Holistic Health and Fitness: Improving Soldier’s Performance and Readiness

by 2WO Lim Keng Hung Alfred, Singapore Armed Forces

As of 2022, the United States (U.S.) Army had prioritized people first by improving the Army’s culture to improve the Soldiers’ readiness and modernization effort to defeat any adversary. One of its modernization efforts is Soldier lethality, which provides Soldiers with new weapons, equipment, enhanced body armor, and training simulators or infrastructure (Bates, 2022). However, improving Soldiers’ lethality is not just about acquiring new equipment, enhanced body armor, and training simulators; Soldiers’ lethality requires them to tolerate and manage stress, accurately use physical and mental strength to overcome obstacles, and perform their occupational tasks with that system or equipment on the battlefield during the conflict of war (Arguello, 2023).

According to the Department of the Army (DA) (2020), Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) aims to look at both physical and non-physical related components of readiness, which includes physical, sleep, nutritional, mental, and spiritual, to improve the Soldier’s readiness. Therefore, for the U.S. Army to improve its Soldier’s performance and readiness, one must understand the importance of the governance system of the H2F and be proactive in promoting proactive health to optimize Soldiers’ performance and readiness to meet operational demands in any conflict of war.

Governance System: Optimize Soldier’s Performance

According to DA (2020), the governance process of H2F provides an efficient and effective programming effort across the U.S. Army. It emphasizes the necessary support to secure resources by prioritizing people first to improve the Army’s culture and support Soldiers’ performance and readiness. Therefore, the governance system of H2F, along with the senior leadership and Non-commissioned Officer (NCO), plays a crucial role in driving cultural change within the Army as they can assess and evaluate Soldiers ‘ performance through their regulation, policy, and doctrine.

One of the critical functions of the governance system is to collect, evaluate, and analyze program standards using various methods such as surveillance, surveys, research, and even utilizing data from the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) results or any other form of relevant data to support the change. By implementing these measures, they can identify areas for improvement, create plans, and reallocate resources to address those issues (DA, 2020). This information is crucial as it updates senior leadership and NCOs on the status of its units and the readiness of the U.S. Army. The assessment prevents the wastage of resources and energy on ineffective programs that do not contribute to the constant progress of a Soldier’s readiness for the unit, installation, and across the U.S. Army.

For instance, according to Dingle et al. (2021), research conducted by the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in 2005 reflected that restricted sleep and limited nutrition intake affect Soldiers’ performance. The results have shown an increase of 220% for not achieving marksmanship and an 86% increase for poor decision-making due to poor sleep and nutrition intake. As such, the U.S. Army implemented the H2F in 2020 to provide a unified, effective implementation plan to improve the U.S. Army culture on health and fitness leverage on sports science to help mitigate those risks and improve Soldiers’ performance.

On the other hand, when the ACFT replaced the Army Physical Fitness Test, there was a shortage of equipment for tests and training. This resulted in poor Soldier performance, especially for the National Guard and Reserve components. Despite the subsequent dispatching of the equipment for the Soldiers to train, the turfed grass patch continues to remain an outstanding matter for certain units to conduct sprint-drag-carry events or training. This resulted in poor Soldiers’ performance and confidence in the Soldier’s towards H2F initiative (Lensing, 2022). This highlights the significance of gathering surveillance and survey data for senior leadership and NCOs. This data can help allocate resources and funding to optimize Soldiers’ performance. Apart from the governance system, one of the H2F programs is proactive health, which allows senior leadership and NCOs to improve the program by emphasizing and coaching junior NCOs about the importance of the overall health of the Soldiers.

Proactive Health: Improving Readiness

According to DA (2020), proactive health refers to leadership making changes to the well-being of their Soldiers to minimize potential health hazards due to poor diet, behavior, or culture. Proactive health includes physical exercises, changing the environment to improve the quality of life for the Soldiers, encouraging personal development, promoting a healthy diet and nutrition intake, encouraging Soldiers to recharge and rejuvenate, supporting Soldiers social connections and relationships, improving Soldiers’ spiritual readiness through seeking the purpose of life and meaning, and lastly, power of the mind to overcome physical and non-physical berries.

