Media Contact:
Mack Burke | Associate Director of Media Relations | 405-744-5540 | editor@okstate.edu
Firefighters, law enforcement officials, military personnel and emergency medical
workers are the first responders in emergencies, risking their lives daily to save
others and provide critical aid.
These tactical athletes are thrust into life-threatening situations at a moment’s
notice to ensure people’s security and safety, which can put them at risk of unique
health problems and even premature death.
Often, first responders’ health and fitness are overlooked, and the resources to make
changes are limited.
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In 2019, Oklahoma State University took a step to optimize health, fitness and performance
for these populations by establishing the Tactical Fitness and Nutrition Lab. Drs. Jay Dawes and Jill Joyce
Co-directors Dr. Jay Dawes, professor of applied exercise science, and Dr. Jill Joyce,
associate professor of nutritional sciences, created the lab to help tactical athletes
perform their jobs safely and efficiently during their careers and retire healthy.
Together, Joyce and Dawes are exploring opportunities to work with OSU’s Human Performance
and Nutrition Research Institution to accelerate the land-grant mission and fuel the
work they are already doing with tactical athletes.
“There’s this awesome culture on campus when it comes to research. People often get
very competitive, and it’s cutthroat. That is not the culture here,” Joyce said. “We
are very supportive, and I think HPNRI fits in beautifully with that. I expect them
to continue helping make connections.”
The lab collaborates with an organization to evaluate their fitness and nutrition.
OSU then provides strategies to guide personnel toward a healthier path.
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Forty-five percent of firefighter on-the-job deaths are from heart attacks, not fire,
Joyce said.
As firefighters rush to the scene, their hearts race and blood pressure spikes. The
combined stress of the urgent task, along with personal factors such as fitness level,
hydration and nutritional status can increase strain on their heart.
Despite these demands, a healthy firefighter’s body can handle the pressure, minimizing
the risk of major health issues or death.
“Research on big groups of national firefighter deaths found that none occurred in
healthy individuals,” Joyce said. “They all occurred in people who had underlying
heart disease, high blood pressure, which could be because of the job, but also factors
like high cholesterol, obesity. Nutrition, followed by physical activity are the leading
risk factors for those. I would say the job pulls the trigger, but lifestyle loads
the gun.”
Joyce collaborates with first responders and their families on nutrition. Common practices
for the general public often don’t work for tactical athletes, making it challenging
to meet their nutritional needs.
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“If somebody eats out too much, and they’re not eating healthy food when they eat
out, my students always suggest they should pack their lunches, but when you work
in a car for 10 hours a day with no fridge, freezer or microwave — it’s a curveball,”
Joyce said.
There’s this awesome culture on campus when it comes to research. People often get
very competitive, and it’s cutthroat. That is not the culture here. We are very supportive,
and I think HPNRI fits in beautifully with that. I expect them to continue helping
make connections.
— Dr. Jill Joyce, associate professor of nutritional sciences
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Brittany Wheeler, Colorado State Patrol wellness and fitness coordinator, learned
that officers want more nutrition material, which prompted her to connect with Joyce.
“This whole concept of making wellness more important in our agency is probably like
six, seven years old now, but it takes forever to change culture,” Wheeler said. “She
helped me dial down the material to the specifics, like learning how to read a nutrition
label.”
As an instructor at the academy, Wheeler has 23 weeks to work with cadets teaching
them the basics of nutrition and wellness.
Outside the academy, Wheeler provides officers with resources such as Joyce’s nutrition
classes and a handout showing how to eat healthily at a restaurant.
“That was huge just to start that conversation,” Wheeler said. “We can’t always bring
our food. We’ll have 14-hour shifts, where you have to go to a gas station, or you’ll
have to stop for fast food, but to create that awareness piece is great.”
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Tactical athlete requirements are like professional athletes as far as strength and
power, speed and agility, except they perform on a moment’s notice with occupational
loads and wear personal protective equipment.
It’s challenging to find tactical athlete specific resources in a world where new
health trends emerge every day. Wheeler said having access to Joyce and Dawes is important
to ensure the information she shares is accurate.
