Photo By Abigail Meyer | Tactical air control party Airmen assigned to the 7th Air Support Operations Squadron...... read more read more
Subscribe
EL PASO, Texas-- About 20 or so Airmen take over Ironworks Gym East on Fort Bliss, Texas, a few times a week. Music blaring, their coach led them through a series of exercises using various weights Nov. 14, 2016.
“Shift that weight,” called Paul Lodzik, strength and conditioning coach for the 7th Air Support Operations Squadron, Fort Bliss, Texas, as the Airmen completed deadlifts.
There’s no winging it when it comes to physical training for tactical air control party Airmen assigned to the 7th ASOS. A new Air Combat Command initiative provides a contracted strength and conditioning coach to lead structured PT sessions at each air support operations squadron.
“We’ve had this initiative now to teach us the very basic strength and conditioning level and the entire intent behind it is injury prevention,” said Lt. Col. Robert Brooks, commander, 7th ASOS. “Teaching us how to work out smart, building that core strength and those basic muscular movements and skills so when we go out and do our job specifically, we’re not getting hurt and we’re actually more fit and better able to do our job.”
Avoiding injury is important for TACP Airmen as it’s one of the most physically demanding career fields in the Air Force. Tactical air control party specialists embed with Army units on the frontline, radioing in air support when needed.
“It (TACP) beats you up pretty bad. If you go to a jump unit, it beats you up pretty bad. If you’re light infantry and you’re rucking all the time it’s going to beat you up pretty bad. If you have something that’s designed to keep your body fit for that kind of stuff, then jump on it,” said Master Sgt. Brad Phillips, a TACP Airman assigned to 7th ASOS.
Since July, Lodzik has been working with the unit with a goal of making them fitter, more athletic and more agile.
“He’s bringing all sorts of expertise in, correcting form, making sure we’re doing it and not getting hurt and he’s done a slow progression up to where we are,” Brooks said.
They started working on the fundamental movements and paying close attention to proper form. Nov. 14’s workout was a series of five or six sets of exercises including deadlifts, bench presses, overhead band pulls and weighted lunges over the course of about an hour and 20 minutes.
“How strong is strong enough? Strong enough to not get injured,” Lodzik said. “I’m training the energy systems to get better and do what they’re designed to do. I’m trying to get them stronger, more powerful, more agile by having them do lifts the biomechanical way.”
Lodzik said he regularly sees improper technique in military and civilian gyms, so he works to ensure the Airmen in his program avoid dealing with pain.
“For them to be critiqued and coached in proper form is to ensure that their body and their muscles are doing the right thing and not putting themselves at greater risk for injury,” Lodzik said. “Because repetition after repetition with bad form is what’s going to lead to a breakdown of the mechanics of what the body should be doing.”
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the unit works on strength, Tuesdays and Thursdays are devoted to conditioning. Lodzik, who has a bachelor’s and master’s in exercise physiology, created four-week phases. He corrects form and demonstrates exercises throughout the workout.
“It’s called periodization. Basically, it’s a scientific, systematic approach to preparing the body for different abilities and different intensities and more advanced exercises,” Lodzik said.
The program was phased in to the unit, and early adopters like Phillips have already seen benefits from the now mandatory program.
“I’m one of the older guys and I don’t have the joint pain like I used to. I went through about three years of kind of a rotational pain from the knees to the elbows, to the back and all that and now I don’t have it,” Phillips said.
In addition to strength and conditioning, part of the Air Force initiative will add other experts in physical therapy and mental health to air support operations squadrons.
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 11.28.2016 12:55 |
| Story ID: | 215859 |
| Location: | EL PASO, US |
| Web Views: | 355 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Battlefield Airmen train to become stronger, more powerful, by Abigail Meyer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT