ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Whether it’s deciding what to eat or how to work out, soldiers are benefiting from the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness program, according to leaders who focus on the program’s nutritional and physical domains.

The program, known as H2F, promotes combat readiness in the mental, sleep, nutritional, physical and spiritual domains with guidance that is supported at the brigade level with subject-matter experts and equipment. The aim is to help soldiers achieve higher levels of health, fitness and well-being while minimizing injury.

Soldiers’ body composition will now be measured using a waist-to-height ratio instead of the body mass index tables that use height and weight to measure body fat, according to a Pentagon memo.

With the new policy, which became effective Jan. 1, a soldier’s waist circumference will be divided by the soldier’s height to evaluate body fat percentage, according to the Dec. 18 memo signed by Anthony Tata, undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness.

To excel at the profession of arms, soldiers must build a strong foundation that will carry them through the rigors of combat and beyond, the Army’s top chaplain said.

Addressing the benefits of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness program, which aims to help soldiers sustain performance levels by promoting physical, mental, nutritional, sleep and spiritual readiness, Maj. Gen. William Green, the Army’s chief of chaplains, asserted that “strength always begins at the core. What lies beneath holds everything together.”

The success of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness program, based on measurable positive effects on soldier performance, has led to an expansion in resources for the effort, senior Army leaders said.

In remarks Dec. 4 at a Hot Topic on Holistic Health and Fitness hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. David Francis, commanding general of the Center for Initial Military Training, highlighted the positive return on investment the program, known as H2F, has had on soldiers.

Registration is open for an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic on holistic health and fitness.

Scheduled for Dec. 4 at AUSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, the theme for the daylong Hot Topic is “The Foundations of Holistic Health and Fitness.”

The Army has established a new skills qualification identifier for NCOs who become trained as experts in the Holistic Health and Fitness program, Army Vice Chief of Staff James Mingus said.

In remarks Sept. 24 during a Noon Report webinar hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army, Mingus explained that the Holistic Health and Fitness program, known as H2F, will now have NCO advisers “who have gone through and learned the fundamentals on how to assess, program and execute” components of the program.

Soldiers who score 465 points or more on the Army Fitness Test are exempt from the service’s body fat standards, according to a new directive published Sept. 4.

“This is a welcome continuation of our previous policy under the former Army Combat Fitness Test,” said Sgt. Maj. Christopher Stevens, senior enlisted adviser to the deputy Army chief of staff for personnel, G-1.