“It’s just one of those things that you’ve got to start somewhere,” Wheeler said.“… You have to meet people where they are. They have to start changing, changing
the culture, and creating those conversations and just start super simple.”
Typically, unhealthy snacks or baked goods are found on fire station countertops that
firefighters picked up at the store or were delivered by the community, Joyce said.
Often those foods are leading to health issues.
“Usually, the food environment is set up to destroy them,” Joyce said. “That’s not
going to fuel performance or health. We are looking at department-level changes. Should
we have a policy that says no junk food on the counters? Should I put out a PSA that
says bring fruit baskets and veggie trays? We’re trying to set up systems so that
they have knowledge and skills, but also the environments, the cultures, the people
that allow them to do that.”
As part of dietary assessments, Joyce provides nutrition report cards with color codes
and letter grades to highlight areas of concern and how to improve. Then, they teach
them how to set up their home food environment to support instead of sabotage them
and how to eat healthy while dining out.
“I can teach firefighters all day long how to eat healthy, and that gives them knowledge
and maybe even skill, but if the environment isn’t set up to let them use that knowledge
and skill, then they can’t use it,” Joyce said. “I need to figure out what’s going
on beyond them, to get them to be able to do that.
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“We create interventions that departments can put their people through, that will
address knowledge and skill and readiness of the group, so they’re all more supportive
and ready to do this, and then we’ll work with departments to alter the food environment.”
Kim Wiesmann, public health specialist for the Indianapolis Fire Department, evaluates
firefighters’ health and safety issues and identifies interventions to mitigate or
prevent them.
“We’re always trying to reduce our overweight and obese firefighters,” Wiesmann said.
“We’re trying to reduce cholesterol, blood pressure and metabolic syndrome, and so
one of the big areas that we feel that we can do that is through nutrition.”
The resources Dawes and Joyce supply aren’t one size fits all. In fact, they give
detailed assistance in specific areas.
“I can take a look at our data, see where we’re having issues, and then utilize Jay
or Jill as a resource to help us, then focus on what we really need to do that could
maybe help with that issue,” Wiesmann said.
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Currently, in the IFD recruit school, recruits are taught how to cook healthy meals
in the station and meal prep dishes to better prepare them to be healthy on the job.
The lab collaborates with an organization to evaluate their fitness and nutrition.
OSU then provides strategies to guide personnel toward a healthier path.
As a government agency, resources can be limited when trying to implement evidence-based
practices and it can be hard to find individuals who are willing to help.
“I’m just so grateful for Jill and Jay because they are so willing to offer up advice
and resources when I can’t always give them something back,” Wiesmann said.
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Tactical athlete requirements are like professional athletes as far as strength and
power, speed and agility, except they perform on a moment’s notice with occupational
loads and wear personal protective equipment — which, combined with shift work and
unhealthy lifestyles, puts stress on the body. Typically, unhealthy snacks or baked goods are found on fire station countertops.
Joyce is teaching them how to set up their food environment to support eating healthy.
On the physical fitness side, Dawes conducts research on topics ranging from public
health to high-level performance to help first responders efficiently perform throughout
their careers.
“We look at what fitness standards will help best predict job suitability, health
status and fitness status,” Dawes said. “We also look at different types of practices
within the profession to see if they are the most efficient ways of going about performing
certain job tasks.”
Exemplifying OSU’s land-grant mission, the lab is a mobile unit where the testing
and assessment equipment is easily transported into a community to meet the needs
of tactical athletes to help combat the challenges they face in their jobs and everyday
lives.
“We’ve done physical assessments, provided some sample training programs and individualized
wellness programs. We work with their lead wellness team member to implement different
strategies to help them continue to be more fit, and we really introduce that health
and wellness lifestyle within the organization to help transition the culture to one
that’s more health and wellness oriented,” Dawes said.
Along with the Warriors Rest Foundation, the lab is working with the Edmond Police
Department to set up an in-house wellness program.
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“In a lot of cases, what we have to do is undo what the job does to them,” Dawes said.
“At the end of the day, they’re not playing for trophies and medals. It’s about life
and death, public safety and national security. At the end of the day, they’re trying
to preserve safety and lives.”
