NCO Academy trains to exercise Published Jan. 18, 2008 By Airman 1st Class Stephen Musal 17th Training Wing Public Affairs GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Since Gen. John Jumper, the now-retired former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, implemented the Fit to Fight program in 2004, many units have put the "physical" back into physical training. One unit on Goodfellow hopes to put as much emphasis on the "training" part of their program as they do on this "physical" part. This may come as no surprise to the Airmen taking part in the program, since the unit in question is the Goodfellow NCO Academy. 'It's not just about the fitness aspect," said Master Sgt. Theresa Meyer, Director of Education at the GNCOA. "It's about promoting a healthy lifestyle. As military people, that needs to be our focus." The program focuses on "functional fitness," the ability to move your own body around in every conceivable way - a vital skill in the area of responsibility, where an Airman is more likely to dive for cover from a mortar blast or have to carry a wounded comrade in full body armor than lift weights. "We know that the demands of being an Airman mean you can't focus only on passing the PT test anymore," Sergeant Meyer said. That doesn't mean you can just slack off on your push-ups and sit-ups, though. "We have to have some way to measure whether we are fit, and since the PT test is what we have, we need to fall within the standards," Sergeant Meyer said. The GNCOA's program helps with that as well. Developed after instructors at the GNCOA attended a personal training class at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and also takes inspiration from a cross-training instruction program called CrossFit. A similar program is used by the United States Marine Corps, which is especially appropriate for Goodfellow due to the joint training we do here every day. The program involves 20-minute workouts for five days each week, in addition to any warm-up or cool-down time. Twenty minutes not may sound like a lot, but the program packs those 20 minutes with a variety of exercises designed to work out every muscle in the body, and they alternate between muscle-strength exercise and cardio exercise each day. Additionally, the NCO Academy brings in a nutritionist to speak to the students and help them eat healthy. Sergeant Meyer said that Chief Master Sgt. Edy Agee, the GNCOA commandant, wants to train these students to live healthy lifestyles and set the example for the other Airmen around them, as is expected of an NCO. "Chief Agee recognizes the need to change these technical sergeants' mindset about what it means to be fit to fight," she said.
