MOPs & MOEs

Newton Cheng is Google's Director of Health and Performance, but he's also a lot more than that. He started his social media platform focused on his powerlifting. He's a world class masters competitor, so it makes sense to focus on his lifting, and it's certainly impressive. But he quickly found that his messages about mental health and career advice resonated just as much or more with his audience. He has recently found a lot of success in connecting with younger audiences on these sensitive issues. This marks Newton's third time on the pod, the most of any guest. Join us in this conversation as we discuss everything from the latest slang to navigating burnout in high performance environments. Many of the topics we touch on are things that military leaders are currently struggling with, so this is guaranteed to be relevant.

Today's episode pulls together a few different important topics, from performing cognitively in crisis situations to how we develop character and leadership in the military. We also discuss the impact of human performance programs among pilots. But mostly this episode is a story of how a pilot handled being hit by an anti-aircraft missile and the lessons learned she walked away with after surviving. Kim “KC” Campbell is a retired Colonel who served in the Air Force for over 24 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. She has flown 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003, Kim was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism after successfully recovering her battle-damaged airplane after an intense close air support mission. You'll hear plenty about that story in the episode, but let's just say she has a proven ability to perform in a crisis. Kim knew she wanted to fly from a young age, making her first solo flight in a civilian aircraft over San Jose at age 17. She went to the United States Air Force Academy where she was the cadet wing commander (the highest position a USAFA cadet can achieve), as was her father during his time as a cadet; the first time that a father and daughter both served as cadet wing commander. She holds a degree in International Security Studies from the University of Reading, and a Master of Business Administration from Imperial College London, which she undertook while on a Marshall Scholarship. Her final assignment on active duty was back at the United States Air Force Academy as the Director of the Center for Character and Leadership Development. Learn more about Kim or schedule her as a speaker on her website. She also wrote a book diving deeper on much of what we discussed here. If you've never heard the SR-71 Blackbird "ground speed check" story, then check it out here.

This episode definitely involves physical fitness, but on a deeper level it's much more about resilience. The resilience to pursue an education while growing up in rural poverty. The resilience to survive the selection process for the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The resilience to persevere after severe combat injuries including the loss of both legs above the knee. Hari Budha Magar was born in 1979 in a village in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal. He was born in a cow-shed at an altitude of 2,500m in a remote part of Western Nepal. He grew up in Mirul, in the Rolpa District of the Himalayas in Nepal. As a child, he had to walk 45 minutes each day to go to school and back, barefoot; at school, there were no pens or paper so he learnt to write with chalk stone on a wooden plank. He was forced to get married at the age of 11. During his teenage years, he was surrounded by the Nepalese Civil War where more than 17,000 people were killed over a period of 10 years. Hari joined the British Army via the Royal Gurkha Rifles when he was 19. He served across five continents, doing training and operations for the British Army, his roles included Combat Medic, Sniper, and Covert Surveillance, amongst other things Since his injuries, Hari has tried a variety of sports and adventures, they include: golf, skiing, skydiving, kayaking, and rock climbing. He has also played wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. In 2017, he became the first double above-knee amputee (DAK) to summit a mountain taller than 6,000m (Mera Peak, 6,476m). Then, on May 19, 2023, he accomplished the record of being the first ever double above-knee amputee to summit the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest (8,848m). You can learn more about Hari and his current work on his website, including links to all of his social media.

Exploring the concept of autoregulation in training with focus on RPE and RIR, importance of subjective evaluations over percentages, benefits of individualized programs, and optimizing strength training through auto-regulation and RPE. Also delves into breaking powerlifting records as Air Force Missile Officer, traditional vs alternative strength programming, and training readiness and consistency discussion.

We're going back overseas with this episode, this time to Norway. The Norwegian military has a reputation for high fitness standards, and therefore their special operations forces take fitness to another level. This week we'll be digging into the training and testing of the Marinejegerkommandoen, more commonly known in English as MJK or NORNAVSOC (Norwegian Navy Special Operations Command). Directly translated they are the Marine Jaegers, and they live up to that legendary name. Our guest Paul Solberg has a Masters in sport psychology and PhD in health psychology and physiology from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. He is an accomplished athlete in his own right, having represented Norway as a javelin thrower and also competing nationally in handball, powerlifting and weightlifting. After his athletic career he Coached for several of the best track and field throwers in Norway. These days he is the Head of the Strength Department at the Norwegian Olympic Training Center and Committee, but we're going to spend most of this conversation focused on his previous role. For many years he was the human performance program director for NORNAVSOC, where he built the training program they use today. He has also published close to 40 peer reviewed articles focusing particularly on muscle adaptations, recovery, power-training, motivation and well-being, and reliability of testing. We mentioned Magnus Midtbo's videos where he took the Coastal Rangers and Long Range Reconnaissance fitness tests, so here there are: Coastal Rangers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81Dz26FboU4 LRRP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zAeifC2sQ

The podcast covers various recovery modalities like sauna, cold plunge, foam rolling, and massage guns. They discuss the benefits and risks of these methods and address misinformation. Links to research studies are provided. Other topics include active recovery, painkillers, stretching, and compression gear. The conversation emphasizes the importance of personalized recovery strategies and debunking myths in the fitness industry.