Following a nationwide push for holistic wellness programs in law enforcement, the
EPD started a wellness program.
Stephanie Williams recently became the full-time wellness coordinator, but her work
with EPD began in a smaller capacity in 2022 as she provided counseling services following
the department’s first line of duty death.
Through that experience, Williams sparked conversations surrounding mental health
and self-care and learned the officers were interested in their health.
“One of the things people were really interested in is physical fitness and nutrition,
because it is different for law enforcement officers than it is for me or the general public, because of their shift work and the high cortisol levels,” Williams
said.
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Through the partnership with the lab, Dawes performs assessments and then creates
strategic workouts for the officers that Williams can post around the gym for optimal
performance.
“The difference between his type of workouts and what other people do is he’s able
to put in both strength and flexibility exercises, because if you get called out in
the middle of your workout, you’ve got to go. He wants to make sure there’s not going
to be any injuries,” Williams said.
You have to meet people where they are. They have to start changing, changing the
culture, and creating those conversations and just start super simple.
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— Brittany Wheeler, Colorado State Patrol wellness and fitness coordinator
Williams said many times officers don’t know where to start because their body is
in a different condition than when they left the academy. So, EPD hosts social functions
to encourage officers and their families to start their physical fitness journey which
also helps strengthen their mental health.
“What we know about wellness is that wellness works within police departments, wellness
works when we include the family,” Williams said.
Williams has worked with first responders for 20 years and has seen how those that
lack fitness or nutrition struggle with sleep, clear thinking and mental health issues.
People in these careers also tend to retire earlier than those in other career fields,
but they typically live just five to seven years after retirement.
And while EPD is still new to the lab, Williams is already seeing changes in how officers
reach out to Dawes about tiny injuries instead of pushing through the pain. Her goal
is for everything to come together to help people feel better physically and mentally
on the job and in retirement.
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“What this partnership is offering is so amazing,” Williams said. “It has a ripple
effect, not just within our law enforcement officers or our first responders and their
families, but also, that ripple effect goes to the community. These officers are dealing
with people on their hardest days, and so when they’re taken care of, their family
life is better, but I think our communities are better too.”
To help you do this, we’ve tapped our Start TODAY experts for simple tips to lighten up meals, move in ways that boost metabolism and and refocus our mindset to get motivated to keep working toward your goals. Apply their strategies and finish the month feeling lighter, more energized and motivated to move forward. Here’s the plan to make it happen:
>>Download the 31-day calendar here
31-Day HIIT & Walking Challenge
This month’s workout plan is focused on short workouts that pack a punch. “HIIT workouts give you a bigger bang for your workout buck! They provide a more efficient workout because you’re alternating the pace and intensity rather than sticking to a steady, moderate pace,” says Mansour. “Changing things up with HIIT prevents boredom and keeps your muscles guessing. This is how we can get the body to change — whether that change is speeding up your metabolism, burning more calories, building muscle, losing weight, or just improving overall health — keeping your body guessing is the magic ticket to seeing results!”
Active recovery days include stretching to improve flexibility and walking for a cardiovascular workout that aids muscle recovery. When weather permits, Mansour encourages people to get outside on walking days. “Walking outdoors isn’t just a workout, it’s a chance to breathe in fresh air and get out of the house to change your environment,” she says. “Each time you go outside on a walk, even if you go on the same path, you’ll see or feel something different. Maybe it’s a change in weather, plants or flowers, people or things. Prioritizing taking your walk outside can hugely benefit your mental health. Getting out of your regular environment and into nature can be a form of meditation, too.”
Get the full 31-day workout plan with unique workouts sent to you daily — plus, walking podcasts, healthy spring recipes and mindfulness tools — in the Start TODAY app!
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Lighten up comfort food favorites by adding seasonal ingredients, like in this Spring Asparagus Pasta.
3 Simple Spring Diet Tips
In addition to mixing up your workout routine, use spring as an opportunity to start lightening up your meals by packing them with seasonal ingredients. Start TODAY dietitian Natalie Rizzo shares her top tips:
Incorporate more seasonal foods. After a long winter of eating the same foods, your palate is ready for a change! Aim to add at least one spring fruit or vegetable to your meals each day, like asparagus, peas, spinach, radishes, citrus or strawberries. This Spring Asparagus Pasta is a simple weeknight dinner that feels both light and comforting. Seasonal produce is fresher, more flavorful, and an easy way to naturally boost vitamins and fiber. Plus, seasonal produce is more affordable than other items in the produce section.
