Back in the early 1990s while in the Air Force, I got hyped up and went to maximum fitness routines (running a hundred miles a month was the norm for me). As the months rolled by...I started to have joint and feet problems. The Air Force brought in a sports doctor to the base (they were starting to notice a wide variety of sport injuries). So she examined my running shoes and said in a blunt way...I’d have to upgrade and spend more money on the shoes, and retire them about every three to four months. This meant going from $60 jogging shoes once a year.....to $100 shoes every quarter. She was correct, and my issues decreased, but it was a thorn in my budget.
I suspect when you sit down and analyze the injuries that the Army talks about....these are all things that you could resolve and correct early on, if you had trainers in the gym and going over people’s routines.
My suspicion is that once you throw out the age standings, and have just one goal for folks...you will have more folks in their mid-30s who are going to be given a medical discharge and get a pension deal because of injuries. Maybe that wasn’t the intent, but it’ll be the result.
In the mid 70’s I was in a second hitch with the 3/4 Cav, 25th ID in Hawaii. We’d run 5 miles a day, 5 days a week, of which half was generally up an incline. We wore standard issue combat boots. Roughly a hundred of us or so ran in formation. Out of that hundred, maybe 2 or 3 per year had knee or some other sort of joint issues.
A good pair of shoes is good for about 400 miles, that’s the rule of thumb.
I like the idea of treating soldiers as athletes; if they follow through with actual coaching and training it could be good for everyone.
At 57 I’ve started doing the run/walk program. 30 seconds running (at a good clip) 30 seconds walking. It’s counter-intuitive but I actually go FASTER now, longer distances and with much much less pain; I was totally skeptical, too, but a good friend did his first half-marathon at 61, so explored and darned if it doesn’t work ‘Galloway’ running...