Our guest this week is the creator of Ninety-Pound Rucksack, a podcast that examines the stories that made the 10th Mountain Division famous as well as those history has forgotten. Equal parts real-time research, intimate conversation and revelatory journalism, Ninety-Pound Rucksack explores not only the conventional wisdom about the 10th, but the transformative power of the mountains to forge a collective identity among the mountain troops—and to ignite a passion for the outdoors that reshaped American society in the process. The story of the 10th is famous for good reason. Not only did its insertion into the war help end Germany’s occupation of Italy; post-war, its veterans founded and developed ski areas across America, started companies like NOLS and Nike and launched the fields of avalanche science and wilderness rescue. The founder and board chair of The Teton Climbers’ Coalition, Christian Beckwith has spent more than thirty years immersed in the world of alpinism. In 1996, he became the youngest person to edit the world’s premier mountaineering journal, The American Alpine Journal. From there he went on to lead numerous projects: Alpinist Magazine, Alpinist Film Festival, Teton Boulder Project Outerlocal, the Town Pump bouldering series, SHIFT (a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of nature as a social determinant of health), and AlpinFilm. He has made expeditions to Kyrgyzstan, Alaska, Peru and Tibet, skied the Grand Teton half a dozen times, and established numerous first ascents and descents around the world. In 2023, he was inducted into the 10th Mountain Division’s Warrior Hall of Fame for services rendered to the Division which is what we'll be discussing in this conversation. He lives in Jackson, Wyoming, with his wife and daughter. If the discussions in this episode interest you, go listen to Ninety Pound Rucksack wherever you get your podcasts!

This week we're diving into the topic of combatives, and it would be hard to find a more qualified guest to discuss the topic than the one we have today. From bare-knuckle boxing the ROK Marines' Taekwondo champion to establish the US Army Combatives School, he has done it all. Matt Larsen is a former United States Army Ranger and combatives instructor. He is known as "The Father of Modern Combatives," credited with the creation of the United States Army's modern combatives doctrine and the establishment of the U.S. Army Combatives School. Larsen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as an infantryman in 1984. He was stationed overseas in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan with the Marine detachment at Naval Air Facility Atsugi. During this time Larsen began training in judo, Shotokan karate, and traditional boxing. During his time in Japan Larsen fought in the Japan Karate Association's All Japan Karate Championships, Muay Thai bouts in Thailand, and a bare-knuckle fight against the ROK Marines Taekwondo champion. He was also a member of the 3rd Marine Division's boxing team. Matt then transitioned from the Marine Corps to the Army and made his way to Ranger Regiment. Initially assigned to 1st Ranger Battalion at Hunter Army Airfield, Larsen parachuted into Panama with the Rangers during Operation Just Cause and was also involved in Ranger operations during the Gulf War. After moving to 2nd Ranger Battalion he found himself as the Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of combatives and Close Quarters Battle (CQB) and started developing a more formal curriculum. This led him to taking over the combatives program for the entire regiment. During an assignment to 11th Infantry Regiment he establish a combatives schoolhouse in a warehouse. Within a short time, the school became so successful that units from throughout the Army began sending their soldiers. Several new courses had to be developed in order to continue teaching beyond the initial course, with the idea of building programs within these units. Eventually the school was recognized by the Army as the "United States Army Combatives School". In 2002, the training manual which he had been working on since his time with the Ranger Training Brigade was published by the Army as Field Manual 3-25.150 (Combatives). After more than a decade leading combatives for the Army he now works at West Point's Department of Physical Education as the director of their combatives program. You can find Matt on Instagram at the extremely appropriate handle @combatives

This week's podcast is special because we have a chance to provide a platform for someone who is really making a difference in improving quality of life got service members. Rob Evans is the creator of Hots & Cots, an app built to be the "yelp for enlisted life" that is simultaneously increasing transparency and accountability for dining facilities and barracks. If you're unfamiliar with the phrase "three hots and a cot" it refers to that, whether you're joining the military or going to prison, at least you can (theoretically) count on three square meals a day and a cot to sleep on. If you've been following the news, you've almost certainly seen that there are issues with both the "hots" (meals) and the "cots" (barracks) lately, and Rob is on a mission to fix both. Rob is a former Army sergeant with 12 years of service, concluded his military career as a 92F. Leveraging over a decade of IT experience, he transitioned into the role of a software developer. Combining both his Army experience and his software skills he recently created an app called Hots & Cots that is essentially Yelp for military installations, which we'll be diving into here. Rob lives outside of Charlotte, NC, with his wife and two boys and outside of work he loves running, weightlifting, and the outdoors. Oh and coffee, he also loves coffee. As you listen to the work Rob is doing, if you're in the military please encourage anyone you work with to download the app and help give Rob the tools to hold leaders accountable on these issues. We discussed the notorious clip of the IMCOM commander saying he doesn't have a mold problem, he has a discipline problem. If you missed that incident, here's some of the coverage including the video clip. Hots & Cots Website

Exploring the controversies and philosophies of CrossFit, including discussions on defining fitness, functional movements, nutrition, kipping, Olympic lifting, and Uncle Rhabdo. The podcast delves into the debate on kipping pull-ups, competing standards in training, certification value, hyponatremia risks, functional movement definitions, discrepancies in training manuals, and the concept of fitness according to CrossFit. The hosts also critique resistance training specificity, nutritional guidelines, and the intersection of CrossFit and nutrition.