Use fresh herbs to brighten up your dishes. Fresh herbs like basil, cilantro, parsley, mint, or dill can instantly upgrade simple meals without extra salt or heavy sauces. Sprinkle them on salads, roasted veggies, eggs, soups, or grain bowls for a burst of spring flavor. Cilantro is the perfect finish to this Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potato, while herbs are blended into cottage cheese in this Herby Cottage Cheese Toast with Tomato recipe for a pop of fresh flavor.
Shift from heavy comfort meals to balanced plates. As the weather warms up, it’s time to move away from heavy comfort foods and embrace lightened up spring dishes. Build plates with a mix of lean protein, whole grains or starchy veggies, and plenty of colorful produce. Think roasted veggie grain bowls, hearty salads like this BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad, or simple stir-fries instead of creamy casseroles or heavy stews.
A sprinkle of fresh cilantro is the perfect finish to this Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potato.
Spring Clean Your Mindset with This Mental Health Exercise
Yes, we are working to propel ourselves forward toward our health goals, but an important part of that process is slowing down and reflecting.
Getting permission not to rush in a world that feels like it’s moving faster than we can keep up is a reminder that most of us need.
Yasmine Cheyenne, start TODAY mindfulness expert
“Getting permission not to rush in a world that feels like it’s moving faster than we can keep up is a reminder that most of us need, but how often would we admit that?” says Cheyenne. “ When the to-do list feels long, and we’re trying to get everything done, we often say the opposite, disregarding how we feel, and push ourselves. Yes, we all have deadlines and things that need to be done. But we also need the reminder to take care while handling our responsibilities.”
This can be easier said than done. So Cheyenne offers up a simple exercise to help: Write down the words you need to hear each day to make yourself a priority and work toward your goals. Put them somewhere you see often, like your fridge or bathroom mirror, and recite them out loud daily.
“This is a perfect example of a reminder that seems small, but can come at the perfect time and help us care for ourselves,” she explains. “One of my favorite examples is: Take it slow and don’t rush, your nervous system deserves peace.”
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“When you tell yourself the thing you’ve been needing to hear, it allows you to admit the quiet rumbling within you and take the steps you need. It might be admitting ‘I’m tired and will give myself an early night this week.’ Or you’re saying ‘I’m so proud of the way I’ve committed to moving my body everyday.’ Whether you’re cheering yourself on or reminding yourself of what you need, we don’t always slow down enough to hear what we need from ourselves, and this practice is a great way to start.”
Talking out loud to yourself may feel strange at first, but Cheyenne says over time it will help shift your mindset and translate those words into action. “When we hear ourselves recite these words, it’s like we’re planting positive seeds within us. The more we say what we need, the more we remember it, and we’re more likely to follow through and care for ourselves,” she says. “Our actions really start with the words we say to ourselves. Reading them out loud helps us rewire the way we talk to ourselves and that inner shift is exactly what opens the door to transformation.”
Join our live “Spring Reset Workshop” on March 22 to get one-on-one coaching from Yasmine Cheyenne and connect with other Start TODAY members. Sign up here!
If you’ve ever wanted to lose weight, you’ve probably heard the phrase ‘calories in versus calories out’. While it’s true to a degree, losing weight in menopause isn’t about eating less, but rather eating differently.
Speaking to fitness coach Loretta Hogg, Dr Stacy Sims says: “One of the first things that women often do, because we grew up in an era of calories in, calories out, less calories means fat loss. That is not true because if you are not eating enough, your body holds on to fat.”
This is called the ‘starvation response’, and it’s the body’s way of protecting itself when food is restricted. Metabolism slows down, hunger hormones increase, and fat stores are preserved for survival.
