FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- Daring to experiment "outside the box," the 470th Military Intelligence Brigade Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment tried a program that ended up noticeably improving its Soldiers' physical fitness.
Earlier this year, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Qasim Sattar approached Capt. Jessica Watson, HHD commander, and Sgt. 1st Class Christian Daniels, HHD first sergeant, about introducing the P90X exercise program to the unit.
"Initially, I was hesitant to change our physical training plan to something I associated with late-night infomercials," said Daniels.
"However, after a little research I found that this fitness plan could ultimately challenge our Soldiers and possibly re-energize our APFT [Army Physical Fitness Training] plan."
P90X is an "extreme" home fitness training workout designed to optimize muscle capabilities. It constantly introduces new moves and routines so the body is always trying to reach the next level of fitness by causing "muscle confusion."
This means that the P90X program engages more muscle groups concurrently using a larger variety of different moves - unlike traditional workouts - promising better results in less time.
Approximately 35 Soldiers began to gather in the Jimmy Brought Fitness Center multi-purpose room every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday for an hour of the intense workouts. These workouts cover chest and back, shoulders and arms, yoga, legs, cardio, abdominals and core strengthening.
Most of the routines take about an hour (although yoga takes an hour and a half), and there is a weekly requirement to conduct the intense abdominal muscle workout that tacks on another 20 minutes.
"I would never have imagined the results the commander and I are now seeing in just a few months," said Daniels. "At this time, we currently have zero APFT failures." Daniels added that temporary profiles went down from 17 to eight, and that three out of the four Soldiers on the overweight program were removed from it.
"Since we began the P90X program in early March I have gotten stronger and my overall physical fitness has definitely improved," said Sgt. 1st Class Pamela Bright, who is one of a number of HHD Soldiers who reported losing weight, increasing agility or strength, or improving running speed. "I now look forward to PT, and - oh, yeah - I increased my APFT score by 27 points."
While Daniels doesn't consider P90X as a universal solution for improving APFT scores, he is pleased with the results of what he refers to as the P90X "experiment."
"A command sergeant major once told me that the only Soldiers who benefit from Army PT are the Soldiers who are motivated to do so," Daniels explained.
"What this program did was make PT fun and less routine. P90X got our Soldiers excited about coming to PT."
(Spc. Natalie Sampson contributed to this story)
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