An Cosantóir

10 ACQUIRING PHYSICAL ROBUSTNESS Most of us by now will have seen the Defence Forces Infantry Ethos, which outlines a number of infantry soldier principles. There is one in particular that stands out for me, as a physical training instructor in the infantry. This is: • Acquire physical robustness and mental resilience. I'd like to focus, in this article, on the physical robustness part of this principle. So, what is physical robustness, and how might one acquire it? The word robust comes from the latin robustus, meaning of Oak, hard or strong. Robustness is defined as the quality or condition of being strong or in good condition; the ability to withstand or overcome adverse conditions or rigorous testing. Ukraintseva et al (2016) define physical robustness as the ability to resist a deviation from the normal physical state and avoid an adverse health event. For many of us in the Defence Forces this deviation from the normal physical state comes in the form of a musculoskeletal injury suffered while training or going about our various daily tasks. I attended a presentation in 2019, given by the Defence Forces association of physiotherapists, which stated that the most common area where injury or pain occurs in people attending DF physiotherapists in the previous two years, was in the lumbar/lower back region, 20% in fact. The second most common at 14%, was the knee. Many of us also have to, throughout our military careers, withstand or overcome some fairly adverse conditions and rigorous testing. Let's compare military training and operations to sport: Athletes participating in any sport, at all levels, will have some form of training programme that either they, or a strength and conditioning coach will have designed. Sport, particularly field sports, can be quite chaotic, so the athlete is exposed to varying degrees of risk while taking part. In order for that athlete to perform efficiently, and avoid (or at least greatly reduce) the risk of injury, their training programme will hopefully have suitably conditioned their body for the demands of their chosen sport. If we look at military training in the same way, when we participate in training or operations - we throw on our body armour (approximately 9kg), helmet, battle vest and daysack, usually with 35lbs plus of gear inside, and we start moving, while carrying our Steyr or G.P.M.G., or even heavier and more awkward weapons systems (the 84mm Anti-Tank gun immediately comes to mind) - we become the athlete: A tactical athlete. What are the demands that are placed upon this tactical athlete? Well usually we'll have to move a certain distance, on foot, while carrying all the equipment mentioned above, and more if carrying CEMO. We may suddenly, while patrolling at a fairly steady pace, have to fire, DASH, DOWN, cover, CRAWL and so on. This will more often than not result in an extended period of organised (or perhaps not so organised) chaos in the form of a contact drill, or a section or platoon in attack, which will require lots more sprinting and crawling. We may have to climb over walls, up ladders, through windows, and a whole host of other tasks which expose us to a greater risk of injury. We may have to carry a heavy casevac or resupply for an extended period. All of the aforementioned activities will entail varying amounts of sprinting, deceleration, reacceleration, changing direction, crawling, carrying, dragging, getting into and out of awkward uncomfortable positions etc. We will definitely have to take multiple knees, and then return to an upright position with all the added external load. We all know or maybe have been that person Troops on 2 - 3 star course taking part in MOUT training in Fort Davis References: Boyle, M., Advances in functional training. Training techniques for coaches, personal trainers, and athletes. On Target publications 2010. Ukraintseva, S., Yashin, A.I., Arbeev, K.G., Resilience versus robustness in aging. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Volume 71, Issue 11, P. 1533-34, November 2016. Equipment set up for circuit training Sgt Michael Lennon

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