Why the Marine Corps needs Warrior Wellness Solutions

     I was honored to be interviewed by a Marine Corps Times reporter who is covering the Marine Corps’ Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force for a story on the Corps exploring the idea of installing Athletic Trainers in Infantry Battalions.  The impact of the task force findings could reverberate in Marine Corps culture for years.  Task force officials said the scientific assessment and the training workup gave more leaders the chance to see the value of treating troops as warrior-athletes who benefit from cutting-edge athletic training and workouts tailored to their jobs.
     To preface, for the last two decades as a health and wellness professional, I have dealt with injuries and surgeries sustained from my time serving in the US. Marine Corps, additionally I have lived with chronic neck and back pain from multiple automobile accidents.  The beginning of my career in health and wellness started in early 90’s as a young LCpl. stationed at Camp Lejeune.  I was entrenched in the one-dimensional training model of the “Pump and Grunt” Bodybuilding era and old school Marine Corps exercises.  I succumbed to the ego based training module in an attempt to “Get Big."  In a very short amount of time, I arrived at a physical rock bottom- suffering from sciatic nerve pain, neck pain, low back pain, and tendinitis in both arms.  As a result, I was forced to take a second look at my training methodologies.  After conducting intense due diligence of different training styles, I began to incorporate a Movement Prep, Functional Training, Breath Connected Stretching, Martial Arts, and Speed, Agility & Quickness.  Within a very short time, my issues fell by the wayside and I achieved pain free peak performance.  At the time, I had a basic personal fitness certification and a stack of books and manuals from various strength coaches and athletic trainers as my guide and was “Voluntold” to help Marines who had become “Fat Bodies” get back in shape.  My first “clients” were patrons of the Semper Fit gyms in French Creek and Area 2 on Mainside where I cut my teeth attempting to teach adjunct material beyond the Battalion 5 Mile Run, pull-ups, sit-ups, and pushups. I began by integrating core strength exercises, speed, agility, and quickness with Marines from various units to include 2nd Anglico and 2nd Force Recon Company using the French Creek Parade Deck.  Although I didn’t know it at the time, this would grow into a lifelong attempt to get various commands and units to see the value of treating troops as warrior-athletes who benefit from cutting-edge athletic training and workouts actually tailored to their jobs.
      In 1995 as I was getting my final physical in Okinawa, I was asked by the attending Navy Dr., “What’s wrong with you?” Like any hard-charging Marine who didn’t want to be labeled a Sick-Bay Commando and get stuck on med hold in Oki, I said “Nothing”.  Two weeks after I left active duty, I ended up in surgery at a VA hospital repairing torn muscles.  The surgery wasn’t performed properly and for two years I struggled with chronic pain and the classic VA pipeline that some of us know all to well.  Through self-exploration, good mentorship, and thousands of hours of continuing education, my passion has evolved beyond those beginnings to be mostly in the workspace of pre/post deployment resiliency and rehabilitation.  Fueled by my own experience, our nonprofit Warrior Wellness Solutions was founded in 2009, giving our team the honor of working with thousands of Wounded, Ill, and Injured veterans, service members, and their caregivers.  It has also allowed us to experience a front row seat to the thousands of compression based injuries resulting from a weak posterior chain, bad posture, improper load carriage, overtraining, and an overemphasis on movements in the sagittal plane.
     Installing professional Athletic Trainers in Infantry Battalions is a good start, and I would advise on making sure those that are hired have true cultural competence of the Marine Corps.  Athletic Trainers should deliver a program of balanced functional strength, utilizing multi-planar movements within the pillars of human movement, and education on Corrective Exercise, Myofacial Meridians, and Mobility.   Additionally, they should educate Marines on the fact that overtraining increases cortisol and lowers testosterone.  Training without learning how to maintain structural integrity and breathe properly is a failed equation.  With that said, Athletic Trainers are only one side of the equation, with most of them not understanding holistic nutrition, mind-body modalities, or decompressing the body through the system of Foundation Training.  In the words of Foundation Training creator Dr. Eric Goodman, “I don’t care how strong an athlete you are, if you take the time to master Foundation Training and include it among your existing training program your athletic ability, strength and poise will improve dramatically.”
     If I was Commandant, the modern Marine Corps would have all NCOs and SNCOs go through a school much like the MCMAP certification where they would be educated by Integrative Nutrition Health Coaches.   Monthly Periods of Instruction on Functional Wellness, Adaptive Field Nutrition, SuperFoods and Nutrient Density for Resiliency, Performance and Tissue Repair with Mindful Yoga Therapy programming would be taught to mitigate symptoms of PTS, and they would have a working knowledge of the Brain-Gut Connection, how to Detox, and balance hormones.  Additionally, I would install Foundation Training Instructors at the Battalion level where Marines would learn how to strengthen the posterior chain, improve posture, increase core strength, and empower their own bodies and minds through Decompression Breathing, Anchoring, and Integration.
     "If we are to stay true to our credo of Semper Fidelis, we would empower every Marine from MARSOC CSOs to Marines in care at Wounded Warrior Regiment with a complete set up tools for their Warrior Wellness Solutions toolbox during their enlistment and beyond.  At Warrior Wellness Solutions, we use our curriculum to empower our clients to PREHAB in addition to REHAB, and deliver the education to work IN, not just work OUT."



Semper Fi 
Elijah Sacra
www.WarriorWellnessSolutions.org 
www.ElijahSacra.com/mille-programs/4578132079 

My thoughts/quotes in the article should be as follows…..
 “Compression-based injuries are a common issue among even today's all-male infantry units, and underscore the need for professional trainers who understand how to anchor and decompress the body through breath, strengthen the core and posterior chain, and improve posture. The Combat Fitness Test and the Physical Fitness Test do nothing to mitigate the hours and weeks wearing a pack. Marines need instructors who understand how to develop all planes of motion and pillars of movement. You must perform functional movements that entertain all of the ways your body moves. Typical military physical training delivered by the Company Gunny is usually stuck in the dark ages, and often only occurs in one plane where you're not doing any back bending, rotation or lateral work.  Beyond athletic trainers, the modern warrior athlete should have training in mind body modalities, and nutrition.   If they don't know how to maintain structural integrity, breathe properly, or how to fuel their system with nutrients, the training won't be as effective and will leave Marines injured at the end of their enlistment", said Elijah Sacra, a Marine veteran and founder of the nonprofit Warrior Wellness Solutions.

Read the full article here: 
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/05/27/marines-infantry-experiment-creates-stornger-total-force/27643193/