National Fitness in the Barracks | Viewing Military Physical Training Through the Lens of "National Fitness Day"
National fitness is an important cornerstone of building a Healthy China. On the occasion of the 18th "National Fitness Day," the Military Sports page has invited two military training medicine experts to discuss the following question: how to effectively prevent training injuries during high-intensity training and improve the quality and effectiveness of military physical training. At the same time, the column "National Fitness in the Barracks" is officially making its debut. This column focuses on nationally recognized advanced collectives and individuals in mass sports, showcasing vivid accounts of officers and soldiers striving for martial excellence and enhanced capabilities, and injecting healthy momentum into the camouflage-clad barracks.
— The Editors
Viewing Military Physical Training Through the Lens of "National Fitness Day"
■ PLA Daily Reporter Sun Xingwei
Recently, the State Council issued the National Fitness Plan (2026–2030), which for the first time dedicates a special chapter to explicitly setting out normative requirements for the integration of physical exercise and health protection (体卫融合), intelligent enablement (智能赋能), scientific guidance, and safety management and control. What insights can this national-level "roadmap" for scientific fitness offer for military sports training at the grassroots level?
In this issue, we have invited Professor Qin Yongsheng and Associate Professor Wang Daning from the Military Training Medicine Teaching and Research Section of the Armed Police Logistical College to discuss, in connection with the revision of the Military Sports Training Syllabus (《军事体育训练大纲》), how to conduct physical fitness training scientifically and prevent training injuries.
Reporter: The National Fitness Plan (2026–2030) issued by the State Council places particular emphasis on "the integration of physical exercise and health protection" and "scientific guidance." From a professional standpoint, what reference value does this document hold for physical fitness training in the armed forces?
Qin Yongsheng: I believe the primary value lies in a shift in thinking. During my grassroots research, I found that certain units still exhibit the phenomena of "one plan trains everyone" and "setting training loads based on experience." The essence of these phenomena is a problem in understanding sports training science, exercise biochemistry, exercise physiology, and related fields. Physical fitness training must respect science — what to train, how much to train, and how to recover: every step must have a scientific basis. The National Fitness Plan's emphasis on "scientific guidance" offers us the insight that training must be built on data, standards, and evidence-based foundations, not on feelings and experience.
Reporter: How to prevent training injuries is a question of widespread concern among officers and soldiers. From the perspective of sports medicine, how can this be scientifically and effectively controlled and prevented?
Qin Yongsheng: First, a mistaken notion must be corrected: "training injuries are caused by training too much." Looking at the chronic injuries that are common in grassroots units, training injuries are mostly caused by "training incorrectly." The occurrence of training injuries follows a basic rule: when the training load exceeds the tissue's repair capacity and micro-injuries accumulate beyond a critical threshold, they develop into injury and illness. Therefore, the key to injury and illness prevention and control is not to reduce training volume, but to match the training load with recovery.
We once conducted a controlled study on different training methods and found that, under the same training volume, the levels of muscle injury biomarkers produced by scientifically organized training methods were significantly lower than those produced by experience-based training methods. This shows that "how you train" matters more.
Reporter: Some comrades have a tendency to "prioritize training and neglect recovery." What role does recovery play in physical fitness training?
Wang Daning: Our research group conducted a study comparing the effects of two recovery methods on training outcomes: one was active recovery (continuing low-intensity activity during training intervals) and the other was passive recovery (complete rest during training intervals). The results showed that in high-intensity sprint interval training, active recovery was more effective at improving training outcomes, helping officers and soldiers maintain better athletic performance in the latter half of the session.
In terms of day-to-day training specifically, I recommend performing cool-down activities promptly for 15 to 20 minutes after training — such as slow jogging combined with static stretching — to help muscles recover their extensibility. On the day following high-intensity training, low-intensity recovery training can be arranged; do not conduct consecutive high-intensity, high-load training sessions, and leave the body sufficient time for repair. Pay attention to the body's signals: for example, if the morning resting heart rate is noticeably higher than usual, this may indicate accumulated fatigue, and the intensity and load of that day's training should be adjusted accordingly.
