Following the active Army component, the Missouri National Guard is pushing its soldiers to be more all-around physically fit as opposed to simply being able to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test."The Army found that after 10 years of war, soldiers are getting broken," Capt. Ken Huenink, the Missouri National Guard’s state fitness coordinator, said.Adding, "The injury rate for backs and knees was through the roof."The guard’s most recent Unit Fitness Coordinator Course focuses on this type of training to help get this new information back to its units."A lot of it is about functional fitness," Huenink said. "It’s a more well-rounded approach. The whole mindset is changing."Once trained, a unit fitness coordinator acts as a subject-matter expert for their commander in health, fitness and nutrition for guardsmen."The coordinator does programming and planning for unit fitness, is a technical expert on the Physical Readiness Training Program, which is the Army’s official fitness program, and provides individual counseling for soldiers for health, fitness, nutrition and weight control," Huenink, who lives in Jefferson City, said.Guardsmen learn how to be a coordinator through a one-week class."Once completed, they’ll be certified," Huenink said."Most of our fitness is done individually, so what they’ll do is go back to their units and teach this stuff. Then those soldiers can take it home," he added.Huenink and staff from the 140th Regiment Missouri Regional Training Institute recently conducted a Unit Fitness Coordinator Course, their second of the fiscal year, for 16 guardsmen.The coordinator program began in the guard in early 2009."Before, it was more traditional Army physical training and now we’re doing more of the unconventional physical training," Huenink said.Adding, "Last March, the Army published the Physical Readiness Training Program manual, which had a lot of updates that we’ve incorporated in our instruction."The training strays away from traditional exercises that require specific equipment and revolves around using what is available to guardsmen in their garage, armories, motor pool or on their bases while deployed."That’s why it works great for soldiers," Huenink said.Items used include old tractor tires, sledgehammers, medicine balls, fitness balls and sand bags. The course also includes instruction on nutrition and calorie counting.