How the Marine Corps wants to improve its performance

ARLINGTON, Va. — As the Marine Corps seeks to “age” its strength, it is taking steps to try to improve the long-term mental, spiritual and physical well-being of Marines.

An older, better trained and fitter Marine Corps is the goal as the service reshapes itself by focusing on a potential war in the Pacific with China or in northern Europe against Russia. Either way, the Marines would be fighting without a significant technological or logistical advantage for the first time in decades.

To make up for this lost advantage, the Corps strives to make every Marine better than their close equivalent.

To achieve this goal, the Corps is seeking to create a Human Performance Center that will be a Marine’s one-stop shop for physical, spiritual, and mental fitness.

“Our nation’s strategic advantage is not in things, it’s in the minds and abilities of the people in uniform,” Marine Corps Sergeant Major Troy Black told reporters Thursday at the Pentagon.

Black said the Corps was conducting experiments to determine what the human performance center should look like.

One such experiment was at the School of Infantry-East, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where Marines taking the Marine Infantry Pilot Course were given a human performance experiential center in the headquarters building of the battalion.

“Here, they have free access to equipment, tools and advice from professionals who can advise Marines on all fitness factors – from spiritual fitness to physical fitness,” a press release said. of the Marine Corps.

While squats, deadlifts, and bench presses will likely remain a key factor in many Marines’ after-work gym visits, the Corps will have a different look for gyms provided at Human Performance Centers.

Black said modern college athletic training rooms have more “elastic bands” and “bouncing balls” than free weights.

“And they perform better than they did when they picked up the heavy thing, pushed the heavy thing forward or backward, did the heavy squats, it’s different, with a better result of performance,” he said.

The new gyms, along with the fitness instructors and athletic trainers the Corps sends to the fleet, will create training programs based on the specific needs of Marines based on job requirements and current performance level.

Smarter not harder

The Corps will also take that “smarter not harder” mindset out of the gym and onto the field.

“You can’t train for sleep deprivation, you’re either tired or you’re not,” Black said.

“We will operate in environments where for 36 hours, 24 hours of wakefulness occurs. Ok, how many times do you do this before you make bad decisions in the training environment? »

Marines will always be pushed to the limit as part of the Corps’ new human performance mindset, but commanders should have a better understanding of that limit and how to get Marines there safely.

“How do we make someone stronger, while also making them better at doing all the things that caused the injury in the first place,” is a question the Marine Corps is trying to answer, Black said.

The Corps is also seeking to change its culture, which historically has discouraged Marines from admitting they have been injured or seeking help.

“More people are asking for help now than they ever have before, so I think the culture is starting to change a bit,” Black said.

Embracing a human performance mindset can accelerate this cultural shift, as leaders fully understand that a “fitter force is a better force,” Black added.

Learning to ask for and provide help goes beyond simple physical training, Black said, and touches perhaps the most important part of the human performance spectrum.

Although physical health and physical fitness is a primary goal, Black said that for Marines physical fitness will come naturally if they are mentally and spiritually fit.

“Fitness is probably the end result of all the other elements of fitness,” Black said.

“Our top sports teams and organizations don’t start by going to the gym, you have to go through a whole bunch of other stuff before you can work out in the weight room,” Black said, referring to his interviews with departments. college athletes. .

Black said there was a growing need for mental health in the country which was reflected in the Corps.

Between 45.2% and 50.2% of US citizens aged 18 to 29 had symptoms of anxiety or depression in 2021, according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Between long hours, necessary moves that strain the family, and deployments, these problems can be magnified in the military.

The human performance mindset that the Marine Corps hopes to adopt will seek to target these issues even more than it targets the physical side of human performance, Black said.

RELATED

While the Corps is still in the experimental phase, the new forces fitness mentality seems to be paying off.

Despite the increased physical demands, the first iteration of the East Coast course did not see an increased number of injuries, according to a Marine Corps press release.

On the West Coast side, only two Marines dropped out of the first iteration of the infantry marine course despite increased physical training and demands, Marine Corps Times previously reported.

The sergeant major added that there was no specific timeline for the implementation of the program, but said it was a perfect fit with Berger’s vision to reshape the Corps by 2030.