How important is your level of physical fitness
You’re probably tired of hearing how important it is to be in great shape as an
officer, but it’s a basic truth. You don’t have to be the best at everything, but you
definitely need to be one of the most physically fit Soldiers in your platoon.
Morale improves when your Soldiers are constantly trying to beat you in a run or
in an individual event like pull-ups or the rope climb. When that happened to me
as a platoon leader that meant instant respect. My Soldiers all knew I could run or
road march to the end with any of them. You can’t motivate Soldiers in a road
march if you are visibly in bad shape. It’s a sad when a lieutenant can’t
lead his Soldiers physically. Ask yourself: How can you lead or motivate your
Soldiers if you’re not at the head of the formation? When it comes to the combat
environment, physical fitness is crucial. If you allow your Soldiers to deploy in
poor condition, you have failed them. Being physically fit out here [in
Afghanistan] will help your Soldiers bear some of the rigors of a combat tour: less
sleep, very random and increasingly changing rest patterns, extreme heat, heavy
weights, and less than standard nutrition, to name a few. Staying in shape in a
combat environment can be a tough task, because you may lack the time or
facilities to exercise as you may have been able to in garrison. However, solid
cardiovascular fitness will make a significant difference in higher elevations,

Principles of Exercise
Practicing the basic exercise principles is crucial for you to develop an effective fitnesstraining program. The principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical
training, from the Olympic champion to the weekend golfer. They apply especially to fitness
training for military personnel because having standard fitness principles across the
organization saves time, energy, resources—and prevents injury.
You can easily remember the basic principles of exercise 
the basic exercise
principles—Progression,
Regularity, Overload,
Variety, Recovery,
Balance, and Specificity

P Progression—The intensity and duration of exercise must gradually increase to
improve your fitness level. A good guideline for improvement is a 10 percent gain
at specified intervals.
R Regularity—To achieve effective training you should schedule workouts in each of
the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Regularity is also key
in resting, sleeping, and following a good diet.
O Overload—The workload of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands
placed on your body to bring about a training effect. You’ve often heard this
expressed as “No pain, no gain.” A fitness trainer, such as your ROTC instructor,
can help you learn to tell the difference between pain that results from an optimum
level of overload and pain that indicates potential injury.
V Variety—Changing activities reduces the boredom and increases your motivation
to progress.
R Recovery—You should follow a hard day of training for a given component of fitness
by an easier training or rest day for that component. This helps your body recover.
Another way to promote recovery is to alternate the muscle groups you exercise
every other day, especially when training for strength and muscle endurance.
B Balance—To be effective, a fitness program should address all the fitness
components, since overemphasizing any one of them may detract from the others.
S Specificity—You must gear training toward specific goals. For example, Soldiers
become better runners if their training emphasizes running drills and techniques.
Although swimming is great exercise, it will not improve a two-mile-run time as
much as a coordinated running program does.