“Staying adequately fuelled” and strength training regularly is what’s actually needed to lose weight while managing our hormone levels in menopause. “When we’re looking at how we’re going to budge some of the meno-pot, we really want to focus on getting strong and building that muscle because if we are working on muscle and our whole focus is muscle and bone, then we end up eating accordingly.”
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Fibre and protein are the food groups to focus on, she says. They are filling, aid muscle growth (and so help maintain a healthy metabolism), help reduce food cravings, and provide us with the key nutrients our body needs when oestrogen levels fall.
We know there’s a huge market for protein powders, bars and other supplements, but actually, most of us can get what we need from eating high-protein foods.
The amount of protein you need in menopause depends on your weight. “The recommended protein intake for women over 45 is approximately 1 to 1.5g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which is higher than the general recommendation for younger adults,” Dr Nadira Awal, a Doctify-rated GP who specialises in women’s health and menopause, previously told woman&home. You can work out your personal recommendation using menopause specialist Dr Mary Claire Haver’s perimenopause protein calculator.
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Dr Sims says many women are “afraid of abundance” when it comes to eating, but emphasises that “without abundance we can’t lose fat”. “Let’s change the focus on not what we want to lose, but what we want to gain. We want to gain bone, we want to gain muscle. We want to fuel for that, so then the body fat comes off,” she tells Loretta.
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Dr Sims says the best way for us to gain this muscle and bone growth is through strength training. “We need to focus on heavy lifting,” she explains in another video on her Instagram account. “The caveat here is that most perimenopausal women haven’t had a long history in strength training, and it’s a learned skill.” She says consistency is key, and starting off small, even just focusing on movement without weights, before you start adding some load. “But the goal is to get into heavy resistance training, where we have low reps with a heavy weight,” she says.
Dr Sims says it’s “absolutely safe” for women to lift heavy during perimenopause and menopause – and it’s something we should all be doing. She is keen to emphasise that it’s never too late to start, and that “what matters is your form and your function”.
If you’re new to lifting weights, try a simple dumbbell workout at home and work your way up from there. If you have the means, consult a personal trainer for guidance on developing a workout plan.
Sleep is another lifestyle aspect that Dr Sims says says may affect how you lose weight. She says poor sleep “creates metabolic disturbance and dysfunction and increases fat gain”. Improving our sleep quality can lead to body composition improvements in as little as two to three weeks. High levels of cortisol, caused by poor sleep and ongoing stress, also makes fat loss harder as our bodies hold onto energy rather than using it.
Some key ways to improve sleep include going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, limiting blue light exposure at bedtime, and cutting down on your alcohol and caffeine intake.
Editor’s note: This article is the seventh in an eight-part series led by retired General James Mingus, the thirty-ninth vice chief of staff of the Army, on transforming the Army to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s battlefield. You can read other articles in the series here.
The battlefield in America’s next war will offer no sanctuary. The war won’t be fought from forward operating bases equipped with elaborate gyms, contractor-provided dining facilities, or coffee shops. The battlefield will be austere, harsh, and unrelentingly violent, with victory only possible by combining physical strength, endurance, and a will to prepare.
The Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) program is the bedrock upon which this preparation begins. Winning America’s next war requires an Army that can get to the fight, win the fight, and get home from the fight—a mission profile that demands not just fit soldiers built for endurance, but warrior athletes built for endurance and able to leverage strength, speed, and power, and grounded in sound sleep and nutrition.
Culture Shift Begins with Mindset Shift
For the last several decades, the Army took pride in fielding formations rooted in a physical fitness culture relying heavily on push-ups, sit-ups, and miles of running and ruck marching. Physical training began predictably after saluting the flag at 0630 and ended promptly when the basic exercises, calisthenics, and formation run were complete. It was one-dimensional, unimaginative, boring, and, ironically, lazy. Army fitness during this period was solely focused on physical endurance.
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In the early 2000s, however, Army fitness began to change, led by special operations units like the 75th Ranger Regiment, which began experimenting with trending fitness regimens like Gym Jones, CrossFit, and Mountain Athlete. By combining emerging principles from several of these programs, special operations units began designing their own programs, such as the Ranger Athlete Warrior program. The rest of the active Army quickly started to model these programs, and the first H2F pilot kicked off in 2018.
