
MOPs & MOEs
byMOPs & MOEs
HealthFitness
Changing the fitness culture of the force. Your one stop shop for all things fitness for tactical professionals.
Episodes(40 episodes)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Army Nutrition with MAJ Christina Deehl
Our guest this week recently published an opinion piece criticizing how the Army undermines its health and fitness efforts through the poor nutrition environments on its installations. We dive into that conversation, looking at both the problems with Army nutrition, and the many ways leaders are working to fix them.MAJ Christina Deehl is a Registered Dietitian from Army's Medical Center of Excellence where she works in the Directorate of Training and Doctrine. Her recent op ed stirred up a lot of conversation about the gap between what Army leads aspire to in the...
Published: Nov 2, 2025Duration: 1h 39m 57s
Strength vs Endurance (Strong Enough vs Long Enough)
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic. MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through TrainHeroic and you can get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.On this episode we revisit a popular debate, but with a few new angles. This is not a typical strength vs cardio conversation, since every...
Published: Oct 27, 2025Duration: 1h 19m 17s
Back Pain Follow Up with Brian Carroll
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic. MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through TrainHeroic and you can get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.This week we're back for round 2 with Brian Carroll. You should definitely go back and listen to our first episode with him before you dive into this one. </p...
Published: Oct 19, 2025Duration: 1h 30m 35s
Coaches' AAR: Crossover Episode
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic. MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through TrainHeroic and you can get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.This week's episode is a crossover with Ray and Travis over at Coaches' AAR. If you're in the tactical human performance space, they're m...
Published: Oct 12, 2025Duration: 1h 35m 17s
No Fatties, No Beardos: SECWAR's Address to the Troops
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic. MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through TrainHeroic and you can get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.On September 30th, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke to an audience of the US military's most senior leaders, announcing a swe...
Published: Oct 5, 2025Duration: 1h 6m 5s
H2F Medical Policy Updates
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic, the best coaching app on the planet. Click here to get 14 days FREE and a consult with the coaches at TrainHeroic to help you get your coaching business rolling on TrainHeroic. MOPs & MOEs delivers our training through TrainHeroic and you can get your first 7 days of training with us FREE by clicking here.To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.On this week's episode we're breaking down two recently released memos that establish guidelines for medical over...
Published: Sep 28, 2025Duration: 55m 17s
Submarine Human Performance with Commander William Spears
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.If you enjoy the discussion on stoicism, pre-order our guest's book now! On this week's episode we're diving deep (get it?) on an extremely unique corner of the military human performance world. Submariners operate in an environment unlike any other, and trying to maintain health and fitness under those conditions involves a variety of challenges. Our guest is uniquely qualified to provide insights about life in this world.Commander William Sp...
Published: Sep 21, 2025Duration: 1h 26m 15s
The Gift of Injury with Brian Carroll
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.Our guest for this episode was brought low by persistent back pain despite being one of the strongest people on the planet. But through his journey to find a solution for that pain, he found a new mission to help others avoid the mistakes he made in the past. His book, "The Gift of Injury: The Strength Athlete’s Guide To Recovering From Back Injury To Winning Again" co-written with Dr. Stuart McGill i...
Published: Sep 14, 2025Duration: 1h 48m 15s
The Marine Corps Body Bearers with Billy Lashley
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.Drew is on a side quest to dive into niche areas of military human performance, and this episode is extremely niche. A few episodes ago we mentioned the fitness test for the Marine Corps Body Bearers (which includes bench press, squat, barbell curls, and behind the neck overhead presses). We got some of the details wrong, and thanks to the our audience we were put in touch with a former bearer to set the record straight.<...
Published: Sep 7, 2025Duration: 1h 27m 57s
SMART Goals are Dumb with Dr. Christian Swann
On this week's episode we're tackling a topic we've been meaning to discuss for a long time: Despite being pervasive in both performance and medical spaces, SMART goals are no actually an evidence based way to change health and fitness behaviors. They may even, in some cases, be harmful.Our guest, Dr. Christian Swann, is a Professor of Psychology at Southern Cross University in Australia where he leads the Physical Activity, Sport and Exercise Research (PASER) group.Christian's background is in sport and exercise psychology, and his expertise is...
Published: Aug 31, 2025Duration: 1h 29m 36s
Personalized Training Plans (Research Review)
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.In this week's episode we're breaking down some recently published research. Specifically, "Personalized, Evidence-Informed Training Plans and Exercise Prescriptions for Performance, Fitness and Health" by Henning Wackerhage and Brad Schoenfeld. Up front, the article itself is an opinion piece, but it's based on an extensive review of the literature, and provides thorough citations. It's a useful article specifically because it synthesizes so much evidence into some practical guidelines for coaches.<...
