Task Force Raider first sergeant stays fit downrange

Courtesy Photo | U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Matthew Selph, a native of Spokane, Wash., and first sergeant of Troop B, 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Task Force Duke, lifts weights at the Combat Outpost Wilderness gym April 16. Selph sticks to a firm workout regimen to keep himself in top physical shape while downrange.  

KHOWST PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

07.15.2011

Story by Staff Sgt. Ben Navratil 

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division

KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan – One of the most important things in any soldier’s life is a high level of physical fitness. This is especially the case for those deployed in mountainous eastern Afghanistan, where they are called upon daily to stress their bodies to the limit on foot patrols through the steep, rocky terrain.

U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Matthew Selph, a native of Spokane, Wash., and the first sergeant of Troop B, 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Task Force Duke, has seen firsthand how unforgiving the mountains can be.

Selph and his troops call Combat Outpost Wilderness home. The COP is situated high in the mountains, nearly 7,000 feet above sea level. The extremely thin air at this high elevation makes any strenuous activity even more difficult, said Selph.

“Running or walking up even a small foothill here on the COP will cause you to gasp for air,” he said.

But that doesn’t stop him from keeping himself in the best shape he can. The small COP does have a gym, so weights are usually available, but he said it’s hard to keep up a good running program, with only two treadmills for the roughly 200 soldiers on the COP.

He gets around this by running up and down the steep hills around the COP, although he admitted that early on, after running them once, he generally had to wait a week before doing it again.

Going on foot patrols is another excellent way he and his troops keep their cardiovascular system healthy.

“The hills we hump are more than enough to keep your heart pumping for three hours,” he said.

Even six months into the deployment, he said it hasn’t gotten any easier.

“The only thing that’s changed is the recovery time,” he said. “Instead of feeling like you’re going to die for five minutes when you stop, you only feel like that for two minutes now.”

Selph said he tries to get some workout time in six days a week, doing weight training and cardio each day.

Even when he’s away from the COP, he and his troops still make do with what’s available to train.

“When they’re out with no formal weight equipment they use ammo cans, water cans, sand bags, machine gun barrels, homemade sit-up boards and homemade pull-up bars to continue their physical fitness,” he said. “It reminds me of Rocky IV with a lot of the ways they’ve come up with to improvise their workouts.”

One good thing about being deployed, he said, is that’s it becomes very easy to stay on a healthy diet.

“In the rear, I would eat fast food four or more times a week, not to mention sweets and at least three sodas a day,” he said. “Here there is no fast food, no sweets really, and the beverage of choice is water. All of this adds up to a great deployment workout diet.”

With the long days and tough work to be done downrange, it can be difficult for some to motivate themselves to put in the extra effort to keep themselves physically fit. But as Selph shows, all it takes is a little motivation.

Selph is able to keep himself in top shape due to diligence, making do with the equipment he has available, and his self-proclaimed “superior genetic traits.”

• Date Taken: 07.15.2011
• Date Posted: 07.15.2011 05:32
• Story ID: 73771
• Location: KHOWST PROVINCE, AF