H2F Fitness & Force Plate Innovations with Dr. Myers & CSM Mitchell

Dr. Chris Myers talks with retired Command Sergeant Major Edward Mitchell about human performance

Dr. Chris Myers: The views expressed by myself and the guests of this podcast do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Air Force, Department of Defense, or the US government. Welcome to white coat warriors. I’m your host, Dr. Chris Myers. And on this podcast, we talk about human performance optimization and training paradigms for you, the young medical professionals, and how you can use it in your own professional practices to help yourselves and your clients. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another exciting episode of White Goat Warriors. Today we’re going to be talking with, retired Command Sergeant Major Edward Mitchell. He’s a great colleague of mine and a friend. I’ve had the pleasure of work with him over the past three years. Our conversation today, we’re going to talk about how he’s worked to implement, human performance within the military. His lessons learned, and his applications to clinical professionals, and the use of force plate technology and its implementation, human performance and medical diagnoses as well. So, Mitch, welcome to the show.

CSM Edward Mitchell: I’m glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Chris Myers: No, thank you. it’s been a pleasure to work with you these past few years, and you’ve taught me a lot. I want you to be able to share to our young doctors and young residents in the medical field.

You helped create the H2F fitness program for the army

So, once you get to start off, why don’t you tell me a little bit of your background in the military and your experience with the army, health, and wellness program, the H2F fitness program.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Okay, well, first of all, I did 34 and a half years in the military, combination from being a young private all the way up to being a command song major, working up to the three star level. my last job in the military, I was the command, song major for the, United States Army center for initial military training. And that incorporates all of the basic training, aits, warrant officers, enlisted, that goes across the entire United States, army before they go to their first unit of, assignment. So the Quinton command brings them in, they give them all to us. We have to train them up on their basic skills and knowledge and tactics, and then we send them out to the army so they can go ahead and start their career. while I was there, we had the pleasure of creating, and getting approved the army combat fitness test, as well as the holistic health and fitness, which was getting all of the PTs DTs at, strength and distancing coaches and everybody out of the medical training facilities and putting them down at the unit level to where they can meet the soldiers, where they are. And then when they had to go get seen. They could be seen in a timely manner to where going to a medical training facility. It could take 30 days or it could take 60 days. And sometimes the soldiers just doesn’t go there. So that was a combination of where I started it and where I ended from, and that’s some of my claim to fames that I am.

Dr. Chris Myers: Excellent. Yeah, that’s a huge improvement to access, to health care, especially in the military system. And, both of us, being old warriors, know, how it was.

CSM Edward Mitchell: If you had an injury, it could.

Dr. Chris Myers: Be upwards to eight months before you got to see a physical therapist or let alone if you need surgery. especially me. I had four ACL reconstructions, and those would take 18 months to get done. Yeah, that’s great.

The H2F program focuses on holistic health and fitness for soldiers

So when you started rolling out, working with the initial, H2F program, and that’s the health and holistic health and fitness, program. Sorry, I keep mispronouncing it, but that’s what we call the H2F program. So what were some of the initial changes and maybe in resistance that you saw with the implementation of this within, the, initial entry training?

CSM Edward Mitchell: Well, actually, when we first started this right here, it did not go into the initial entry training at first. Okay. when we actually started looking at this program to try to bring it out, we was looking at whether they want to foster it across the military. And when you start looking at it, most of when you start talking to. Because you got to go up and talk to the heel, you got to go talk to chief of staff of army. And they wanted to start this out inside of the BCT. That’s the basic combat team. So that was the first pilots we was going to roll out to those locations. And then when you start going to level two, we’re just going to start looking at some of the, trade off units. But the reason why we was choosing them is because what you just said, you had four surgeries on your knees, but just think of a private that goes to a medical training facility and make an appointment, and then something come up important, and they don’t go to that appointment. And now they still working on that same injury they have for like, six or seven months, and then it just doesn’t go get seen at all until they come to a point to where they have to, have surgery. So that’s why we was looking at, how can we get that if we bring it out with the new sparks, what we like to call the facilities, and put them closer down to where the soldiers are so they can walk in, get seen, get treated, see an at or strength conditioning coach, and go straight back out to work and start executing within two weeks, less than two weeks, they can get all this done to where it was hinders in the bar. So that’s what we initially started, putting it out there at the actual force calm units, what we was looking at.

