Recently the New York Times covered the new military fitness protocols for incoming recruits.  The program innovations bring modern exercise science to the challenge of recruiting from a generation notoriously inactive and less fit than their predecessors.  Gone is the “one size fits all” mentality, replaced by slower progressions and a focus on building soldiers’ functional capacity for the actual demands of their jobs. 

Among this generation of recruits the military is observing low bone density (leading to bone fractures), overweight, and inability to meet basic fitness standards.  The Times writes,

“The new fitness regime tries to deal with all these problems by incorporating more stretching, more exercises for the abdomen and lower back, instead of the traditional situps, and more agility and balance training. It increases in difficulty more gradually. And it sets up a multiweek course of linked exercises, rather than offering discrete drills.”

Unsurprisingly, the new regime is reducing injuries and improving performance.

I’ve been thinking about this in light of the surge in popularity of military style workouts like P90X, Cross Fit and Metro Dash.  (The military inspiration in these workouts is unmistakable: Cross Fit names its workouts in honor of hero soldiers; Metro Dash was developed by Navy SEALS.) While all these programs utilize exercise science in the development of their programs and recommend customization to the individual client (Cross Fit gyms and trainers are proud of their ability to tailor the workout to a range of participants), the open source online workouts are essentially “one-size.”  For example, typical Metro Dash workout (drawn from their Facebook page for Friday, September 3) might be a 21 minute run, followed by 100 squats, 100 lunges, 100 jumping jacks, 100 crunches, 50 pull-ups, and 50 push-ups.

I wonder how beginners working without a trainer find an entry point into these workouts.   Early in my discovery of Metro Dash I inquired on the Facebook page about their recommendations for progressing the pull-up exercise.  I wrote:

“What’s the entry point for this workout, esp. the pull-ups?  Most folks need to work up to this.  While they could do fewer of the other exercises, most I meet are unable to do a single pull up.  Curious about the Metro Dash recommended progression for folks new to this style of workout.”

 This was the moderator’s reply:

“The workouts posted are for various levels of fitness.  If you are unable to do a specific exercise (i.e.: pull-ups) you can modify either the number of reps or type of exercise.  For instance you could do 50 jumping pull-ups instead with the goal of getting better every time you do a pull-up workout.  Also, Friday workouts are meant to be tough since you have the weekend off.  Cheers!

I appreciated the quick reply and the suggestion of how to modify the pull-up exercise in specific.  But the last line (“Friday workouts are meant to be tough...”) definitely gave the message that Metro Dash is not for the meek.  I felt a certain comprehension gap between my question (“most clients I meet are unable to do a single pull up) and a just-do-it, it’s “supposed to be tough” reply.

Around the same time I started doing the Metro Dash workouts myself. I progressed very much in accordance with the moderator’s sentiment—this is supposed to be a tough workout, push yourself to the edge of what you can do.  And in a very short time –two or three workouts—I had irritated an existing injury into a short but significant flare.

It’s my own feeling that what a body can do and what one should do in your workout routine are two different things.  In our academic preparation to become a personal trainer we learned that the number one reason for attrition from exercise programs is “too much, too soon.”   When I got overly excited and insufficiently analytic about the Metro Dash challenge, I did what I “could do” in the moment—but I paid for it with my body’s inability to recover from that volume of work. 

I suspect that younger and fitter people who discover Metro Dash (and other workouts of its ilk) can get away with doing what they “can do.”  But for those of us who are older, less fit, or managing injuries, a more careful and thoughtful progression—not unlike the army’s new approach—will be safer and more effective.

I came back to Metro Dash with my trainer hat on.  Treating myself as a fit 42 year old client with an impressive injury history and a high pain tolerance (read: willing and able to push through when I really ought to take a break), I created a gentler entry into the regime.  I made my Metro Dash workouts conditional upon completing my daily rehabilitation assignments from Team Lynne Marie (massage therapist Mimi Erceg, Physical Therapists Bob Myers and Scot McComas, Chiropractor Pat Beck).  Instead of going for five Metro Dash workouts a week, I started with three.  Instead of ten sets of ten reps, I did five sets of five reps.  I modified some of the exercises—and not just the ones I was not able to do (i.e.:  unassisted pull-ups) but also the ones that I am able to do but which outstrip my body’s ability to recover (i.e.: full pushups).

Did I feel like a weenie some of the time?  Yup.  Did I finish some workouts knowing I “could” have done more? Absolutely. But (knock wood), the injuries are not flaring.  And my capacity is increasing.  I’m now able to do a higher volume of work, whether harder progressions of specific exercises or more repetitions, without flaring the injuries.

I know why these body-weight, high-intensity workouts are so popular.  They are crazy fun to do.  It’s a blast to challenge your body’s ability, to feel your heart pounding in your chest, to laugh at your own insane self-discipline, to exert the power of your mind over the fatigue of your muscles.  And they are both efficient—20-30 minutes in duration—and effective—solid, well selected exercises that will build your strength, endurance, and power.    

But civilians interested in these military-style workouts would do well to learn from the military’s recent innovations and ramp up to their full intensity thoughtfully and carefully.  And if you haven’t got a trainer hat of your own—which is to say, if you’re not well versed in your own body’s limitations and injuries, and well informed enough to know how to modify exercises—it might behoove you to work with a knowledgeable trainer who can customize the program to your circumstances and establish a progression that will maximize your success.  If our military is taking this tack with its twenty year old recruits, we old and dilapidated folks would do well to do the same.