MILITARY FITNESS/SPECIAL OPS
Building Today's Tactical Athletes
In terms of overall toughness, bravery, strength, endurance,
resilience and mental fortitude, nothing rivals today’s
Special Operations Command (SOCOM) warfighters, who
have benefitted greatly from the evolution that has taken place
in the fitness industry over the past decade in the areas of
tactical fitness and rehabilitation. Today, the SOCOM community
is bringing in the best exercise science and strength
and conditioning professionals from the industry — from the
collegiate and pro sports worlds — as well as reaching out to
well-respected resources within the industry, all in an effort
to help train its tactical athletes using the most effective and
safest methods and protocols available today.
“A team-based approach is what we are seeing at SOCOM, which is bringing in its own assets, and creating an integrative team that fully supports that warfighter,” noted Alex Lincoln, vice president, Tactical, for EXOS (formerly Athletes’ Performance), which has made a name for itself by helping train and rehabilitate the best collegiate and pro athletes, as well as working with SOCOM and other military personnel. “Our history with the SOCOM community goes pretty deep, and we started well over 10 years ago when members of that community started to seek us out for solutions that were similar in expectation to what pro athletes could access. The thought was, when an elite athlete is hurt or has any kind of performance need, there is a whole team of people who swarm around that athlete to protect that human asset.”
He continued, “At the very beginning we thought what a great responsibility for us to take what we have learned with the professional sports world and translate that to the Special Ops community, understanding that you can’t just treat them like a professional athlete, because there are other nuances to the job, and there certainly is not a game involved. It’s about defending freedom, it’s about life and death, and so with the deepest respect, we decided to really try to find solutions for that community.” ...
FIRST RESPONDER FITNESS
Sacramento Firefighters Embracing New Wellness Culture
For the Sacramento Fire Department in California, the introduction
of a wellness program nine years ago has helped
to change the culture of health and fitness throughout the
department.
“Our department was a little more forward-thinking in terms of hiring a full-time strength and conditioning coach to oversee the wellness program,” said Sacramento Fire Department Strength & Conditioning Coach John Hofman, CSCS-D*, M.S., who recently gave a presentation at the Tactical Strength and Conditioning (TSAC) conference in April on lower back injuries in the first responder community.
“My first challenge was getting the firefighters to respect me, and to buy into the program and what I was trying to do,” he explained. “It didn’t matter how much you knew, but how much you cared, and it took a little patience on everybody’s end. But getting the guys to warm up to me and trust me was the first step.”
Hofman pointed out that the key to his success early on was not making any of what he was doing mandatory....
Read more SACRAMENTO FIREFIGHTERS EMBRACING NEW WELLNESS CULTURE ...