Dr. Chris Myers: That’s great.

At one time, there were 75,000 soldiers who could not deploy

So what were some of the initial benefits that you saw with the implementation, of the program?

CSM Edward Mitchell: Well, I mean, some of the benefits that you’ve seen is that, soldiers did not have a problem of going to synth. And what you would see is the return on how do you get your non deplorability rate down and your readiness rate. So, as you look at it, when you start looking at a, non affordability rate, because at one time, we was looking at, across the entire army, we had almost nine BCTs worth of soldiers that could not deploy. You’re looking at almost losing almost. I think it was like 75,000 soldiers who could not deploy. And because of that 75,000, our goal was see if we can reduce that number by getting immediate care. In all actuality, we did. And you can start seeing that number start coming down for the nonpro abilities as well as you can start seeing the individuals coming down with long term profiles and temporary profiles going down as well. So that was the immediate effects that we’ve seen. But by the time we got it all approved going on, our product is much more now, because this has morphed into so much more to where now they’re doing mindless, they’re doing psychology, they’re doing everything else now today.

Dr. Chris Myers: yeah, that five domain model has really exploded. And it’s the type of program, it’s gone from strictly from a wellness, and it balances between performance and wellness. It’s a great program to see how it’s developed.

The military is trying to change that paradigm to improve the access to health care

And the reason I wanted to talk about this right off the bat is especially with some of the, young medical professionals that hopefully are listening to this podcast, is to give them some insight on the changes that the military is doing when it comes to military medicine. And not a lot of people know about the H2F program going in the army, the HP programs in the air force and Morsoc. and the military is trying to change that paradigm to improve the access to health care from reactive to preventative. And like you just said, by just bringing that access to healthcare about 10ft closer.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Absolutely.

Dr. Chris Myers: That’s open 24, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When the guys can go in when their schedules are free. It already improved combat regeneration and readiness rates.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Absolutely.

Dr. Chris Myers: And this was just three years ago? absolutely, four years ago. So that’s great to hear. What I hope that the audience knows is this is an opportunity for you, to help continue to change that paradigm within military medicine. But you’re working with a holistic team. It’s a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary teams, and they’re different wherever you go. And it’s all based on the mission sets of what you said of that, BCT.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Absolutely. And then you look at it, too. The team is normally about 35 personnel, and it might go down this year to 25, but it’s 35 personnel that you have from a director who is normally a GS 13. You got some green suitors that’s coming out that works for them. Then you also have some contractors, and then you got some other GS workers that’s fall up under them to make up that 35 personnel. And then you’re looking at for BCT, you got, like, seven battalions up under you. So they got to spread them out across those seven battalions so they all could be seen. But that H2F director is a direct access to the commander of that BCT or that brigade. That’s who his line of communication goes to. And finding out how he can make sure that he get the commander’s intent, he understand what it is, understand how he can get the readiness up, and then as well as making sure that all the soldiers are capable to do their daily mission. not only the daily mission, as well as what I always tell people know. I have not seen where we had to fight on the United States. We always do away games, and we cannot have individuals ready to do, away games then, as virtually, we don’t. I hate to say we don’t need them, but we got to get them because they have to be able to deploy because somebody else has to do that job for them. So if I had to tell anybody, especially in the medical arena, that was coming in and was looking at this is, it was a reason why they reached out and started getting these strength and conditioning coaches, started getting these physical therapists, athletic therapists, occupational therapists, and start bringing them into the fold, because also create more jobs. But it also gave them a different perspective of what you see when you’re working in a typical hospital in the civilian community to now, you have to understand, how does a leader lead his brigade, and how do I fall within that commander’s intent to give him what he’s looking for. And it still goes back so much more. It’s all about readiness. And readiness is a word we use interchangeable. But at the end of the day is, do we have the personnel to do their job every day? If not, why not? And then if we can’t get them done, then what can we do to change that paradigm? And if you look at it, for me, when we was in basic training, we was looking at it, we was losing a billion dollars a year, because if we cannot get soldiers to come in and make it through their three year obligation, because it was costing us, roughly at the time, was like $65,000 per soldier training just to come through basic training. And we’d lose that individual, we’d lose that whole slots for the next couple of training events. So we could not recoup that money. So that’s why it’s important that when you come in, that you have to understand the soldier, you got to understand what the, strain is going to be on their body and how you can prevent things from happening. Because if they go to have normal paradigm, that’s the reason why we changed the acft test, because we was not putting the right load on the person’s body for the physical aspect of it. And it was coming back with a lot of Mskis. Yeah.

