army training - exercise modifications

stumbled upon the us army physical readiness training manual (link opens a pdf); want to share bc it has a bunch of modifications for most calisthenic movements in one place (i.e., chapter 6).

granted, few of us have a sargeant doctor lieutenant or whatever to determine our 'profile', but if you're lucky enough to know your injury and have been rehabbing (and use common sense - although, maybe that is less typical of those to whom i'm directing this ;), there are some good ideas in here. at least as good as might be encountered through an average gym, for example.

still, obviously, smart to have exercises demonstrated and checked, if possible.

(i figure if anyone's interested in keeping bodies going and knows how, it's the army.)

 The army has a specific fitness profile they want in their soldiers, which may not match up with your goals - and they have been guilty of the "work harder, not smarter" school of fitness whenever they've fallen prey to their own propaganda about "army strong".  And some segments of their trainers are still too enamored of Crossfit to be sensible about it.

Those are very minor quibbles though - modern army training is on the whole very sensible and informed by exercise physiology, barring occasional outbreaks of Crossfit cultism.

One of the more amusing factoids about fitness: I have a whole bunch of fitness books published at various times. The oldest is a military training manual from 1892, a reprint of a manuscript first published in 1872.

 It assumes that your baseline fitness is that of a 19th century farm worker so you may need to work your way up to it, and the desired fitness profile is a lean, wiry fellow who can march for miles and fight hand-to-hand at the end of it. If that fits your desired results profile (for MMA, or any of the fighting arts)  considered purely from a fitness standpoint you'd get further by just following that program than anything labeled as ground-breaking or new from any of the large fitness publications.

Pleased you think this is logical, and, lol, I would love to be that guy! (No, you're right, I'm not sure I need to excel at close grappling, and I imagine most commanders aren't bothered about their recruits getting a bikini body ;) )

Mostly, I'm interested in their reconditioning programs, for 'soldiers on temporary medical profile'. I like the structure offered - ~ 20 mins general conditioning per day (for strength, aerobic capacity, balance) suggested, plus pre- /post- stuff, and their suggested modifications (eg for lunges - stand with feet as close together as is required, and decrease depth of bend; instead of jumps, toe raises - within the limits of ability, and before pain.) On reading the descriptions, it's common sense - those lunges minimize the weight distributed to each side - but it hadn't occurred to me that I might be able to do lunges at all. Will check against my pain, of course, but nice to have the option outlined...

Those books sound awesomesauce. What have you observed from them about military strategy over time?

Am guessing that today, soldiers might have to get in and out of places quickly (more power and sprinting type stuff, maybe)? And that training might take into account that most recruits' base fitness is probably thumb-oriented, from playing computer games for hours on end...