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 NEWS
 Missouri Guard course focuses on creating well-rounded, physically fit Soldiers By Matthew J. Wilson
                Missouri National Guard
 FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - Following the active Army component, the Missouri National Guard is pushing its Soldiers to be more all-around physically fit as opposed to simply being able to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test. "The Army found that after 10 years of war, Soldiers are getting broke," said Army Capt. Ken Huenink, Missouri Guard state fitness coordinator. "The injury rate for backs and knees was through the roof." The Missouri Guard's most recent Unit Fitness Coordinator Course focuses on this type of training to help get this new information back to its units. "A lot of it is about functional fitness," Huenink said "It's a more well-rounded approach. The whole mindset is changing." Once trained, a unit fitness coordinator acts as a subject-matter expert for their commander in health, fitness and nutrition for Guard members. "The coordinator does programming and planning for unit fitness, is a technical expert on the Physical Readiness Training Program, which is the Army's official fitness program, and provides individual counseling for Soldiers for health, fitness, nutrition and weight control," said Huenink, who lives in Jefferson City. Guard members learn how to be a coordinator through a one week class. "Once completed, they'll be certified," Huenink said. "Most of our fitness is done individually, so what they'll do is go back to their units and teach this stuff. Then those Soldiers can take it home." Huenink and staff from the 140th Regiment Missouri Regional Training Institute recently conducted a Unit Fitness Coordinator Course, their second of the fiscal year, for 16 Guard members. The coordinator program began in the Guard in early 2009. The focus then was on classroom learning and discussion with some hands-on physical fitness training that concentrated on passing the Army Physical Fitness Test. The course has since evolved to focus on hands-on physical fitness training that concentrates on overall fitness, however classroom instruction and discussion is still a part of the course. "Before it was more traditional Army physical training and now we're doing more of the unconventional physical training," Huenink said. "Last March the Army published the Physical Readiness Training Program manual, which had a lot of updates that we've incorporated to our instruction." The training strays away from traditional weightlifting and exercises that require specific equipment and revolves around using what is available to Guardsmen in their garage, armories, motor pool or on their bases while deployed. "That's why it works great for Soldiers," Huenink said. "When I was deployed to Afghanistan last year, we threw together our own gym based on our own principles. "It also works for Guard Soldiers when they're at home. A lot of them don't have access to a gym, so they can build a home gym in their garage." Items used include old tractor tires, sledge hammers, medicine balls, fitness balls and sand bags. It also includes workout suggestions and routines from CrossFit training, which can be found at www.crossfit.com. "It's very prevalent in military and law enforcement as a functional type of fitness," Huenink said of CrossFit. "It's low tech and high intensity. There's not a lot of machinery." The course also includes instruction on nutrition and calorie counting, as well as giving students the opportunity to teach what they have learned. 1st Lt. Adam Von Allmen, rear detachment commander for the 1137th Military Police Company, in Kennett, Mo., said he took the course to find ways to help his unit improve its fitness level. "I want to use this course as a tool to help my Soldiers out," said Von Allmen, who lives in West Plains. "I've learned some interesting facts about nutrition that I previously did not have a full understanding of. I've also learned several different exercise techniques that I can bring back to my unit without having to have formalized equipment." Von Allmen called the training without traditional equipment a very important aspect of the course. "Our armories don't have all the gym equipment that you would find in a world class gym or on a base," he said. "With the operational tempo of Soldiers deploying, they don't necessarily always have all the greatest gym equipment in the world - they have to make do with what they have." The highlight for the course for Von Allmen was seeing the exercises put into practice with great results. "We were able to compete and get a little competition generated amongst all of us," he said. Spc. Alexiss Petree, of the 1139th Military Police Company in Harrisonville, Mo., has wanted to come to the course for the last year. "I really like fitness," said Petree, who lives in Warrensburg, Mo. During the course, Petree said she learned a lot of different ways to teach people to exercise other than traditional methods and to use what she has learned to create individualized physical training for each Soldier. "We've learned that you have to make exercise something people want to do - not force it on them," she said. "Being able to work with people and find what works for them is very important." The most important thing she said she learned for herself was proper posture in dead lifting. "I was always afraid to try dead lifting because I don't want to mess up my form or hurt myself," she said. "I heard that if you do too much weight, you can hurt yourself. So they started me off with a really light weight and kept bumping me up to see how well I did." Petree added that the instruction was first rate. "The instructors are very friendly and very hands-on," she said. As the only female in the course, Petree said she always felt like just one of the students. "It's not intimidating because everyone was really respectful and that makes for a great learning environment," she said. "There was nothing uncomfortable about it." Huenink said there are five additional Unit Fitness Coordinator Courses scheduled for fiscal year 2011 with open slots available. "The goal for Missouri is to have two unit fitness coordinators in each company across the state," Huenink said. "That's a pretty good dispersion with the average company having 120 Soldiers."
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