In a significant shift in its approach to soldier readiness, the U.S. Army has announced it will eliminate certified athletic trainers from its Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) teams and instead rely more heavily on strength coaches and specially trained medics to address fitness-related injuries.
The move, which affects units across the Army, is driven by logistical and administrative constraints, but military leaders say it is part of a broader mission to create a “fitter, stronger Army.”
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Mingus confirmed the decision during a recent event hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C., noting that while athletic trainers played a key role in injury prevention and rehabilitation, the Army aims to streamline and control its fitness programs internally.
“We will not have arrived until we have a no-neck Army,” Mingus joked. “Everybody in the Army, their traps are going to go from the base of their head right down to their neck.”
Here's What They're Not Telling You About Your Retirement
Previously, each H2F team embedded with brigade-sized units included four athletic trainers and seven strength and conditioning coaches. Moving forward, the Army will shift to a configuration of 11 strength coaches and no athletic trainers.
These changes follow years of data collection and pilot testing of the H2F program, which has shown notable success in improving soldier performance and reducing injuries.
Athletic trainers, who are civilian medical professionals trained in preventing and treating exercise-related injuries, fall under the jurisdiction of the Defense Health Agency (DHA).
This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year
This arrangement presented an administrative challenge.
“If you’re in the health providing business, you have to be credentialed, licensed and overseen by DHA, which is outside the Army’s control,” Mingus explained.
“We wanted to keep this as an Army program. We wanted to be able to control our teams and how they interact.”
In the absence of athletic trainers, the Army plans to train medics already embedded within platoons to identify and treat common fitness injuries.
“We just need to train them on how to identify and be able to do some of that treatment there,” Mingus said, emphasizing that each unit already includes medical personnel who support daily training activities.
The H2F initiative, launched in 2017, represents a cultural transformation in the Army’s approach to readiness.
It goes beyond traditional physical training by focusing on total soldier wellness—mental health, nutrition, sleep, and injury prevention.
As part of the program, specialized teams were embedded directly into Army formations to provide immediate access to fitness and health professionals without requiring soldiers to visit external medical facilities.
Despite the loss of athletic trainers, H2F continues to demonstrate compelling results.
According to Army data, units participating in the program have seen a 14% decrease in musculoskeletal injuries, a 23% increase in Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) pass rates, and a 27% rise in the number of soldiers qualifying as rifle marksmanship experts.
The strength coaches who remain in the program focus on building customized training plans and ensuring soldiers use proper technique. However, they are not medically certified to treat injuries, which makes the integration of medics even more critical.
“It’s just a slightly different pairing,” Mingus told reporters.
“Your medic, your battalion surgeon, your brigade surgeon — there are [occupational therapists] within a division, they need to come in and perform those functions with the strength and conditioning coach.”
The Army has already outfitted 20 of its maneuver formations with full H2F teams and plans to expand to all 111 active duty brigades by the end of fiscal year 2027.
Pilot teams in National Guard and Reserve units are also helping refine the program’s structure in part-time force settings. In those cases, soldiers may access experts virtually or through centralized locations.
“It is absolutely here to stay,” Mingus said.
“The optimized human component of how you fight is actually, I think, more important than anything else that we will do. Fitter people are hard to kill. That’s just fact.”
Beyond measurable physical improvements, the H2F program is also delivering more subtle, but powerful, impacts.
According to Mingus, the Army has seen a 22% decrease in behavioral health incidents and an astonishing 502% reduction in substance abuse profiles in units with access to H2F support.
Financially, each H2F team costs about $3 million to establish and $2.5 million to sustain annually. However, the Army projects that this investment pays for itself in long-term savings.
“Think about the number of NCOs and senior officers that retire and their quality of life is just crap,” Mingus said.
“We owe that to our troopers that are out there — that if you want to commit to 20, 30, whatever number of years, you ought to know that you’re going to go into your next life with a pretty decent quality of life.”
With the restructuring of H2F teams, the Army is betting that greater control, integrated support, and continued investment will ensure soldiers not only perform better in the field—but also live healthier lives long after they hang up their uniforms.
Join the Discussion
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.