Military PT

CrossFit is influencing the new training programs the Military is implementing to better physically prepare its troops. The following documents serve to educate, provide testimony, and attract Military personnel to CrossFit Training.

Educate:

"The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an individual’s competency at all physical tasks. Our athletes are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges. This fitness is demanded of military and police personnel, firefighters, and many sports requiring total or complete physical prowess. CrossFit has proven effective in these arenas."

Click Here to Download CrossFit's Foundations:

An overview of the CrossFit methodology and philosophy.

Educate, Testimony:

"Marines are athletes. Their preparation for combat is not unlike a collegiate or professional athlete’s preparation for his of her sport. There are some key differences of course. Marines do not know the exact game they will be playing and they do not know the climate for the game. They do not know the rules. Marines do not even know when they will be “playing.” However, these factors only make preparation more difficult for combat as compared to preparing for a season of sports. Many of the unknown (and unknowable) factors reinforce an argument that Marines need a general purpose sort of fitness—a fitness that is based on the functions of combat operations."

Click Here to Download A Concept For Functional Fitness:

United States Marine Corps Doctrine

Training Program:

"The program is designed to be flexible and utilized while in garrison, the field, or deployed to austere environments with only common military equipment and readily available local resources (rocks and sand). The purpose of the nine-week program is to maintain or enhance combat fitness, while commercial equipment is not available during deployment or training."

Click Here to read The AOFP CrossFit Austere Program

by Greg Glassman, Wade Rutland, JT Williams

Testimony:

"The Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have come to recognize that as beneficial as running can be to overall fitness, health and military readiness, too much of a good thing causes injuries that leave troops less fit, less healthy and less ready..."

Click Here to read more...

Military Playing Down Long Runs, Adopting More Diverse Fitness Programs

The Battle of Belleau Wood (1-26 June 1918)

In 1918, the Germans received a thorough indoctrination to the fighting ability of the US Marines. Battling through the supposedly impenetrable Belleau Wood and capturing terrain that was reported to be unobtainable, the persistent and courageous attacks by the Marines soon had the Germans calling them “teufelhunden”, the fierce fighting dogs of legendary origin, otherwise known as "Devil Dogs".

This battle is celebrated by Marines, not simply because we stopped the last major German offensive in WWI, but because of the virtues displayed during those battles. To name a few, they include: Tenacity; Bravery; Determination; Dedication; Unselfishness; and Camaraderie.

What does this have to do with fitness and our group CrossFit workouts?

What if Fitness is not about satisfying aesthetics, but awakening the Devil Dog within?