Published: Aug 24, 2025Duration: 1h 12m 24s
Human Performance in ROTC with Mauri Dimeo
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.Find Tactical Alpinism on Instagram hereYou can find Mauri's podcast on Spotify or on Apple PodcastsWe recently had Mauri on to discuss his research on lactate threshold based training, but after he joined the conversation on our Discord we found out we missed an even more important topic. Fitness plays a huge role in ROTC cadets' ranking, and those rankings determine their choices of com...
Published: Aug 17, 2025Duration: 1h 32m 4s
The Presidential Fitness Test is Coming Back, What Does that Mean?
On July 31st President Trump signed an executive order re-establishing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition and directing the new council to develop a proposal on bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test. This test figures prominently in the childhood memories of many Americans, with pride for some and trauma for others. In this episode we break down the latest news within the decades of historical context that got us here. You can read "The Soft American" here (we consider it mandatory reading for MOPs & MOEs followers)<...
Published: Aug 10, 2025Duration: 1h 26m 16s
Part Time Warfighters, Full Time Performance with Mark Christiani
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.This episode includes a reference to this Defense Health Agency report that found that the more H2F resources provided for Reserve soldiers, the better results they saw.If you follow the MOPs & MOEs blog, you already know this week's guests from things like his 5 part series "The Other 28 Days" on how to implement human performance for part time service members or his "Maximizing Fitness Efficiency" piece on minimal eff...
Published: Aug 3, 2025Duration: 1h 38m 13s
News & FAQs: Joint Fitness Test, NDAA, Running Injuries, and more!
This week's episode we're answer a few audience questions, going through some military fitness news, and discussing some recently published research. It's a bit of rapid fire content, if you want a deeper dive on any of the individual topics, please let us know!Here's everything we discuss:Joint Fitness Test RumorsAir Force Fitness Test ChangesOccupationally Specific Fitness Test for EODMarine Corps Body Bearers PT StandardsUpdates on Athletic Trainer ContractsNDAA and Human Performance Funding<...
Published: Jul 27, 2025Duration: 1h 7m 49s
Lactate Threshold: Assessing Endurance for Tactical and Mountain Athletes with Mauri Dimeo
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.Find Tactical Alpinism on Instagram hereYou can find Mauri's podcast on Spotify or on Apple PodcastsYou can download a copy of Mauri’s thesis, “Relationship Between the Lactate Thresholds and Endurance Performance in Trained Runners” hereIn this episode we're returning to the topic of how mountain athletes and tactical athletes have similar fitness demands. Mauri is partic...
Published: Jul 20, 2025Duration: 1h 30m 41s
Navy Sports Medicine with CDR Kevin Bernstein, MD
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.A few weeks ago we mentioned that the Navy provides pilots with human performance resources, but it turns out we were wrong! A common complaint in that community is "I've been told my entire career that I'm an athlete, but I haven't been treated like one." Our guest this week is a Sports Medicine MD who is working on several initiatives to bring human performance resources to the fleet.We'll forgive him fo...
Published: Jul 13, 2025Duration: 1h 25m 49s
Nazareth Syndrome
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts standing by to answer your questions.This week's episode is just the two of us, and we're discussing a topic that we've referenced a few times on social media: Nazareth Syndrome. One of the simplest ways to explain this phenomenon is "nobody trusts the hometown kid." The origins of this idea are biblical (Jesus was rejected by his own community because to them he was just the carpenter they knew), but the applications are very practical. Ha...
Published: Jul 6, 2025Duration: 54m 44s
The Science of Human Performance: Part 3 with Dr. Rachele Pojednic
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts (including Rachele!) standing by to answer your questions.In the final part of this series we cover several topics we didn't get enough clarity on in the first two segments: an update on MAHA, Lifestyle Medicine, and how research could be better communicated.Rachele Pojednic, PhD, EdM, FACSM, is the Director of Scientific Research & Education at Restore Hyper Wellness, an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University and the Director of Education at Stanford Lifesty...
Published: Jun 29, 2025Duration: 1h 24m 47s
The Science of Human Performance: Part 2 with Dr. Rachele Pojednic
MOPs & MOEs is powered by TrainHeroic!To continue the conversation, join our Discord! We have experts (including Rachele!) standing by to answer your questions.In part 2 of this 3 part series we finally get to the primary topic we invited Rachele onto the podcast to talk about: the gap between human performance research and the practitioners who work to implement it every day. Some specific topics include the the state of human performance research, consumer trends, recovery modalities, supplements, and how all these things get funded....
Published: Jun 22, 2025Duration: 1h 11m 41s