#218 – Fixing the Military’s PT Problem with Nick Koldewey

Former Army Ranger, law enforcement officer, and Barbell Logic coaching intern Nick Koldewey joins the podcast to talk about the military’s outdated PT philosophy and it’s shortcomings in meeting the demands of the modern soldier. Nick’s experience in the field and as a platoon leader provided him the skills to handle a variety of combat scenarios, but when tasked with scheduling PT for his unit, his training (pardon the pun) fell short.

As a leader, Nick was responsible for scheduling and programming workouts for his team. There was little guidance in how to do this, so workouts were based around his personal bias — which happened to be barbell training. For other units, it was a heavy emphasis on endurance training. To compound the problem, higher-ups would frequently and randomly announce physical tests such as long, heavy rucks with little time to prepare for them. Consequently, many soldiers ended up injured, preventing them from being able to deploy and costing the military millions in VA fees annually.

In his current career as a police officer, physical training is largely left to the individual, although a culture of endurance training permeates in the force too.

Nick argues that soldiers, law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders have a responsibility to educate themselves on the importance of training for strength and take their training program into their own hands. To that end, he now teaches people how to get strong as a coaching intern at Barbell Logic Online Coaching.

You can reach Nick at nkoldewey@barbell-logic.com.

Have a question about training? Send a question to Matt and Scott! Email us at questions@barbell-logic.com and we’ll answer your question on an upcoming Saturday Q&A!