Reporter: The National Fitness Plan (2026–2030) emphasizes "intelligent enablement." How can this be achieved in physical fitness training?
Qin Yongsheng: Intelligentization (智能化) addresses the problem of precise control. Traditional training organization methods rely on "reading faces" and "asking how people feel" to judge load, which involves considerable error. Smart devices can collect metrics such as heart rate, blood oxygen, and fatigue index, helping training organizers grasp the true condition of participating officers and soldiers.
Of course, conditions vary across grassroots units, and action should not wait until all relevant equipment is in place. The most fundamental form of "intelligence" is to establish individual physical fitness records for each soldier — recording training content, physical responses, and injury and illness situations — and using data to guide training decisions.
Reporter: The newly revised Military Sports Training Syllabus introduces the concept of "combat physical fitness" (战斗体能) and has specifically developed a supplementary exercise system to accompany it. What is the significance of this?
Wang Daning: The Military Sports Training Syllabus's introduction of "combat physical fitness" places greater emphasis on aligning physical fitness training with actual combat requirements. The accompanying supplementary exercise system is precisely the concrete implementation of the "integration of physical exercise and health protection" concept within military sports training. The supplementary exercise system constructs a physical fitness improvement pathway of "activation, regression, progression, and breakthrough" (激活、退阶、进阶、突破). To use an analogy: if a soldier cannot perform a standard pull-up, they can use resistance bands to assist with "regression" training; once they meet the standard, they "progress" to weighted pull-ups; in the "breakthrough" phase, they then challenge even greater difficulty. Every step has a corresponding supplementary exercise to ensure the body does not "skip grades" in its adaptation. It is like climbing stairs — going up one step at a time will not cause a fall, but trying to skip several steps at once makes it easy to twist an ankle.
Reporter: What can military physical training cadre learn from the National Fitness Plan (2026–2030)?
Wang Daning: The field of national fitness has many results worth drawing on — for example, differentiated fitness programs and the concept of functional training already have mature practical experience. Military physical training cadre should read more, learn more, and practice more, continuously improving their own professional competence. A cadre team that understands science is a reliable guarantee for scientifically organized training.
Reporter: Can you offer some actionable recommendations for military physical training cadre?
Qin Yongsheng: I will share a few methods that are easy to implement and yield good results.
Before training, "activation" is essential — running alone cannot substitute for warm-up activities. Some comrades feel that jogging a couple of laps is sufficient for warming up; in fact, it is not. Before high-intensity training, soldiers must also perform muscle activation exercises — bringing the primary muscle groups involved in the specialized movement into a working state in advance. For example, before training on the 400-meter obstacle course, first perform planks, glute bridges, and frog jumps to activate the core muscle groups and leg muscle groups. Training without muscle activation significantly increases the risk of injury.
Stretching is necessary after training, but more pain does not mean more effectiveness. Some soldiers believe that stretching is only effective when it produces pain — this is a misconception. When muscles feel pain, they enter a self-protective "shortening" state; forcibly stretching at this point is not only ineffective but may also cause injury. Correct static stretching should produce a feeling of soreness and distension in the muscles but not excessive pain.
Strength training requires attention to method. When conducting strength training, soldiers must distinguish between different forms of muscle contraction and cannot simply repeat movements blindly, piling up numbers indiscriminately. For the pull-up event specifically, I have summarized a "1683" training method from practice: take 1 to 2 seconds to pull up to the bar, take 4 to 6 seconds to lower slowly, perform 8 maximum-effort repetitions, and repeat for 3 to 4 sets. The essence of this method is to develop strength by utilizing eccentric muscle contraction (肌肉离心收缩), and it is highly effective for improving pull-up performance.
Scientific training is not about blindly piling on volume, nor about recklessly ramping up intensity, but about using technological enablement to make training more precise and more efficient — rapidly improving military physical skills without sustaining injury. It is recommended that grassroots units "bring in" more scientific training methods to the training ground, so that physical fitness training — this "required course" — is conducted with greater precision, greater safety, and greater efficiency.