Dr. Chris Myers: So clarify for that. So the ACFT is the army combat physical fitness test that replaced the army physical fitness test, which was the traditional push up, sit up, two mile run. so just for the clarification, for, our audience, and you made a very important point, in the evolution of military medicine, H2F and where it’s going now, especially at the basic training level, because part of that where you’re talking about the high injury rates and recouping the funds spurred out the future soldier program, where. Absolutely, yeah. For those who need it, still want to go in the military, but need a little additional time to prepare their bodies, they have a chance to go to a four to six week course, depending on, where they’re at, to better improve, just to start working up their body through physical training with H2F personnel to better prepare them for the military. Because if you can prepare the training stress, you reduce the chances of a, musculoskeletal injury, also known as an MSKI.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Yes, that’s exactly. And then the main point that we seen from that was because everybody, only one third of 1% of the population can serve in the military. That’s one third of 1% of that. One third percent. You’re looking at corporate America is trying to get them. You’re looking at colleges trying to get them. So everybody’s trying to get that one, that little small pool. And if you just look at our share numbers alone, we’re bringing in $135,000 a year. So if you look at that, I can’t say it will become selective, but it needs to be selective, because when you start looking at individuals who. I’m not here to say obese, which a lot may be, it’s had to, we’d be a program for that. And that’s what you’re talking about, the future Soldiers program, is, can we get them in there to get them to somewhat of a healthy standard? So when they actually go into basic training and start going and getting that rigor put on them, that they can make sure their body can sustain that rigor all the way through basic training, through aIt, onto their personal assignment, because if not, that’s what we typically lose them at. And when we lose them in basic training, you cannot recoup those phones whatsoever. It’s good.

Dr. Chris Myers: Thank you so much for that insight.

You helped develop force plates to help improve clinical assessments in the military

I want to just talk a little bit about the military medicine side, and especially with some of your expertise, really seeing it both from the tactical level, which is the bare basic, the unit, company, level, operational, strategic level. You’ve seen it through all the lines of the military in leadership positions. You just bring a unique perspective. So thank you for sharing that. Now, let’s get to the fun part. Let’s talk about force plates. So, the other side of this, too. you helped develop force, plates, force plate technology, with a company smarter science, and that’s who we work with. that’s how our relationship came about. And you’ve seen the evolution of the force plate technology and its ability to really enhance clinical assessments. Can you talk about your experiences with that a little bit and moving forward?

