Mission Essential Fitness
Mission Essential Fitness (MEF)
Army Force Generation Model (ARFORGEN)
What is Mission Essential Fitness?
Simply put, Mission Essential Fitness (MEF) is the training required to condition soldiers to perform their mission, in Garrison as well as any operational environment.
A US Soldier is required to have a high level of fitness, capable of performing a multitude of physical tasks, involving power, strength, speed, and agility. Functional training incorporates all of these fitness components to train soldiers as tactical athletes both aerobically and anaerobically.
Due to a lack of core training, Soldiers return from deployment with preventable injuries. Functional training focuses primarily on the development of core muscles as stabilizers, reducing injury and increasing muscular balance and joint stability, thereby positively affecting a Soldier’s performance.
Functional Training has its origins in rehabilitation, where physical therapists would develop exercises to duplicate what a patient did in their daily lives at work or home in order to return after injury or surgery. Functional training is the utilization of weight bearing activities to target core muscles of the abdomen and lower back to allow the individual to perform daily activities more easily and without injury.
Functional Exercises lead to better muscular balance and joint stability, possibly impacting the number of injuries sustained and a Soldier’s performance in the demands of combat. Functional exercises use training that emphasizes the body's natural ability to move forward/backward, side-to-side, up/down and rotationally to mimic the movements of that a Soldier is required to make in combat situations. For a tactical Soldier those movements must replicate an unbalanced movement pattern due to a heavy ruck, while maintaining explosive, agile movements required in urban environments.
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To be effective a Functional Exercise Program should include several different elements:
Specific to the Mission - All training should be mission specific, working to develop and maintain mission specific strength.
Integrated – It should include a variety of exercises that work on power, strength, speed, and agility..
Increases Core Stability – Core stability is crucial for any mission. A stable core allows for more efficient transference of power from the lower to upper body, and an increased ability to maintain correct athletic posture over long periods of time.
Progressive – Progressive resistance training steadily increases the power/strength demand from workout to workout. While most people are aware of the need for this in relation to traditional power/strength training, it is sometimes overlooked in functional training. For functional training is also means varying speed of movement to make it more mission specific.
Periodization - For professional soldiers and tactical athletes, functional training needs to fit into their training cycle. In broad terms this means that the program will vary throughout the year to achieve optimal results, peaking for deployment and maintaining their power and strength while in theater. Using there are four (4), 12 week training cycles per year with one (1) week rest between each cycle.
Mission Essential Fitness:
Unit PT
- Traditional morning and non-traditional afternoons classes:
- Spin, Kickbox, Step, Boot Camp,
- Bosu Ball, Kettle Bells, TRX Straps, Gravity Training Systems, Traditional
Weights
- Entry Level Circuits designed to teach form and basic strength movements
- High Intensity Circuits combining all types of Functional Training to include
- compound movements and explosive power
Tactical Strength and Conditioning (TSAC) Certification
TRX Suspension Strap Certification
Group Exercise Certification
Functional Training Equipment Deployment Kits
Special Population Specific Needs
Custom Functional Equipment Workouts
Microfit FAS-2 Assessments
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CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD 52 FUNCTIONAL TRAINING CIRCUITS |
The Tactical Strength and Conditioning (TSAC) program’s primary purpose is to develop operational fitness for military personnel. When developing a comprehensive strength and conditioning program, operators must consider the physical demands of operational related activities. Throughout history, warriors and soldiers physically trained by performing various strength and conditioning exercises. Eventually this had evolved into athletic events, thus the first athletes were soldiers. Today our operators have evolved into tactical athletes.
When preparing for competition, athletes dedicate many long hard hours to physically preparation. Most successful athletes commit their mind, body, and spirit to the task. This level of commitment includes practicing sport skills, improving strength, conditioning, nutrition, and wellness.
Typically, the tactical athlete devotes time to improving operational skill without much focus on improving operational strength, conditioning, and nutrition. The NSCA’s Tactical Strength and Conditioning program addresses these needs.
By training the operators in the same fashion as professional athletes, the TSAC program offers the same expertise in developing the tactical athlete
What is Suspension Training?
A new category of exercise for athletes of all abilities, that leverages one’s own bodyweight and gravity to develop strength, balance, flexibility and joint stability simultaneously.
Benefits:
Make your body your machine
TRX® Suspension Training® harnesses your own bodyweight to create resistance as you train. That's all you need - the TRX and your own body. No additional weights required.
Unlimited Versatility
We're all unique. Not only is each individual's body built a little differently, but we each fill our lives with a mix of physical activities that can require specific training. TRX Suspension Training allows you to instantly adjust not only the level of difficulty for each exercise, but you can easily customize any workout on the fly.
Maximize your training time
You can easily switch from exercise to exercise in less than 15 seconds. This allows you to maximize your training time and enables circuit style workouts.
Build core strength
Killer abs are great, but more importantly, having a strong core will prevent injuries, improve posture and increase overall strength. This is because all of our movements are powered by the torso - the abs and back work together to support the spine during everyday activities and exercise. Suspension Training builds core strength with every exercise by creating an element of instability that calls on your core to provide balance and coordination.
Life doesn't happen sitting down
In real life, our bodies move to the side, backwards, forwards and diagonally. Shouldn't we train the same way? Unlike traditional weight training that tends to be linear and follow one plane of movement (sagittal), Suspension Training encourages multiplanar training (frontal, sagittal, transverse) which integrates all your motions and mimics real life movement. This will bring a muscular balance to your body, increasing performance and preventing injuries.
Functional Equipment:
- TRX Straps
- Bosu Balls
- Wobble Boards
- Kettle Bells
- Medicine Balls
- Traditional Weights
- Elastic Bands
- Agility Ladders
- Hoops
- Hurdles
- And so forth…
To schedule a Unit PT session in Ironworks Gym
Located on Biggs Field, please call Office (915) 744-5201
or e-mail James G Swanson at:
james.g.swanson@us.army.mil
or e-mail John Barela at:
john.d.barela@us.army.mil
For questions, comments, or concerns, please contact:
Doug Briggs at
Douglas.briggs1@us.army.mil