In 2011, The Joint Chiefs of Staff first announced a Total Force Fitness (TFF) framework and the Department of Defense (DoD) issued more guidance in DoD Instruction 1010.10, which was updated in May 2022. Throughout the past decade, the Marine Corps has applied the TFF framework to support and nurture the health, wellness, and performance of the Marine Corps Community. The framework has been a positive force in all branches of the military.
To further build upon TFF, the Marine Corps adopted a Total Fitness Strategic Plan in October 2023. Marine Corps Total Fitness (MCTF) builds upon TFF, with an emphasis on supporting and nurturing warfighter readiness, lethality, and resilience—the top priorities of the Marine Corps.
People are more important than hardware, and the well-being of Marines, family members, and communities fuels mission success. Optimal performance requires building, strengthening, and maintaining the four domains of fitness: physical, mental, spiritual, and social.
Physical Fitness: Marines can physically perform mission tasks, remain mission capable, and avoid injury. Physical fitness includes strength, agility, aerobic capacity, muscular endurance, and functional mobility. Nutrition, sleep, and overall recovery strategies are also critical.
Mental Fitness: Marines can strengthen their intellectual, emotional, and behavioral capacities. Mental fitness includes effectively navigating and adapting to the challenges of military life and service. Building individual and unit mental fitness can reduce the likelihood of impairment, mental injury, and illness. Social fitness and spiritual fitness are also required to achieve and maintain optimal mental fitness.
Spiritual Fitness: Marines can strengthen their spirituality by having social and cultural experiences, meeting and engaging with others, building relationships, interests, and hobbies, having a sense of belonging, and building problem-solving skills to assist in mission readiness and performance. Spiritual fitness includes beliefs and practices that strengthen connectedness with sources of hope, meaning, and purpose. Unit-level spiritual fitness increases unit cohesion and morale. Personal faith, foundational values, and moral living can also be drawn from a variety of different sources and traditions, including the Marine Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment, and upholding the character expected of a United States Marine.
Social Fitness. Marines can engage in productive personal and professional relationships, positively interact with unit and command networks, and leverage resources that promote overall well-being and optimal performance. At the individual level, social fitness is awareness of self and others, appreciation of and ability to effectively navigate cultural differences, a sense of responsibility, self-discipline, concern, and respect for others, understanding and awareness of the mission, and preparation for the challenges Marines and their families face. At the unit level, social fitness is cohesion, adaptability, mutual trust between Marines up and down the chain of command, and communication within the unit structure. Leadership, mentorship, and organizational culture play key roles in enhancing and sustaining social fitness. At the family level, social fitness includes positive and healthy relationships that form a support network.
The MCTF strategy focuses on physical, mental, spiritual, and social fitness, but Department of Defense Instruction 1010.10 also calls for keeping nutritional fitness, financial fitness, medical (and dental) preventive care, and environmental fitness on the radar, along with the critical factor of sleep.
Click here to learn more about Total Force Fitness, or visit here to take a quick inventory to see where you are in your Total Force Fitness journey.