This article is from the perspective of the Battalion Commander, 1st Tank Battalion, in an effort to share with other TSAC-F what did and did not work while implementing the Marine Corps’ Force Fitness program.

The purpose of this article is to discuss caffeine use in tactical populations and provide recommendations for responsible consumption.

Those who are in key decision-making positions should understand the importance of proper research, validation, and implementation procedures when developing physical fitness standards.

Military and law enforcement needs analyses are not specifically matched to firefighting, but those training styles are better than basic fitness regimens or no regimen at all. For firefighters who are attracted to other styles of training not specific to firefighting, there are ways to train for all the demands of firefighting without making the firefighter use training modalities that they dislike or are not comfortable using.

The path to actual integration of mental and physical training for the tactical athlete is paved with growing empiricism. The current challenge is to sustain creative development of functional approaches and demonstrate that integration can deliver potential benefits.

This article provides methods used by tactical facilitators, related research articles, and professional interviews to demonstrate how physical conditioning facilitates the transition from practice to duty for service members, including law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel.

This article recommends how to split the responsibilities of planning and executing the platoon physical training formation from the company commander’s echelon to the individual soldier level.

This article is part of a continuing series on practical, evidence-based approaches to reducing the risk of injury while developing tactical strength and conditioning.