CSM Edward Mitchell: Yes, I can. First of all, I did not help them create the force plate. The force plate was way before me. I want to make sure I specified, yes, water science. what I will tell you is actually was created by Dr. Phil Wagner. And he actually came up because he was a, sports individual as well. And he just did not like the way that when you look at a college, being a strength and conditioning coach, he wanted to change that paradigm because there was not an assessment for individuals to go through and get seen so they can figure it out. So what he did, he created the Sparta science company. But when you look at the evolution of this right here. Sparta is like science is no longer a force plate company. It’s actually a human m looking at it from a different expert. So what I would tell you is now what we try to make sure we do. We want to get an assessment on the person, make sure everybody can move, have a great movement signature. And when you start looking at movement signature, everybody moves differently. And what we try to do is assess and find out what is the stress that they have on their bodies and then if so, what can we give them some insights on and just ingest them that they could actually sit up there and start doing. From a physical standpoint, they can be exercise regimens to help them move better. At the end of the day, it’s the same thing which you do, as a physician yourself, is that we try to tell doctors and stuff like that, is that especially in the military, you cannot assess. If I give you a strength and conditioning coach and athletic trainer for one battalion that’s got almost 800 people in it, how can you assess 800 people and find out who you need to work on? Unless they come into your office like a practitioner, that’s not what most commanders want. They want you to get an assessment and then find what population you need to fix that. You need to move on so they can actually guess what do not become a part of the population that’s not deployable. So that’s with us. When we came in, when I first started with the force plate, was we could assess more people and we could aid those strength conditioning coaches, physical therapists, OTs, to look at a quick assessment and use that AI. And then they can go out there and start, guess what, treating and giving the insights and moving on and help them get better. Because like I said again, this is not to ever replace any type of practitioner. It’s more to aid and assist them. Guess what, assess more and be able to go guess what, give insight to more to where they don’t have to have one person coming, seeing you on a clinical hour, and then once that person is finished and the next will come and see, now you can see many more and you can give out an assessment to a bunch of them. So that’s why I am with us, and we are now called the human domain platform, and that’s why we ingest a lot of data and stuff today is we’re more about how can we look at what you have, the data you have, and we can collect it for you. We can analyze and we can operationalize so you can get it out to your whole organization. So that’s what we are when we start looking at inside of Sparta science and we start talking about the force plate as a whole.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah, but you bring up a great point. You bring up a great point with the ability of the technology to help create quick assessments, because let’s go back to a point that you said earlier with the H2F program is with the teams, right? So the H2F team is assigned to a BCT, and BCT can range from anywhere from 3000, 5000 people. Yeah, people. And so you got a team of anywhere between seven and 20 personnel. The ratios are large. And so you have to have assistance, to really help you. And that’s one of the benefits of force bike technology and technologically enhanced, clinical assessment. tools can help practitioners be able to. Okay, what is, the right test to get the correct metric to be able to help with, assessing the population for what you’re trying to look at in this case, like you said, movement patterns, which is a very important aspect for the military population and more importantly for the army, because in the army, everyone is a soldier. And so with that being said, or everyone’s an infantryman. So with that being said, you have.

CSM Edward Mitchell: To be able to move.

Dr. Chris Myers: You have to be able to move weight. and so if you don’t have hip mobility, if you don’t have the right knee range of motion, or ankle flexions, which is something that can all be detected by doing the counter movement jump on the force plate, that’s a huge indicator. Ah, by working on those, you can get ahead of any possible MsKis and other movement pattern deficits as well.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Absolutely. And the key thing that I get out of this too, is that when you start looking at HQF, you got 35 personnel there, but you only have like, two people having held in a battalion. And there’s no way they can assess everybody in that battalion and then get up to the population need. They’re going to need some type of capability to help them and aid them so they can get after their population. So most of these strength conditioning coaches that we bring it in is coming from the collegiate and some coming from the professional arena, baseball, football, or whatever, but they always looking at a team. And when you’re looking at a team, they’re looking at about no more than about ten to twelve people. You might get a little bit more than that, but the problem is now you’re looking at several hundred people and it’s much different than what they are used to and the same knowledge and experience that they had. When they was in the professional arena or the collegiate arena, it applied in the military, but not the same because the numbers are just so huge and they have to change the way they do it, the way they look at everything. And that’s where the H2F is helping so much. But still though, technology is going to be the biggest, assistance to help them get over the hurdle they need. And I’m not saying it’s all going to be AI driven, but I can tell you right now, AI is where it’s going in the future. And just because of that, that’s where you’re going to start seeing where a lot of people is going have to need that to assist them. Just like what you talking about, using the force plate, do a catamar jump. It’s all about movement. Anyway, I can tell you I deployed over, what, twelve times, and I was injured every time I deployed. Not to a point that I couldn’t do my job, but I had some nagging injuries and stuff, and I come back and they still would be hurting me. I would have loved to went every time at 100% with no injuries or no type of ailment going on at that point in time. But it was just not the case at the time when I came in, when I was coming up. So that’s why it’s so crucial now. Just like what you’re doing over there in your safety. I mean, what you were sitting right, they’re doing with them operators is key. How do you sit up there and look at a person before he deploy? Look and see where he’s at. And then once they go in that deployment, what is the rigor that they’re going to have in that deployment? And then when they come back from that deployment, what effect did it have on them to where you need to get them back ready for that next deployment they got going? See, you, are holding a huge role in what needs to go on, not only for operators who was probably, I say special operators, but we’re almost talking about the generating force need the same capabilities. And that’s why we went to the H2F. Yeah.