According to DA (2020), sleep readiness is one of the five domains of the H2F program; it serves as a reminder that adequate sleep and recharge are related to Soldiers’ performance, while inadequate sleep may weaken the Soldier’s performance and compromise the mission. For instance, the work rest cycle is crucial in maintaining Soldiers’ physical and mental well-being. Alongside ensuring that Soldiers have adequate rest and replenished fluids for their bodies, the work rest cycle also serves to recharge their physical exhaustion and rejuvenate them for more extended periods of training and operation (DA, 2023). This further emphasizes that recharge does not just refer to sleep; it can include breaks between training or operation.

Physical readiness is a crucial aspect of the H2F program; as stated by DA (2020), it is a domain that encompasses the goals of H2F and has a direct relationship with physical exercise, which is essential to improving the readiness of the Soldiers. Physical training enhances overall physical strength, endurance, and agility, which is crucial Solider during combat operational tasks. Physical exercise is the foundation for achieving these goals, and it helps Soldiers reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. Increasing physical activity can also reduce symptoms of depression, improve the psychological well-being of Soldiers, and contribute to their overall readiness by increasing their lifespan and improving their concentration, memory, and mental agility. Furthermore, Reed (2020) highlighted that if a Soldier is experiencing health issues and is having a difficult day, there is a higher chance of them committing to the wrong thing or having a negative mindset. Therefore, physical exercise and recharge can reduce stress and boost productivity in the unit, which is why junior NCOs must understand that physical activities improve Soldiers’ readiness.

Lastly, nutritional readiness is another domain of the H2F program; as stated by DA (2020), it supports the Soldier’s performance by promoting a healthy diet to enhance Soldiers’ performance, decrease chronic diseases, and help Soldiers reduce weight, improve body composition, and increase bone density. Furthermore, according to DA (2016), the performance triad further reinforces to help Soldiers manage stress, reduce operational stress, and improve overall readiness through a healthier lifestyle in peacetime training, focusing on sleep, activity, and nutrition intake. Hence, this further reinforces the importance of how senior leadership and NCOs should emphasize and coach on recharge, physical training, and nutrition, along with reinforcing the performance triad to improve Soldiers’ readiness to support growth and faster recovery.

Conclusion

The U.S. Army senior leadership and NCOs play a critical role in H2F, as they drive the Army’s culture to improve the Soldier’s performance and readiness. Therefore, one must understand the importance of the governance system of the H2F and be proactive in promoting proactive health to optimize Soldiers’ performance and readiness to meet operational demands in any conflict of war.

References

Arguello, G. (2023, May 2). Physical and mental combat readiness. Small War Journal. https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/physical-and-mental-combat-readiness

Bates, A. (2022, June 15). Army readiness and modernization in 2022. AUSA. https://www.ausa.org/publications/army-readiness-and-modernization-2022

Department of the Army. (2016). Force health protection (ATP 4-08.8). https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN30124-ATP_4-02.8-001-WEB-3.pdf

Department of the Army. (2020). Holistic health and fitness (FM 7-22). https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN30964-FM_7-22-001-WEB-4.pdf

Department of the Army. (2023, June 15). Prevention of heat and cold casualties (TR 350-29). https://adminpubs.tradoc.army.mil/regulations/TR350-29.pdf

Dingle, R, S., Hibbard, L., Bigelman, K., & Teyhen, D. (2021, December 15). Targeting mind and body for soldier readiness. AUSA. https://www.ausa.org/articles/targeting-mind-and-body-soldier-readiness 

Lensing, M. (2022, November 17). Why the army’s holistic health and fitness (h2f) will fail. Mountain Tactical Institute. https://mtntactical.com/knowledge/why-the-armys-holistic-health-and-fitness-h2f-will-fail/

Reed, C. (2020, May 11). Why is physical fitness important to the military? Air University. Why Is Physical Fitness Important to the Military? > Air University (AU) > Wild Blue Yonder (af.edu)

2nd Warrant Officer (2WO) Alfred Lim is a Combat Engineer in the Singapore Armed Forces. He served in the Engineers Training Institute as a Platoon Commander, training Singapore’s next generation of Noncommissioned Officers. 2WO Alfred Lim currently attends the Sergeants Major Course – Class 74 at the US Army Noncommissioned Officer Leadership Center of Excellence as an international military student.

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