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Home » Fitness » Fitness, nutrition experts keep military at Tinker Air Force Base in peak condition – NewsOK.com

Exercise physiologist Traci Fuhrman and registered dietitian Wendi Knowles are combining their talents at Tinker Air Force Base to keep the base's active duty personnel in condition, both inside and out.

All members of the U.S. military must pass rigorous physical fitness tests to remain in their ranks. For those in the Air Force, the test includes a timed run and a specific number of push-ups and situps to be completed within one minute. They also must pass a waist circumference test. The standards vary according to sex and age.

The task for Fuhrman and Knowles is to get those who may need a little help passing the test into peak condition.

To that end, they provide four eight-week of Performance Intervention courses that combine fitness training and nutrition.

In the civilian world, your job isn't dependent on passing a fitness test. That's why it's so much different here, Fuhrman said. Their job is dependent on passing this test, and if they don't pass the test, they don't get to keep their job. It weighs heavy on them. We see people go to extremes just to be able to pass, and that's when they get injured or practice bad habits.

Fuhrman's and Knowles' Fit program is designed for progressive intensity, five days a week over the eight-week course. Each day's hourlong class provides a different piece of the training, including running, strength training, flexibility, cardio and functional movement conditioning, in addition to nutrition and behavior modification.

In addition to a running-only course and a nutrition-only course, they also have a modified course for active duty men and women who are recovering from an injury, which Fuhrman and Knowles see frequently.

With improper form and technique and the way that they're moving and not stretching properly and not conditioning properly, it will lead to injury, Fuhrman said. And a lot of them already have had injuries, so my job is to correct that so they're not going to get reinjured or to prevent the injuring from happening altogether.

To correct bad habits, Fuhrman uses specialized equipment to determine body composition, resting metabolic rate and gait.

I take them through a functional movement screen where I look at the way they move. That helps with body movements and patterns and correcting their mobility, she said.

As for Knowles, her task is whittling down the waistline.

"We see a lot of folks who have lost a lot of weight to get into the military and then go through boot camp. That's tough, it's hard, the weight stays down. And then they get to tech school, and they start back to their old habits, she said. There's a real issue with even qualifying to get into the military because the parameters are such that you have to have a certain weight. A third of the population is either overweight or obese, so they're struggling with getting people in. There are people who want to (join the military) and they'll go on crash diets to get in but they don't really learn. And if you don't really learn ... the weight will come back.

To achieve a lasting change, Knowles said she brings in a behavior health specialist to help work through barriers.

A lot of this is about extended overall behavior change because behavioral health becomes important for both fitness and nutrition, she said. If they haven't been working out, why haven't they? What is missing? How can they build this into their lifestyle and how can they change behaviors?

Despite their 75 percent to 85 percent success rate, Fuhrman and Knowles say there is no magic bullet. It's about hard work, moderation and common sense.

We have people who go through the program and are very successful, then they return to their old habits, Knowles said. Then we have people who go through the program who are able to maintain it and model it. It helps with so many aspects of your life if you can get control of the fitness and eating part of it. It can build into other parts of your life.

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Fitness, nutrition experts keep military at Tinker Air Force Base in peak condition - NewsOK.com

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Home » Fitness » Fitness, nutrition experts keep military at Tinker Air Force Base in peak condition – NewsOK.com