Army to Expand Holistic Health and Fitness Program to All Soldiers

The Army is expanding its new, comprehensive health and fitness program, which includes professional civilian staff, exercise equipment and more, to all soldiers, not just brigade combat troops.

Army Vice Chief of Staff James Mingus told soldiers at the Maneuver Warfighter conference at Fort Moore, Georgia, on Wednesday that the Holistic Health and Fitness program, also known as H2F, will be implemented across the force.

The four-star officer said the program had too many benefits to be limited to armed brigades.

“This is an Army program and it has a huge impact on how our Soldiers perform on the battlefield,” Mingus said.

The Army launched a pilot H2F program in late 2018 and in 2020 began equipping combat brigades with a full complement of exercise equipment and H2F personnel, including physical therapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches and cognitive performance specialists.

The program’s holistic approach covers five areas: physical, spiritual, mental, sleep and nutrition.

The original plan was for the service to equip all 110 combat brigades by 2030. Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George announced last year that the Army would accelerate fielding, increasing the annual number of brigades from 10 to 15. The fully resourced program reached 50 brigades this year, including some military police, medical, engineer and supply brigades, according to Army data.

Mingus did not provide details or a timeline for the rollout, which will require more funding from Congress. But he advised leaders to get started in their units now.

“A lot of our teams still don’t have that, but there are things you can do,” Mingus said. “I would challenge you to examine what the essence of how you evaluate a program and how you do functional training, nutrition, sleep is.”

The Center for Initial Military Training, or CIMT, at Fort Eustis, Virginia, launched its Holistic Health and Fitness website in late August. The site includes information on all aspects of the program, such as unit resources, the H2F Academy and the command’s annual H2F Symposium.

“We wanted to create a website that would provide Soldiers with tools to help them take a hard look at themselves and truly assess their personal health and fitness, as well as provide resources from subject matter experts so they can improve in all five domains of readiness,” Lt. Gen. David Francis, CIMT commander, said in a statement.

Francis described the H2F program as “the largest human performance optimization project ever undertaken.”

Since the program began, reducing physical injuries to soldiers during deployment and training has been a top priority. Francis boasted about the results.

“The initial return on investment shows that the H2F program will pay for itself by reducing musculoskeletal injuries, reducing the number of people unable to deploy and helping injured Soldiers return to duty more quickly,” Francis said.

Early data released by CIMT in April showed that brigades using H2F assets saw a 23 percent increase in Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) pass rates, as well as improvements in other outcomes and behavior.

Data on the behaviors and performance of brigades using H2F assets compared to brigades without the assets showed:

• 14% lower increase* in musculoskeletal injuries = 6,489 fewer soldiers injured.
• 30% lower increase in musculoskeletal injuries lasting more than 90 days = 3,002 fewer injured soldiers recorded on duty for more than 90 days.
• 22% fewer mental health reports = 2,962 fewer soldiers on mental health profiles.
• 20% fewer mental health reports lasting longer than 90 days = 3,002 fewer Soldiers in mental health profiles lasting longer than 90 days.
• 502% lower increase in substance abuse profiles = 13,947 fewer Soldiers on substance abuse profiles.
• 23% higher Army Combat Fitness Test pass rate = 4,455 more Soldiers passing the ACFT.
• 27% more soldiers achieving expert rifle qualification = 88,000 more soldiers achieving expert rifle qualification.

*Brigades analyzed, both with and without H2F teams, saw increases in most areas from 2021 to 2023, but units with H2F teams saw significantly lower increases in all categories.

Source: Initial Military Training Center

As an army is implementing the program throughout the army, with active combat brigades remaining a priority, and the National Army The National Guard and Army Reserve will likely wait longer for resources.

But a new website could help fill those gaps in the meantime, Sergeant 1st Class Nicholas Rice, the creator of the H2F system in the Army Reserve, said in a statement.

“This is a critical tool in our shared mission to ensure that every investment in our warfighters is an investment in better, more capable versions of themselves,” Rice said.

During Wednesday’s conference, the deputy chief praised his experience with the precursor program, which used similar principles, when he was in office. 75th Ranger Regiment. Known as the Ranger Athlete Warrior Program, the program emerged in the early 2000s to reduce the number of injuries in this notoriously demanding unit.

Mingus carried a version of the program with him when he took command of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, he said..

The general said the program prepared soldiers to operate in the most difficult terrain during demanding missions in Afghanistan in 2012.