MOPs & MOEs

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 bringing modern human perf...

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 most senior NCO in the entire United States mili...

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 prevent injuries, and some of the important c...

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 the events, and the validity (or lack thereof)...

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, which led her to gymnastics, then pole vault. All...

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 making his games debut at 30 years old he went on...

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 became the first woman in the Army to have earned bot...

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 priority, but we definitely agree on the essentia...

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 that off as a specialist would be a huge achieve...

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 risk management, employee benefit, and human reso...

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 advice resonated just as much or more...

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 lessons learned she walked away with after surv...

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 the knee. Hari Budha Magar was born in 1979 i...

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 autoregulation strategies. The focus of this strategy...

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 (Norwegian Navy Special Operations Command)...

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 modalities. This episode will cover...

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 transformative power of the mountains to forge a...

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 instructor. He is known as "The Father of M...

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 and barracks. If you're unf...

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 positive. If you want to dive in on your own...

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 DFAC conversation) to the "campfire princip...

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 SOMWTC develops some of the most qualified mounta...

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, commanded the Thunderbirds d...

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 duties than we normally do, and he aske...

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 flew A-10 combat missions in suppo...