Soldier Fitness

The U.S. Army has established the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) program to increase “post-adversity resilience” of soldiers and their families. The other Services have  programs and training as well to help prepare their members for deployments and combat experiences. The army CSF program encourages Soldiers to develop strengths in five key domains that together make up the whole person:

• Physical: Fitness, strength, endurance and flexibility gained through exercise and nutrition.
• Emotional: Optimistic attitude, demonstrating self-control, stamina and good character in choices, actions.
• Social: Having trusted, valued relationships that are personally fulfilling and foster good communication.
• Family: Part of a family unit that is safe, supportive, loving, and providing a healthy and secure environment.
• Spiritual: Strong beliefs, principles and values sustaining a person beyond all other potential sources of strength.

Seventy percent of military members self-identify as “Christian.” So, the Christain perspective on spiritual fitness for them is meaningful.

THREE PHASES AND THREE R’s

Before, During and After deployments. These are the three phases of military life.

Readiness, Resources and Recovery. These are the three R’s of resilience.

In the graphic below, the red circles represent traumatic events. If you are prepared in all five domains, you will experience these events at a higher level of readiness. As you are sustained by helpful resources during the fight and supportive re-integration afterwards, the traumatic events can lead to growth and resilience, rather than to disorder or suicide.