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FORT CARSON, Colo. - The Master Fitness Trainer (MFT) Course team from the U.S. Army Physical Fitness School is educating 50 Joint Task Force Carson Soldiers to be the subject matter experts the Army needs to improve the readiness of the force.
The course leaders, who began their latest class Oct. 20, 2014, focus on the Physical Readiness Training (PRT) exercises Soldiers perform every day.
“The MFT Course is designed to develop special leaders — NCOs and officers — and increase their exercise science knowledge, knowing how the body works, and increase their knowledge in all the PRT drills,” said Capt. Todd Jones, MFT team lead, U.S. Army Physical Fitness School Victory College, Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Soldiers start day one performing an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) graded by the MFT instructors and NCOs, with expectations of achieving 80 percent in every category. The instructors then teach the proper ways to conduct the PRT exercises to ensure maximum benefit to Soldiers.
“We show them what right looks like,” Jones said. “Then we do the crawl, walk, run method application when training them. We give them a demonstration showing them how to do it. Secondly, we’ll do a slow demonstration of it, and later on they will actually perform it. So they will become experts in all the PRT exercises in (Field Manual 7-22).”
The MFT Course teaches precision to improve physical strength and prevent injuries.
“It is to help reduce the injuries within the footprint of the company, battalion and brigade,” said Sgt. 1st Class Aurelio Antonio Sandoval, coordinator, mobile training team, 4th Infantry Division. “They are the leaders teaching
Soldiers what right looks like when performing an APFT or conducting physical training at the squad level.”
Although exercise is an important aspect of physical fitness, it is only one piece of the puzzle.
“Additionally, they learn about nutrition which goes to say, if you had a Ferrari you wouldn’t put 87 octane in it, you would want to feed it the correct fuel,” Jones said. “You want to do the same with your body. We teach them when to eat, after the workout and when it is best for them.”
Nutrition and exercise only complete two parts of the fitness triad of a healthy lifestyle.
“They also teach them about bad habits (such as) not sleeping well and why it is important to have good sleep habits,” Sandoval said. “It affects the Soldier’s performance. If he comes to work after two hours of sleep and does physical training, he will get burnt out by midday and start messing up at work. Then safety becomes involved.”
Besides the fundamentals, the program teaches how to help recondition Soldiers back to health.
“Additionally, we go over reconditioning programs,” Jones said. “Sadly to say, a lot of units send their (Soldiers on) profiles to the track and have them walk around and no one is gauging their progression — whether they are progressing through their injury and sustaining their strength that they had before the injury.
“So we talk about reconditioning programs and how they can be developed and keep some of those Soldiers inside the formation so they feel like a part of the team,” Jones said. “All in all, the MFTs become a fitness adviser for the commander who interacts with the medical community to help rehabilitate Soldiers on profile, (those) overweight and your special population.”
MFT Course graduate Sgt. 1st Class Allen Rollins, first sergeant, Company A, 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Inf. Div., said he knows the importance of the MFT’s role in physical training.
“The whole title ‘Master Fitness Trainer’ is about being a master of the entire PT program,” Rollins said. “That individual will be the trainer for the unit and train the trainers, other NCOs in the formations that lead physical training.
“Basically, their role at that point is to step back and supervise PT to allow them to identify when Soldiers get injured and their root cause so corrections can be made. Otherwise, that PT session will continue and run into the same injuries over and over, injuring different Soldiers on the same exercise.”
Fort Carson currently has 186 MFTs within the division, with goals of expanding.
“I believe the division’s goal is to have one MFT per company,” Rollins said.
| Date Taken: | 10.20.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.06.2014 23:00 |
| Story ID: | 147302 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 131 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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