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Performance Triad (P3) is the Army’s commitment to strengthen individual readiness, and optimize performance of the Total Army Family through the synergy of health behaviors to include sleep, activity, and nutrition. Combining and always enhancing the targets of P3 is an ongoing journey. Looking for ways to build in our daily lives while in garrison, in the field or on deployment. It applies to Family members, Soldiers for Life and our Sister Services. Leaders at all levels can show support by demonstrating, talking and sharing how you P3 your day? So, how do you P3 your day?
• Get 7 or more hours of sleep per 24-hour period
• Take short tactical naps when possible
• Supplement unit Pt with individual exercise for a total of 300+ minutes of aerobic activity and 3 strength sessions each week
• Mix the types of intensity of exercises to keep muscles challenged
• Include recovery days after hard workouts
• Eat at least 8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day
• Re-fuel 30-60 minutes after strenuous exercise
• Drink plenty of water every day
While each component of P3 is important, performance is optimized when you focus on all three areas together!
How does P3 enhance personal and unit readiness?
P3 supports and enables the responsibility of command teams to develop Soldiers with healthy minds and bodies, which are essential to individual and unit readiness. To maximize or enhance the resilience of our Soldiers requires a combination of mental, emotional, and physical skills to generate optimal performance (i.e., readiness) not only during combat, but also during healing after an injury, preventing injuries and in managing work and home life. The tenets of the P3 build resilience in all the ways one can be resilient by leveraging cognitive, emotional, and behavioral skills.
What are the objectives of P3?
Within military units, the overarching objectives of P3 are:
Develop a sustainable, unit-driven P3 health promotion and health readiness ethic that meets the needs of leaders, Soldiers and Families, Retirees, and DA Civilians; This initiative promotes and fosters healthy Sleep, Activity, and Nutrition through a multi-pronged and community approach.
Increase awareness and application of P3; empower leaders to promote healthy behavior within their formations.
Embed healthy Sleep, Activity and Nutrition behaviors into the Army’s DNA to improve personal readiness, optimize performance, and enhance health and wellness.
How is P3 promoted in a military setting?
For military units, P3 is a squad-leader led program for first line supervisors to coach, teach, and mentor the tenets of human performance optimization (HPO). Using counseling techniques, weekly competitions, and technology, P3 focuses on how sleep, activity, and nutrition can enhance physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, family, and social fitness.
Are there other components to P3 outside of the curriculum?
Yes. This initiative encompasses messaging, outreach, education, and collaborative partnerships that will maintain, restore, and improve the stamina, resiliency, and health of the Total Army Family. To affect and sustain behavioral change, P3 is a comprehensive, multi-component campaign that includes strategies such as risk factor screening, social support, and educational activities for Family members, Retirees, and Soldiers. Please see the information sheet titled “Optimizing Human Performance and Promotion Personal Readiness”. P3 uses the McKinsey Global Institutes’ model to create a holistic approach for behavior change that promotes personal health readiness.
Is P3 for the Total Army Family?
Yes. P3 has programs to influence Soldiers, Families and our beneficiary populations to increase their daily activity and improve their sleep, and enhance their nutrition behaviors—three key components that directly impact cognitive and physical performance and influence overall health. Healthy sleep, activity, and nutrition should be reinforced at home within each Army Family, where Soldiers and beneficiaries spend the majority of their time. P3 not only supports improved strength, endurance, power and physical performance, it seeks to support emotional and mental health and well-being. Families can benefit from improved performance—at school, at home, at work, and across the life space while also serving as a critical support system for Soldiers.
What partnerships will help ensure that P3 becomes part of the Army’s DNA?
P3 is a synergistic initiative that brings together the depth and breadth of the U.S. Army Public Health Center (APHC), U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC), U.S. Army Ready and Resilient Campaign HQDA-G1, Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence (MEDCoE), U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), and the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM). The people who have the greatest impact on Soldier behaviors do not reside in military hospitals and clinics—they are the unit leaders, mentors, and Family in the life space. The goal is to embed P3 in the DNA of the Army—sleep discipline, daily activity, and good nutritional decisions.
Ready. Resilient. Responsible. Healthy.
P3 enhances readiness by promoting sleep, physical activity, and nutrition; which optimizes physical fitness, cognitive dominance, and emotional resilience of the Total Army Family. Improving sleep, activity and nutrition behaviors will optimize human performance through individual and unit health readiness, performance, mental and physical well-being, and resilience of the Total Army Family.
The Professional Soldier Athlete is an unstoppable force and in the Army, our mission is not a game. Being ready, resilient and healthy are hallmarks of the Profession of Arms and characteristics of the Professional Soldier Athlete. We also remain indebted to the Army Family for all they do and for their vital influence on the health and readiness of Soldiers.
The intention of the Army Ready and Resilient campaign is to integrate and synchronize multiple Army-wide programs aimed at improving physical, psychological and emotional health. P3 is a key enabler of the campaign that promotes healthy lifestyle choices that combine the right amounts of sleep, activity, and nutrition to reach optimal performance.
We count on Army leaders to be the example of readiness and resilience to successfully accomplish the mission, every time. P3 requires leaders at all levels to be engaged both professionally and personally in health, and the health conversation. We know we are the greatest Army in the world; the challenge now is to be the healthiest Army as well. Army Strong!
Call to action!
The strength of our Army is our Soldiers. Soldiers are the most sophisticated and complex Army weapon system. As members of the Profession of Arms, Soldiers must be ready to defend our nation with optimal performance. Soldiers must be ready physically, cognitively, and emotionally. Soldiers, like professional athletes, must perform at very high levels every day. For Soldiers, more is on the line than winning or losing a game. The safety and security of an entire nation is at stake.
In addition to the obligation to lead, develop, train, and equip Soldiers, leaders need to inspire Soldiers to view themselves as tactical athletes. Soldiers who achieve the status of a Professional Soldier Athlete exude optimal personal readiness through physical, emotional, and cognitive prowess; optimal performance during sustained operations, have strong and healthy social, family, and spiritual support networks. Leaders that develop these tactical athletes make the greatest contribution to a Ready and Resilient Force.
The need to optimize human performance is even more important in the future as we push towards the squad as the foundation of the decisive force. You will be operating in more physically demanding environments, where physical, mental, or cognitive overmatch can serve as a single point of failure or success for military missions.
Sleep, activity, and nutrition provide a foundation for a fit and ready force. Further, the strength and resilience of the Total Army Family—Soldiers, DA Civilians, Retirees, and their Families—is vital to the success of the Army. Their influence on the health and readiness of the Soldiers should not be underestimated. The Performance Triad (P3) provides leaders, Soldiers, and the Total Army Family with the tools and knowledge to achieve high levels of performance to optimize Soldier and unit readiness.