Dr. Chris Myers: Let’S just put a pin in that. That’s the stamp of that. That’s perfect. But yeah, I also want to talk on the other end of that, too.

The Sparta platform now can ingest other data from biowearables

So you mentioned that the evolution of, the Sparta platform now, it’s very more holistic. You and your team have been able to build the platform to be able to ingest other data from biowearables. talk to us about that.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Yeah, absolutely. What we’re looking at doing that, because we are not a force play company. And I just want to make sure I say this, first of all, a force play to me, and the way I look at it is just like you as a professional doctor. It’s like when you use a needle, you go into. You use a needle to draw blood. Once you take that blood and you put in a tube and it go off to the lab, now you’re looking at their panel. That is what we look at when we start talking about Spotter. Where we are today is that blood panel that you get that tells you everything that’s going on with an individual. So, yes, we have gotten to the point now that we can ingest all types of data from, or wings, which I have one right now, to Garmin, to Apple, to all the world was out there, we can ingest, as well as the data that you have now. Whatever you’ve been collected from surveys, we can collect all that data, and then we can sit up and give you an audit on your data and tell you what it’s really telling you before you even put it into the system. The key is the software that we have, because we can take it and give you a holistic look at everything that’s going on with your organization, with your team, or with an individual. So now you can have an informed decision on what you want to do to help your organization out. That’s what we sit there do today, because it’s all about collecting it, analyzing it, and then try to operationalize that data so it can help your organization move on, into the future. Okay.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yeah, thanks for that rundown.

As technology and AI develops, there will be more platforms for physicians

That’s really good, because, young physicians, as they get forward on and as, like you said, technology and AI develops, there’s going to be more platforms like yours. You’re one of the first that are going to be developing. And so what’s some advice that, you could give to some of these young professionals on how to better leverage this type of technology to get the deeper insights for a holistic view of your patients?

CSM Edward Mitchell: Well, first of all, what I would tell you is that you got to have a clear goal of what you’re trying to achieve.

Dr. Chris Myers: Yes.

CSM Edward Mitchell: That’s the first thing you have to do. You got to have a clear goal, and then you got to find out what can help you obtain those goals. And everybody out there has platforms that you can use to get after. But at the end of the day, that’s the question that I go around when I start talking to a lot of people, especially inside of this organization I’m in now, is, what are you trying to achieve? And then I come back because I’m the director of solution engineers and I sit back and look, if this is what you want, we can lay out a path forward for you. So that’s the key you have to ask yourself first is what do I want to achieve? And then what path do I want to get after? And then how long do I have? Because all that’s going to play a role into what you want to get at your end state. But as a young physician like that a day, what I would tell you is that everybody like to see something realistic on a dashboard that’s giving them an idea of what’s going on with the days of us sitting there talking to people and telling people that, hey, this is what’s wrong with you. Like when I go to the doctor, hey, you got dust your customer. But now, today, if you can start showing them a dashboard with everything on it, and they know all that data is theirs and it’s giving them a true picture of themselves, that’s just going to guess what help you out with your revenue. It’s going to help you out bringing more people into your office, it’s going to help them out. When you give them something to do now they understand that it’s going to affect them. And it’s just not just something that you’re just telling them because you learn it, that you’ve seen it in a book and stuff. So that’s first thing I would tell you. The second thing I’ll tell you is this right here. Be open. Just have an open mind. You already got the knowledge, the experience and everything you need to do to become a practitioner. I don’t care if you’re an MD or whatever you are out there doing, you already got that knowledge, experience. But you have to also have an open mind to say, what else can I use to help me perform better and be better? Because I used to say this joke all the time. A person who go to medical school and he fails every test and he comes out at the end, what is he?

Dr. Chris Myers: Doctor?

