness. A weak area in many of these programs is financial fitness, and Life Skills for Soldiers is working to fix that. Financial fitness is a dedicated domain in the DoD&#...

This episode covers a lot of ground. On the heels of last week's episode where we had to edit out our discussion of women in special operations, that's exactly where our conversation this week starts. We originally connected with our guest because of his LinkedIn post about a woman in her senior year at the Naval Academy who has been selected to attend BUD/S, but we quickly move on to focus on how...

CSM JoAnn Naumann planned on serving one enlistment in the Army to get a clearance and learn a language so she would be competitive for the Foreign Service. 28 years and 14 deployments later she's now the USASOC Command Sergeant Major. We originally got in touch because she appreciated our episode with Alyssa Clark where we talked about ultra marathon running. CSM Naumann recently completed he...

In this episode we look at a few pieces of recent research that focus on how knowledgeable both health and fitness professionals and average gym goers are on a variety of topics. We break down the results, but we also challenge the quality of questions the researchers asked in their assessments. We spend the bulk of the time on this survey by researchers from the University of Klagenfurt's (Au...

After they complete initial entry training all soldiers are entitled to Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) to help pay for food, but many of them have most of it deducted to pay for meals provided in dining facilities (DFACs). Recent investigative reporting by our guest, Steve Beynon, has revealed striking inconsistencies between how much money is taken from soldiers in the form of BAS deductio...

1.35 million applicants received a military entrance physical from 2016 to 2020, and about 15% of them received an initial disqualification. More than half of these disqualified applicants sought a waiver, and they were more likely than not to get approved. This whole system can be frustrating and opaque, so in this episode we dive into the medical standards and waiver process with a guest who was...

How much do we really know about injury risk and prevention? Our guest this week argues it's less than most people think, so we dive into the state of the research to figure out why. There aren't many people as qualified as Dr. Dan Rhon to discuss the problem of musculoskeletal injuries in the military. He has a bachelors in applied health, a masters in physical therapy, and THREE doctorat...

Why are there more MRI machines in Massachusetts than in all of Canada? Why is healthy food getting more expensive faster than processed food? Why does our medical system prioritize providing treatments over improving health outcomes? Our guest this week answers all of these and more, and he's among the most qualified people in the world to take on these questions. Dr. David Cutler is an Ameri...

This week we're bringing you an episode from Part-Time Hitters, where Eric Evans interviewed us about all things military human performance. We discussed H2F, MOPs & MOEs, Leg Tuck Nation, and how to improve performance in the part-time military. Go check out more from Part-Time Hitters and their supporters! Part-Time Hitters Website (a podcast about the reservist life) The Fratty Guard on...

Welcome back to part 2 of our injury conversation. From prevention to treatment, in this episode we're answering all of your questions about anything to do with injuries. We collected these questions from you the listeners (and Instagram followers) and our Physical Therapist John is back to answer everything we didn't get to in part 1. Topics discussed in this episode include: Lower back p...

From prevention to treatment, in this episode we're answering all of your questions about anything to do with injuries. And of course to do that we needed an expert, so our Physical Therapist John is back on pod. He has a background working with human performance teams and currently serves in Special Operations. The primary topics we discuss in this episode are: Bracing, sleeves, and wraps - Do th...

Welcome back to part two of our Make America Healthy again breakdown. In this part of the conversation, after wrapping up the last of the key elements of the MAHA platform, we dive into the key personalities. Specifically, we went through many of the participants from "American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion," a roundtable discussion hosted by Senator Ron Johnson. It essentially...

We're starting the new year by diving straight into a politically sensitive topic. According to their platform, Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) seeks to drive a transformative agenda by aligning health-conscious, independent-minded voters with candidates who have the ability to disrupt the status quo. This includes prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats, and eliminati...

This is a rerun of an episode we did a year ago. As our last holiday rerun before we get into fresh content, this one helps to set the stage for our first couple episodes for 2025 which will discuss the "Make America Healthy Again" movement, aka MAHA. You might be surprised that many of our biggest problems today are the results of solutions to the problems we faced a few decades ago. This episode...

This is a rerun of an episode from 2022, if you joined us recently it's a great introduction to building smarter physical training plans to improve performance and reduce injuries. We'll be back in a couple weeks with fresh content. Until then, happy holidays! No guest this time, just Alex and Drew trying to answer one of the most commonly asked questions we get here at MOPs & MOEs. Many of yo...

Happy holidays! This is a rerun of an episode we published back in March 2023, but this topic has been getting a lot of discussion again recently so we wanted to revisit it! MOPs & MOEs merch is now for sale on our website! Check out the shop for tees, hoodies, stickers, and more. Job Fransen is a skill acquisition specialist working at the University Medical Centre Groningen in the Netherland...

We stumbled onto Michaela's story because of this hilarious video explaining her pretty traumatic experience . We love a good comeback story after injury, especially when it includes a life being saved by strength training. We won't ruin the whole story, you'll just have to listen to the episode to find out, but there are several valuable lessons in here for both service members facing their own c...

The year is coming to an end and there are a few topics that we didn't make full episodes out of that we thought were worth discussing. In this episode we hash out: A grab bag of nutrition topics including eating local, raw milk, processed food, and other hot topics in the nutrition space. Fitness during the holidays (or during travel in general). Some moderately spicy political stuff, mostly tied...