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Heat injuries come in two forms. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Both are a direct result of dehydration, which is defined by the Australian Government health agencies as “when the water content of the body is too low”. Loss of fluids in a hot, Army environment was a daily concern. Combat troops are constantly training in warm uniforms, wearing body armour, and carrying heavy weapons and packs.
When I decided I was leaving the military, I knew I wanted to study. I’d been pushing my body for five years straight and was missing the mental challenges that only an academic setting could provide. So despite the confused and fearful looks I received from career soldiers who couldn’t imagine a world outside a green uniform, I pursued that. If you’re also someone from a military or emergency service background looking at studying, then the one thing I would want you to take from this is that what may appear to be a drastic and reckless change, is absolutely possible.
The go-to Army exercise for developing bodyweight strength, demonstrating physical prowess (no matter the time or place), or just implementing some “corrective physical training” in the event that someone is taking too long or doing the wrong thing, is the Push-Up. Unfortunately, doing so many push-ups, usually past the point of technical failure, has a bad habit of causing more harm than good. Speaking from personal experience - after a few years in the army, I started to have a persistent, sharp stabbing pain in the front of my shoulders. This was a combination of multiple factors, the two main ones being lazy posture and poor exercise selection for the rest of my training program. Luckily, once I located the source of the pain - my issues were easily fixed, and within a week or two that frustrating shoulder pain was a thing of the past!
I know it can be a pain in the ass to find out after you start a new job that it isn’t as exciting as it looked from the outside, but sometimes internal issues can take a little while to manifest. I personally worked for 6 months before encountering my first major issues with my leadership, but I stuck around until the 12 month mark just in case it had been out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, it became progressively worse from there, and I made the decision to finish the year and move on. For the sake of your mental health, make the hard choice. DO NOT stay in any job that is adding extreme levels of stress to your mental wellbeing.
I left the Army after 6 years in Infantry. I spent 7 months in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in a close personal protection capacity, and I spent a year instructing soldiers at the School of Infantry in Singleton. I worked with all different types of people, protected US Generals and Australian Colonels in Afghanistan, and trained with men and women from a long list of allied nations. I led small combat teams, gave orders to groups of soldiers and officers on operations, and instructed multiple courses of over 40 soldiers. Additionally, I wrote and successfully delivered two strategic papers to high level staff. I thought that my range of experiences gave me a good understanding of how to communicate effectively and work efficiently with any group of people. I never thought that after everything I experienced in the army, I would leave a 9 - 5, Monday to Friday job because it had a “toxic work environment”.
As a veteran, you’re entitled to a lot of mental health support, though much of it isn't advertised by DVA. This isn’t surprising, considering everything you don’t claim is money saved for them. For the crew at Anvil, we consider every resource spent on helping veterans to be well spent - so as a part of the effort to assist those currently serving and ex-servicemen and women with their wellbeing, we’ve put this guide together for those seeking free mental health consultation.
This is a wake up call for every combat soldier spending 2 hours in the gym a day getting worse at their job.
I left 6 years in Infantry with a deployment to Afghanistan, a year training soldiers at the School of Infantry, more life experiences than I can poke a stick at, some of the best mates I’ll ever know, and a body riddled with injuries. The “demands of the job” is an excuse I have made a thousand times before when my body began to fall apart after long walks carrying over 70% of my own bodyweight, poorly sized equipment, thousands of hours training uncomfortable weapon positions and practicing combat drills all over the worst locations Australia, America and Afghanistan had to offer. Unfortunately like every gym goer with an ego and access to a mirror, my primary focus was on the front of my body.
Take it from us, if you’re after longevity and excellence in a combat role, stop using the mirror to assess progress and start working on your posterior chain.
Max Effort day is not PR day. It is a day dedicated to building your ability to strain on a specific lift variation. The strain is...
GPP (General Physical Preparedness), Conditioning, Endurance, Toughness, there are many names for it but the concept is the same...
