HUMAN PERFORMANCE CELL

Welcome to the inaugural Army News human performance article. The aim is to have a monthly article informing and educating our military personnel (uniformed and civilian) on different aspects of human performance. A Q&A section will be included with each article where personnel can engage with us and send questions regarding human performance.

What is the Human Performance Cell (HPC)?

The Human Performance Cell (HPC) is made up of a small group of uniformed human performance science practitioners specialising in the optimization of human performance. The cell is part of the Joint Support Group (JSG) and provide a wide range of services relating to human performance including: research and development, resource creation, education, advice to units, staff training, physical fitness assessments and monitoring, and more.

What is human performance?

The physical fitness and health (i.e. human performance) of our service men and women (sailors, soldiers, aviators) are essential and critical components of operational readiness. Military personnel must have a higher degree of fitness and health than the general New Zealand population to function in complex and demanding environments, where strength and endurance could be the difference between success and failure of an operation. Basically, our personnel must be physically fit, healthy, employable and deployable.

Human Performance is defined as; The ability of all service men and women to physically perform their military duty from entry into service to exit without suffering any undue physiological stress, musculoskeletal injury or psychological harm.

To achieve this, a higher than average standard of physical fitness is required.

Human performance focuses on optimising the role-specific capabilities of our service men and women, by focusing on the performance triad of: physical activity, nutrition and recovery. There is a well-established link between a soldier’s physical health and their human performance capabilities – soldiers perform best when they are in good health. A big focus in human performance is to prevent and reduce the risks of illness and injury before they happen, being proactive towards health rather than reactive.

Questions from soldiers

We encourage all personnel to send any questions they have regarding human performance to: HumanPerformance@nzdf.mil.nz.