Human Performance Optimization (HPO) & the Tactical Athlete

Traditional athletes, as in professional or collegiate athletes, have had performance specialists supporting them for many years. The growth of exercise science, nutrition science, rehab science, and other fields such as sport psychology led to the development of interdisciplinary teams to guide athlete performance optimization.

The Department of Defense got on board. In 2009, the Army Special Operations Command created Tactical Human Optimization Rapid Rehabilitation and Reconditioning, or THOR3, to build stronger and healthier Special Operators. This program was designed to help these tactical athletes achieve their highest levels of physical ability by mitigating injury and maintaining health and longevity, all while handling the stressors of a tactical environment. Read more about THOR3 here.

Over the past several years, Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) has been in development in the Regular Army. In October of 2020, Field Manual 7-22, Holistic Health and Fitness was published and 31 brigades of the U.S. Army gained an embedded H2F team.

H2F features a large interdisciplinary team that includes injury control, cognitive enhancement, strength and conditioning, and nutrition sections. This large team is designed to work together to optimize Soldier performance in all five domains of readiness and to prevent illness and injury:

• Physical Readiness

• Nutritional Readiness

• Sleep Readiness

• Spiritual Readiness

• Mental Readiness

Soldier performance is impacted by each domain of readiness. Traditionally the Army has focused heavily on physical readiness, but a Soldier is only as strong as his or her weakest domain, because each domain depends on the others.

Explore our website to see how each domain is integral to the other domains and Soldier health and performance overall!