Page 50 - RADC Bulletin 2018

British Army
Warrior
Fitness and
a Guinness
World Record
Major Richard Smith RADC
‘Functional Fitness’
The Army has embraced the recent upsurge in popularity of fitness in sport and the Crossfit type approach to physical training. If you are not sure what I mean, just Google it or search across social media and all
will become apparent (or even have a look at the Crossfit article by Capt Marriott in
this edition of the Bulletin – Ed.). Crossfit
is defined as ‘constantly varied functional movement, performed at high intensity
over broad time and modal domains’ and involves running, swimming, biking, Olympic lifting and gymnastics. The concept of functional training is not a new one and
the Armed Forces have incorporated this approach over the years in many formats.
The ability to run, carry weight, move odd objects and adapt to challenges is bread and butter
The ability to run, carry weight, move odd objects and adapt to challenges is bread and butter. Crossfit has its roots as far
back as 2005 and aims to establish a community of fitness training that is scalable and accessible to all. The top 1% do have an avenue for elite competitiveness, which culminates at the Crossfit Games each year. Crossift did not really gather momentum, and more widespread attention, until around 2007 and it was not until 2012 when a
few early movers in the UK Armed Forces established the ‘Forces Throwdown’. This fitness competition failed to embed into military culture as it met resistance and fizzled out soon after. The thinking then was all competition based and predominantly missed the bigger picture. As the Crossfit brand continued to grow worldwide a more
British Army Warrior Fitness
considered understanding of the application of this training methodology developed. More and more became interested, and affiliate Crossfit Boxes began to pop up in most cities. With this, a more organic and sustained presence and demand grew,
and largely focused on improving fitness and conditioning with longevity in mind. Learning to move well, correcting flexibility imbalances, eating correctly and eliminating
sugar became the prime movers, over and above the ‘shop window’ elite level competitive athletes, and it was packaged into a marketable solution to healthy living through fitness.
For the military, enhancing soldier longevity by creating a functional training system with similar components that could be delivered from the ground up was imperative to its acceptance and the
48 RADC BULLETIN 2018
SPORT