由于新兵體重超重和體能不達(dá)標(biāo)等原因,美軍今年的新兵訓(xùn)練計(jì)劃取消了仰臥起坐等傳統(tǒng)項(xiàng)目,引入了類似瑜伽或普拉提的訓(xùn)練方式,同時(shí),讓新兵膽寒的長(zhǎng)跑項(xiàng)目也被縮減。據(jù)悉,這一新的訓(xùn)練計(jì)劃已經(jīng)策劃了十年之久,今年將在全部五個(gè)新兵訓(xùn)練點(diǎn)實(shí)施,目的是減少訓(xùn)練給士兵帶來(lái)的身體損傷,同時(shí)使士兵更好地為適應(yīng)戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)做準(zhǔn)備。該計(jì)劃更重要的一個(gè)目標(biāo)則是解決美國(guó)軍隊(duì)目前面臨的一個(gè)重大問題:士兵體重超標(biāo)以及體能不合格。由美軍退休將領(lǐng)組成的調(diào)查小組今年呈遞的報(bào)告顯示,在1995年至2008年期間美國(guó)青年未能入伍的原因調(diào)查中,體重超標(biāo)占將近70%。有美軍軍官稱,垃圾食品、視頻游戲的流行以及高中體育鍛煉課程的減少都是導(dǎo)致這一現(xiàn)象的原因。
Soldiers at Fort Jackson, like Pvt. Alyssa Leggat, work on push-ups. The fitness regime involves more agility and balance training. |
"Army Strong" may be the recruiting slogan, but these days the US Army seems less focused on new recruits' strength than on their excess weight.
In fact, the Army has just rejiggered its basic physical training program, making allowances for recruits who are fat and out of shape when they show up for basic training.
That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.
This is the Army’s new physical-training program, which has been rolled out this year at its five basic training posts that handle 145,000 recruits a year. Nearly a decade in the making, its official goal is to reduce injuries and better prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat.
But as much as anything, the program was created to help address one of the most pressing issues facing the military today: overweight and unfit recruits.
"What we were finding was that the soldiers we're getting in today's Army are not in as good shape as they used to be," said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees basic training for the Army, told the Times.
The Army has long rejected potential recruits who are overweight. But the number of potential recruits deemed too fat to fight has been growing in recent years, the result of America's obesity epidemic, says the Times.
Between 1995 and 2008, the proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose nearly 70 percent, according to a recent report issued by a blue-ribbon panel of retired generals and admirals.
The report found that 27 percent of young adults between the ages of 17 and 24 were too fat for military service, according to Scripps News.
Even those the Army deems slim enough to serve tend to be weaker and to have less stamina than recruits of previous generations - the result of years spent indulging in junk food and video games, according to Army officials who spoke with the Times.
"Kids are just not able to do push-ups," Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accessions, told the Army Times last year. "And they can't do pull-ups. And they can't run."
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(Agencies)
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