CSM Edward Mitchell: He’s still a doctor. He’s still a doctor. The question is, do you want that individual to work on you or not? But the question is you would never know. So the reason why I say that is because everybody’s not going to come out to where they go to school and they’re going to pass everything because they get it like this. Some is going to be a little slow. That’s where I would say you can get things to help you to make sure. Hey, guess what? You, you’re just as good or, even better than the individual who graduated top of the class sometimes. So tech valleys is there to help you. I have been in many austere environments to where I didn’t think I was going to come out of it. And just by having from Desert Storm to going to, Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a drastic difference on how technology aided us through these last couple of battles that we did not have in Desert Storm. It was night and day. And I will tell you, if I ever had to deploy again, I would take the technology that we have in today over what we had back in 2002. So that’s what I would tell you about technology. Everything has got better. I mean, security, everybody always worry about data leaks and security. If you start looking at how they go after they start securing stuff there, I will just tell you, have an open mind because you can definitely, benefit from using any type of new technology and AI to help you in the future. That’s where it’s going anyway. So I would tell you, start learning now and see how it can age you. And don’t get called, say, like the army do. We always be the last one to grass thing, and sometimes it’s like two or three evolutions ahead of us before we get there. So that’s what I would tell you. Just start diving into that now.

Dr. Chris Myers: That’s great to hear. Yeah, I, always like to try to flip it on its head. Then when we start talking about, because we’re always talking about the patients, right?

Sergeant Major Mitch, thank you for sharing your wisdom with us

But the other side of that too is for our young doctors to understand they have to take care of themselves. you had some great advice in there. Very good. You talked about actionable data, presentation of the data, looking at trends. If you had some words of advice or insights, what would you tell our young dogs? How to be able to apply these types of principles to.

CSM Edward Mitchell: You. Chris, I’m so happy you said that. And this is what I would tell anybody, and I’ve said this in many speeches when I go out, talk to leaders, we are ingrained as leaders to make sure we take care of everybody first. hands down, lead from the front, take care of your soldiers, take care of your warriors, take care of everybody, and then look at yourself. But what I will tell you is this right here. I think we are changing because by doing that, we normally neglect everything that we care about ourselves, because we always worried about everybody else. And then we are the last ones to find out how injury. Like, I’m 100% disabled, but I got so much stuff going on with me that I did not know this prior because I never did worry about it because I always had to be out front leading. So I would tell young doctors this, is that, all this to go help you for your patients and everything that you have going on. But at the end of the day, what about you? From me and my standpoint, I’ve seen people with mutated bodies. I have seen all kinds of things. You’re seeing the exact same thing that I’ve seen when I was in combat. What is your mental state? Where are you really at? because people are not going to ask you those questions because they looking at you because of the title that you have. And the only person who probably will ask you that question, probably your wife or your significant other. But this is also a time where you need to step back to, me. When I’m sitting at these different levels that I was at, the only person I could talk to was my boss, who was a three star or two star or whatever, or my counterpart saw it, majors. And that’s when I could really have a conversation with them. And of them, it was only two or three that I said was in my inner circle, that I could talk about me. So what I would tell everybody that’s, listen, no matter what profession you’re in, you got to have you two or three people that’s going to tell you that you’re walking around with your pants down. And if you don’t have that, then you’re doing yourself a disservice, because you might think you’re okay and you’re not. And m that’s what I had in my corner at all times. And everybody saying, hey, you’re in charge of 50,000 people. Ain’t nothing wrong with you. You got it made. but that does not mean that you get to see, because of what you see every day, it does have an effect. And what are you doing about it? Exactly.

Dr. Chris Myers: That’s great advice. And you know what? I think we’re going to end it on there. You can’t come to any better advice than that. So, sergeant major command. Sergeant Major Mitch.

CSM Edward Mitchell: Yeah.

Dr. Chris Myers: It’s always a pleasure to be able to talk with you, and thank you so much for imparting some leadership insights to our young, medical professionals. is there any way that if anyone has any questions, they could reach out to you?

CSM Edward Mitchell: Oh, absolutely. if you can you can reach out to me, you can email, you can email me. And I will have Chris make sure he can put the email to your block ticket. Okay, great. And it can be on anything you want to talk about on leadership side or just about the military as a whole. So I’m here.

Dr. Chris Myers: Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Mitch, everyone. You have a great day. I hope you enjoyed this episode.