FORT SILL, Okla., May 25, 2017 -- Midway through a humid and muggy workday, 14 Soldiers assembled from 1st Battalion, 31st Field Artillery at the 434th Field Artillery Brigade gym to test their physical prowess by way of a lifting competition, May 16. Participants included noncommissioned officers as well as officers from various units within the battalion.
Officially known as the Proud American Strong Program, the event is a battalion project that was created to achieve two things. It aims to "reward collective and individual physical fitness within the battalion as well as foster a friendly competitive spirit between the batteries," said Lt. Col. Kirk Alexander, 1-31st FA commander.
As the pilot event, the fitness competition was organized and run by the battalion staff. In the future, events will be planned at the battery level.
The Strong American event consisted of three core lifts -- the bench press, back squat, and the dead
lift. These lifts are generally regarded as the "Big Three" because they are all-encompassing strength exercises. In a word, they're tough.
Mindful of safety, each of these lifts was performed with a spotter present. This person hovered close by the Soldier performing the exercise in case the lift when awry.
While warming up, the only female competitor, Drill Sergeant (Staff Sgt.) Danielle Moore said she hoped to squat and dead lift at least 300 pounds, and bench press 185 pounds.
That's pretty impressive for most people, and even more so for a female lifter. A former competitive power lifter, Moore said that it's difficult to find time to train while she's in cycle, but that she manages to get to the gym at least twice a week.
When asked if she had any concerns about the competition, Moore responded, "I'm competing against all of these guys, so I'm just hoping to do well."
A complex and detailed algorithm for computing totals was put in place to ensure that there is the chance that strength differences between males and females can be equalized. Alexander explained that each competitor had three chances per lift to maximize their ability. Once complete, the total weight for all three lifts was combined for each team member and then divided by the team member's weight.
Imagine that a 225-pound male lifts 300 pounds on bench, squats 300 pounds and pulls a 300-pound dead lift. His total combined total is 900, and that gets divided by his weight for a factor of four. Essentially, the hypothetical competitor has just lifted four times his body weight for all the lifts combined.
"Similarly, if a 110-pound female lifts 145 pounds on bench, 145 pounds on squat and 150 pounds on dead lift, her total combined pounds are 440 divided by her weight for a factor of four," said Alexander.
Then, these numbers were plugged into a formula to compute the highest factor as well as the battery with the highest average factor.
Alexander is aware that every battery is on different cycles, and has a plan in mind to ensure that batteries aren't disrupted with their training schedules.
"The basic combat training environment makes it challenging to bring all the cadre and staff together at once because the batteries are all on different schedules and our primary mission is to transform civilians into Soldiers. I wanted to create a program that didn't distract from this critical mission," said Alexander.
While some individuals started with bench press, others set their sights on dead lift and squats. Those dead lifting were allowed to use chalk to help create traction on their hands, as well as straps, which helped increase the amount which can be lifted. Around the brigade gym, shouts of encouragement rang out; battery members from across the battalion cheered one another on for each of these difficult lifts.
When it was all said and done, chalk dust sprinkled the gym floor. Competitors were sweaty, but proud of their accomplishments.
There were also four new members who can officially call themselves part of the 1,000 pound club. This is a big achievement for any weight-lifter; it means that the lifter has been able to achieve a combined total of 1,000 pounds between the three core lifts. Now, these newest members cannot only boast about their strength, but they have the record to prove it. The four competitors who earned these bragging rights were Capt. Genti Sulaj and Drill Sergeant (Staff Sgt.) Adam McBride, of B Battery; and Moore and Drill Sergeant (Sgt.) Dalton Boucher, of E Battery.
B Battery was the winner for the competition, out-scoring the other batteries by 0.6 percent. The battery's competitors were Sulaj, drill sergeant (Sgt. 1st Class) Joseph Stremkowski, and McBride. The winning team will receive battalion coins and be recognized at the next cadre call.
"We will develop a streamer or trophy to be awarded at the semi-annual point and plaque displayed in the battalion headquarters with the monthly winning battery," he said.
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