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Alex posted a simple prompt on Instagram: give me your hottest take, I want to fight with you. Turns out that works a lot better than asking for podcast topic suggestions. This week, Alex and Drew work through the best ones — policy, programming, coaching, and a few that ended up in somebody’s LinkedIn mentions.
Topics covered:
The new Health and Human Performance Optimization Advisory Committee (HHPO) — and why having WPO under Personnel & Readiness and HHPO under the Defense Health Agency at the same time is the same fight the military has been having over human performance for over a decade
Cunningham’s Law: the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question, but to post the wrong answer
Tactical athletes are closer to endurance athletes than powerlifters — stamped approved, discussed at length, nothing new here but it keeps coming up
H2F coaches suck at run programs — specifically, one told a soldier “I’m not a cross-country coach.” Drew and Alex on whether that’s a coaching problem or a system problem
Higher running mileage should be a goal to strive for, and too many people are chasing minimal effective dose instead of building real volume tolerance
PT tests should be randomized like your urinalysis — both agree, Drew wrote the blog post, Alex nerds out on the psychology of behavior change
All branches should have the same PT test — maybe, but only if you decouple the general health test from the occupationally specific one the DoD instruction already says you’re supposed to have
H2F CPS positions are a waste of government funds — Alex bats less than 50%, Drew blames the undefined role; the real issue is H2F conflating cognitive, mental, and brain health as though they’re the same thing
Most strength and conditioning billets could be replaced by ChatGPT — the guy who built GPT-4.0 still has a personal trainer, because AI doesn’t make you feel bad when you skip a workout
If we liked kettlebell swings as much as push-ups, we’d be an unstoppable force — moderate agreement, strong skepticism of the kettlebell cult
Most units should do swim PT, even if it means lessons during PT time — agreed, and there is no swim standard to deploy on a Navy ship, which is insane
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