Advances in exercise science and twenty years of war helped reframe the Army’s fitness mindset to encompass mental, physical, nutritional, and sleep dimensions. This mindset shift forms the basis of the H2F culture, changing how we train and care for soldiers. The focus is now on building strength and resilience like professional athletes—or more fittingly, warrior athletes. Where mission endurance was the goal before, tactical athleticism is now the goal, with an emphasis on strength, speed, power, and agility.
You Can’t Fake Results
A key part of any fitness program is the ability to measure its effectiveness, and in only a few short years, the return on investment for the H2F program has been profound. Currently sixty-six brigades have an H2F performance team, which consists of twenty-two professionals: a program director, dietitian, physical therapist, and occupational therapist; seven strength and conditioning coaches; four athletic trainers; one cognitive performance specialist; and six military personnel. By 2029, the program will expand to cover the entire active Army, as well as four states of Army National Guard and two Army Reserve commands.
According to analysis from the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, if H2F had been implemented across the entire Army, over a five-year period it would have added 1,080 deployable soldiers to the fighting force. If that’s not compelling enough, also consider these complementary H2F data points compiled by the Center for Initial Military Training Research and Analysis team after analyzing data from 2019 to 2023:
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61 percent decrease in musculoskeletal injury referrals
44 percent decrease in behavioral health profiles
79 percent decrease in substance abuse cases
22 percent decrease in fitness test failures
33 percent increase in expert rifle marksmanship qualification
Expanding the Tools
As part of continuous transformation, the Army is looking for unique ways to leverage technology to enhance the H2F program. Several units are experimenting with wearables like rings and watches that measure sleep efficiency, heart rate variability, and blood oxygen saturation—providing rich data to inform approaches to physical, nutritional, and sleep aspects of fitness. Today, entire Army divisions are turning physiological data into leader decision-making information. A company commander who knows his or her soldiers’ sleep scores, for example, is equipped with data to combine with other information to help select the most well-rested platoon to lead a dangerous mission. Individual soldiers will also learn the correlations that exist between their fueling, recovery, and performance habits, which will help in multiple facets of their personal lives.
The Army is also continually working to improve facilities and services that support H2F. Most units now have access to twenty-four-hour functional fitness gyms on post and many units utilize fitness containers—effectively, gyms in a box. Plans are also in place to build additional facilities to ensure soldiers at every post have adequate equipment to train. To improve nutrition, the Army is experimenting with campus-style dining facilities that will supplement, and in some cases replace, traditional dining facilities—affording soldiers a myriad of quick, 24/7 accessible healthy food options. A no excuse not to work out and no excuse not to eat healthy mentality now abounds across the Army.
Soldiering has no offseason and no time-outs, and wars wait on no one. When America calls, the Army responds. Unlike professional athletes who can vary training volume, intensity, and specific exercises over planned cycles or offseasons, a practice known as performance periodization, soldiers have no such luxury. Tactical athleticism via compound periodization is the goal for soldiers—ensuring peak performance at all times by developing key physical attributes (e.g., strength, endurance, and power) year-round to maximize efficiency, prevent burnout, and improve overall warfighting readiness. The H2F tools highlighted above aid in measuring and maximizing this readiness.
What’s Next?
Imagine two Army squads ascending Colorado’s Pikes Peak carrying fifty-pound fighting loads. Squad A trained to get to the top through push-ups, sit-ups, and miles of running. The soldiers of Squad B are warrior athletes who took the H2F approach. When Squad A’s soldiers finally struggle to the top, they’re just happy to be mission complete and they flop on the ground. The soldiers of Squad B assault the mountain, and when they get to the top, they still have enough juice to rip the arms off their adversaries and steamroll into the next mission. In their post-hike squad photo, they’re all standing tall—straight backs, satisfied smiles, and trap muscles extending inches above their shoulders so they almost appear to have no necks. For them the mission is just getting started, and their smirks seem to say, “Is that it? What’s next?”
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Welcome to the No Neck Army.
Retired General James Mingus served as the thirty-ninth vice chief of staff of the Army.
Colonel Graham White is an infantry officer and the executive officer to the vice chief of staff of the Army.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.
