Army Wellness Center helps you through holidays

FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. – The holiday season is here, and winter is drawing near. No matter what kind of spirit they may bring, both can sometimes add stress and imbalance to one’s health.

The Army Wellness Center (AWC) here, can help by providing preventative and correctional fitness and health services that promote a sustainable healthy lifestyle to improve the overall wellbeing of the military community to include Soldiers, TRICARE health insurance-eligible adult beneficiaries, and Department of Army civilians.

“We have six core programs that are standardized across all Army Wellness Centers,” said Rhea Morales, health promotion technician at AWC. “The Army Wellness Center has programs starting with the individual health assessment review (HAR), physical fitness, healthy nutrition, stress management services, general wellness education and tobacco education.”

HAR is essentially AWC’s health questionnaire and starts a personal wellness tracker.

“This is a questionnaire with targeted questions on perceived stress, sleep, physical activity, nutrition, tobacco use, alcohol use, and self-efficacy,” Morales said.

The questionnaire also asks about known factors such as hereditary health risks and cardiovascular disease.

“The physical fitness program includes exercise testing, body composition analysis, a personalized exercise prescription, and coaching,” Morales said.

Body composition analysis uses the BodPod test to measure the percentage of fat mass to fat-free mass.

“This machine can be your friend when your scale at home fails to measure your muscle mass gains from training so diligently,” said Morales. “It is an assessment we encourage be done every 30 to 60 days if you have body composition and weight management goals.”

Customized exercise prescriptions are created during health coaching appointments.

“Clients’ goals, strengths, limitations, and access to equipment are evaluated before making a plan,” said Morales.

The AWC recently introduced a class entitled “Performance Optimization” centered on the new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). The class is designed to teach individuals and groups on how best to train for the ACFT safely and with the best results. It is offered at the AWC twice monthly and can be presented to units upon request.

AWC refers some clients to the Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center dietitian for personalized nutrition counseling and recommendations.

Nutrition classes include “Upping your Metabolism,” “Fueling for Health,” and “Meals in Minutes.”

“These classes are performed at the Army Wellness Center or can be taught at the unit,” she said.

A general stress management class is offered here twice monthly, and one can also opt for individual stress management training (ISMT).

“Individual stress management training is a one-on-one program of four sessions with the emphasis on four techniques to practice,” Morales said. “These include deep breathing, meditation and mindfulness, guided imagery, and progressive muscle relaxation.”

Blood pressure readings are also taken before and after each session to help the client monitor effectiveness of the session, she said.

The AWC is abiding by all COVID-19 precautions and currently seeing clients face-to-face (mask-to-mask) at the AWC, Building 52025, Hatfield Street, across from the Exchange. All assessments of the core programs are available.

Health coaching is available face-to-face or virtual.

The on-site classes follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and include the six topics of upping your metabolism, fueling for health, meals in minutes, general stress management, healthy sleep habits, and performance optimization.

These classes are also available virtually.

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Fort Huachuca is home to the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM)/9th Army Signal Command and more than 48 supported tenants representing a diverse, multiservice population. Our unique environment encompasses 964 square miles of restricted airspace and 2,500 square miles of protected electronic ranges, key components to the national defense mission.

Located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about 15 miles north of the border with Mexico, Fort Huachuca is an Army installation with a rich frontier history. Established in 1877, the Fort was declared a national landmark in 1976.

We are the Army’s Home. Learn more at https://home.army.mil/huachuca/