Physical Activity and Military Readiness

The military sector plays an important role in increasing levels of physical activity for service members, military families, veterans, and Department of Defense civilians working and living on and off military bases.

The nation’s armed forces depend on men and women who are fit, healthy, and able to perform at their peak on or off the battlefield. However, only 2 in 5 young adults are weight-eligible and physically prepared for basic training. Recruits who are not physically prepared are less likely to complete basic training because of injuries and other fitness-related issues compared to physically prepared candidates.

Military families may live on or near base. Reserve members live in communities throughout the country. Supportive community design on bases and in surrounding communities can improve the ability of service members, military families, veterans, and Department of Defense civilians to be physically active regularly.

Participating in physical activity can improve service members’ mental and physical health. Benefits include improved sleep; decreased risk of depression and anxiety; decreased risk of chronic conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure; and reduced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Being physically active can also help military families cope with service members’ training and deployments and veterans as they transition back to civilian life.

What Can Be Done

The federal government is:

• Providing tools and resources to encourage community and base design [PDF-585KB] for physical activity by incorporating activity-friendly routes (including sidewalks, bike lanes, and public transit) that connect to key destinations (such as housing, food outlets, and parks). These routes should easily connect the places where people live to the places where they need and want to go regularly.
• Improving total force fitness by connecting eight dimensions of fitness, including physical fitness, to optimize health, performance, and readiness holistically.

State and local officials can:

• Increase awareness of existing community resources, programs, and partnerships that address cost and accessibility challenges to increase participation in physical activity programs.
• Show support for creating activity-friendly communities.  Download: Proclamation Template [Word-29KB]

Transportation engineers and community planning professionals can:

• Collaborate with other sectors to design communities off base that support a safe, comfortable, and accessible network of activity-friendly routes that connect to convenient and well-designed community locations.
• Work closely with multiple community leaders during the project planning and design process to ensure that safety, access, and design decisions match local community needs. Involve base planners, local community planning and transportation leaders, service members, their families, veterans, and Department of Defense civilians. Participation in strategic and community workgroups is important to ensure military interests are being represented.

Community organizations can:

• Develop and promote community-based physical activity programs such as group classes and walking groups to increase social connectedness and social supports for physical activity. Encourage service members, military families, and veterans to attend. Tailor activities as appropriate.
• Share the locations of parks, trails, greenways, and other places where people can be physically active.

Every sector can:

• Encourage people, including those in the military, to meet the national physical activity guidelines and recommend ways to add more physical activity to their day. There are many ways to be physically active outside the gym—like gardening, taking a walk, running in a park, biking to the store, or doing household chores.
• Promote the physical and mental health benefits of regular physical activity. This information is especially important in settings or communities where people have trouble being physically active and for service members and veterans who have anxiety or depression.

Resources

For Military Support Staff

• Chronic Diseases and Military Readiness
  Illustrates how preventing and controlling chronic diseases is a matter of national security and how promoting more physical activity and better nutrition can help.

• Building Healthy Military Communities: Recommendations from the Thought Leader Round Table Sessions [PDF-1.51MB]
  Shares recommendations to help state and county officials address challenges associated with people in the military as part of broader community change.

• Building Healthy Military Communities Toolkit
  Provides strategies for Department of Defense service providers and other community organizations to work with public health and related agencies to build healthy, physically active communities.

• National Physical Activity Plan: Military Sector [PDF-14.6MB]
  Provides policy and programmatic recommendations to increase physical activity. It includes strategies and tactics that communities, organizations, and individuals in the military sector can use to support physically active lifestyles.

• Unfit to Serve
  Outlines the effects of obesity on military readiness in the United States. It also emphasizes the many health and performance benefits increased physical activity can offer to current and future service members.

For Service Members, Families, Reserve Members, and Veterans

• Total Force Fitness-Physical Fitness
  Explains why physical fitness is important as part of eight dimensions of fitness to optimize health, performance, and readiness.Total Force Fitness focuses holistically on a service member’s entire health throughout their career.

Get Active

• Armed Services YMCA
  Provides free or low-cost programs and services for service members, military children, spouses, and families.

• Health and Wellness Coach
  Offers free consultations for health and wellness coaching for active-duty service members, the National Guard, reserve members, and their immediate family and survivors.

• MOVE! Weight Management Program
  Provides healthy eating and physical activity tips supported by the Veteran Affairs’ National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

• Move Your Way
  Highlights tools, videos, and fact sheets with tips that make it easier to get a little more active.

Parks and Greenspaces

• Free Entrance to National Parks for Veterans and Gold Star Families
  Explains how US military veterans and Gold Star Families can receive free access to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas, including national parks, wildlife refuges, and forests.

• Parks Near Department of Defense and Veterans Administration Facilities
  Includes map of national parks close to Department of Defense or Veterans Administration facilities.

• ParkPassport Mobile App
  Connects users to national parks and recreation and areas. It provides education information and contains a digital passport to collect custom badges for the 63 national parks.