2024 Human Performance Optimization Summit on Georgia Southern’s Armstrong Campus provides holistic health and fitness education for military, tactical athletes
Active duty military members, civilian providers for the military and tactical athletes joined acclaimed leaders for the 2024 Human Performance Optimization (HPO) Summit, recently held on Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah.
“Georgia Southern University has long been involved with the tactical athlete community with multiple programs working with military, firefighters and law enforcement,” said Waters College of Health Professions Dean Whitney Nash, Ph.D. “One of our military initiatives has been to establish two different educational models aimed at teaching soldiers different injury prevention topics.”
Keynote speakers included MG Shane Buzza, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Forces Command, and retired Col. Kevin Bigelman, who currently serves as the deputy director of the Holistic and Health Fitness (H2F) program at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
MG Buzza, who has almost 40 years of military leadership and physical therapy experience, presented how to integrate the many facets of human performance into the way individuals can lead and provide health care. Retired Col. Bigelman showcased a synopsis of the H2F program and highlighted how Georgia Southern’s HPO Conference closely aligns with the Army’s H2F initiative.
The summit included 25 speakers who also featured Kelly Starrett, DPT, author of two New York Times bestselling books and co-founder of The Ready State. Starrett is an expert in movement, mobility, recovery and musculoskeletal self-care who consults with athletes and coaches from the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, the U.S. Olympic Team and CrossFit. He also works with elite Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard forces, and consults with corporations on employee health and well-being. At the conference, Starrett led a lab-based presentation, challenging the participants in the limits of their mobility while simultaneously explaining how to improve movement, recovery and self-care.
“The Student Union ballrooms were full of leaders in their respective fields,” said Nancy Henderson, Ph.D., DPT, and assistant professor in Georgia Southern’s Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program. “Participants soaked up the expert wisdom from leaders in all facets of military operation and health care support who discussed many topics, including strength and conditioning, nutrition, sleep hygiene, mental and spiritual readiness and mobility and movement, among other subjects.”
In its second year, the 2024 conference experienced a 30% increase from last year’s participation.
“We cannot wait to welcome even more next year,” continued Henderson.
Georgia Southern’s Soldier Athlete Human Performance Optimization program is the in-person educational model that began in 2016. The intent of the program is to facilitate Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students as force multipliers to teach educational classes to soldiers.
A partnership was formed in 2016 between the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart and the University which has allowed DPT students to educate numerous soldiers on various topics related to injury prevention.
Georgia Southern’s Tactical Athlete Certificate is a fully online educational model that was developed in 2021 to provide soldiers with injury prevention education via three college courses, each condensed into a three-week time frame. The intent of both educational models is to better educate soldiers on how to develop evidence-based physical training programs to improve physical readiness while minimizing injury risk.
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