[Vision2020] Military studies ‘hyperfit’ women who pass grueling courses

Tue Jul 23 18:47:54 PDT 2019

Women capable of very high athletic performance that can outdo 99.9 percent
of all men have existed since homo sapiens evolved.  Why anyone would be
surprised at this is entirely a result of socially/politically constructed
ignorance or bias.

I followed the career of the incredibly talented US runner Joan Benoit, who
won the 1984 Olympic marathon in Los Angeles, a race where she left the
entire field of runners behind early and was never challenged.  Benoit said
it felt "like a training run."
She could have ran much faster.  In fact, she never ran the fastest
marathon she was capable of running because of injuries that sidelined her
career.

When I ran my fastest time at Bloomsday in Spokane, I placed in the top one
percent in my age group for a male, 29th out of 2900, with a pace of 5:59
per mile average for the 7.46 mile 12 K distance.
Joan Benoit could have outrun me by such a wide margin I would not have
been able to see her cross the finish line!

I recalled from the 1980s that she was measured with a very high VO2 Max,
mentioned in the article referenced in the subject heading, a measurement
of efficiency of oxygen use by the body.

Thus I just did a Google Search on this, and voila!

https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm

These are just a few VO2max scores (in ml.kg-1.min-1) that have been found
for females.
scorenamesportnotes
78.6 Joan Benoit distance running 1984 Olympic Marathon Champion
 --------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 6:24 AM Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:

> Courtesy of the *Military Times* at:
>
>
> https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/07/21/military-studies-hyperfit-women-who-pass-grueling-courses/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Army%20DNR%2007-22-19&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Army%20-%20Daily%20News%20Roundup
>
> ———————————————
>
> Military studies ‘hyperfit’ women who pass grueling courses
>
> ARMY SOLDIER SYSTEMS CENTER, Mass. — In the nearly four years since the
> Pentagon announced it was opening all combat jobs to women
> <https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/10/09/almost-800-women-are-serving-in-previously-closed-army-combat-jobs-this-is-how-theyre-faring/>
> at least 30 have earned the Army Ranger tab
> <https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/03/13/first-female-ranger-grads-open-up-about-the-aftermath-and-joining-the-infantry/>
> two have graduated Marine infantry school
> <https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/06/13/there-are-no-female-marines-currently-leading-an-infantry-platoon-in-the-corps/> and
> three have passed the grueling initial assessment phase for Green Beret
> training.
>
> Their numbers are small, but their completion of some of the military’s
> most arduous physical and mental courses has raised an intriguing
> scientific question: Who are these “hyperfit” women and what makes them so
> competitive?
>
> Army medical researchers hope to uncover answers in a just-launched
> voluntary study.
>
> “We’re really interested in those elite women that are the first to make
> it through physically demanding training,” said Holly McClung, a
> nutritional physiologist at the Army Research Institute of Environmental
> Medicine in Massachusetts. “The real point of the study is to characterize
> this unique cohort of women that has made it through these traditionally
> male trainings.”
>
> During early debate on the move to open all combat jobs to women, military
> leaders raised questions about whether women were up to the jobs or if
> putting them on the front lines would make units less capable. The Marine
> Corps sought an exemption to keep some combat jobs closed for precisely
> that reason, but they were overruled by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
>
> Women, however, have increasingly made it through the nine-week Ranger
> course, and the numbers of those trying out for other special operations
> jobs is slowly inching up. The courses all encompass a number of phases and
> run from about nine weeks to a year or two for the most elite commando jobs.
>
> They involve a wide array of grueling physical fitness tests, combat water
> survival, day and night land navigation, long road marches carrying heavy
> packs, extended patrols through various climates, and extensive mental,
> psychological and leadership testing.
>
> The goal, said McClung, is to identify the attributes — whether mental,
> physical or psychological — that help the women succeed. By unlocking those
> secrets, maybe they can help other women compete for the same jobs.
>
> In a small basement office at this Army base in Natick, Massachusetts,
> McClung and Julie Hughes, a research physiologist, are setting up
>  treadmill that’s linked to a nearby computer. They plan to have the women
> use a mask and breathing apparatus to calculate each participant’s vo2 Max
> score, a key fitness indicator. The score measures how many milliliters of
> oxygen used per kilogram of body weight per minute; in other words, how
> much oxygen is being used at a person’s peak exercise rate.
>
> An average sedentary person may have a score of about 30. Top athletes —
> runners and cyclists — can score in the 80s.
>
> The plan, at this point, is to have the military women come to Natick, in
> groups of two or three, and go through a range of tests over three days to
> identify biological and physiological markers that help define them as
> hyper-fit. Having several tested at the same time, McClung said, will make
> it more interesting and encourage competition.
>
> “This is a unique historical time,” said Hughes. “There’s this group of
> women who made it through the training so we want to get them to at least
> do these observational investigations to explore what makes them unique.”
>
> That breathing test, along with others on their blood, calcium and iron
> levels, as well as bone density scans and exercise programs will be used to
> determine the women’s physical fitness. Other written tests and interviews
> will evaluate their mental toughness and psychological resilience.
>
> The women will take three psychological exams that are designed to
> determine their grit, hardiness and resilience.
>
> For example, the military version of the resilience test lists statements
> and asks people to determine on a scale of one to five if the statement is
> definitely or mostly false, “don’t know” or mostly or definitely true. Some
> examples of the statements are: I enjoy most things in life; I often feel
> helpless; I like to have a lot of structure in my life; I carefully plan
> just about everything I do; it bothers me when my daily routine gets
> interrupted; and my successes are because of my effort and ability.
>
> Mark Esper, President Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, said
> the study will be important to help understand fitness and perhaps reduce
> injury rates. He was serving as Army secretary when this study was first
> broached.
>
> “My belief is it’s grit — grit gets them through this,” he said. “You have
> to have a certain level of athletic ability, but they take it to an
> extraordinary level. These women are tough.”
>
> McClung said she received word on July 12 that the final study was
> approved. She said that if more women graduate from any of the military
> training courses, they could be added to the study.
>
> McClung and Hughes also said they hope to be able to compare the women’s
> results with similar testing on men.
>
> It will be up to the women to decide if they want to participate. But
> based on feedback from some of the women, they think a number of them will
> want to take part in the study.
>
> “I think we’re encouraged that they’ll be willing to participate,” Hughes
> said. “They want to be counted.” courtesy
>
> ——————-
>
> Photo . . .
>
>
> http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Photos/Military_Times/Military_Times_072219.jpg
> In this April 23, 2019, photo, research scientist Leila Walker, left, is
> assisted by nutritional physiologist Holly McClung, center, as they
> demonstrate equipment designed to evaluate fitness levels in female service
> members, not shown, who have joined elite fighting units, at the U.S. Army
> Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, at the Natick Soldiers
> Systems Center in Massachusetts.
>
> ———————————————
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20190723/6b83c7a4/attachment.html>