TOP STORY>>Vital 90: A fitness community

By Jeffery Vaughn
19th Aerospace Medicine Squadron

I’ve worked in the health and fitness industry for more than 18 years and have only recently discovered the most important component of great health. It has nothing to do with the perfect exercise routine or even the perfect diet. No pill exists providing the mental and physical health restoration of community and relationships.

In 2010 the 19th Airlift Wing leadership came to me with a request: develop a fitness improvement program that will help Airmen pass their physical training test. At the time, the Air Force fitness philosophy was making a huge shift and the PT failure rate was at an all-time high. Out of this request the Vital 90 program was born.

In the early stages of development it was a typical Air Force physical training program or “fat boy” program. Airmen would fail their PT tests, we would train them for 90 days, they would pass their PT tests and I wouldn’t see them again until they failed 6 months later. In late 2011, we decided to open the program to everyone. This is when I started seeing a shift.

Fit people started attending and almost instantly the negative connotation was gone from the program. It was no longer called a “fat boy” program. It was a fitness program period. The fit crowd pushed each other, and as a result, they started pushing Airmen struggling with fitness to new levels. Spouses, civilians and retirees started attending, and Vital 90 officially became a community.

Over the past three years the Health and Wellness Center team worked hard to foster community as much as fitness, and I have watched people grow in amazing ways.

I have watched people with a pack-a-day smoking habit quit, watched people battling depression overcome it, watched people who struggled with weight issues their whole life lose weight and keep it off long term, and watched people who told me they could not exercise due to back pain drag a 95-pound sled 50 yards as the class cheered them on.

Vital 90 is a community with no rank structure or preconceived notions. Commanders and chiefs attend classes and team up with Airmen and spouses during workouts, so there is no rank, just hard work, competition and camaraderie.

Supervisors attend with subordinates, leading by example and showing younger Airmen they will never ask them to do anything they are not willing to do themselves. Husbands and wives attend together building stronger relationships with strength training and sweat. Chaplains attend on a regular basis. They bring compassion, caring and intensity, but most importantly they bring an attentive ear ready to listen.

The HAWC team takes great pride in the fitness and nutrition programming contributed to Vital 90. I have a tremendous staff that has immense talent. Their most important attribute, however, is the ability to foster a community and build relationships.

Vital 90 is a family of brothers and sisters who encourage one another and work hard together. It is a place where everyone belongs no matter who you are. Vital 90 maintains and restores health not through a fitness program but through the development of positive relationships that build people up first and then helps them get fit.

Recently, the Health and Wellness Center team won the Health Promotions Flight state level award during the Federal Executive Association of Arkansas’ Employee of the Year awards banquet. The team excelled in their fields and served as role models for other employees and Airmen to follow.