NMCSD's Sailors Stay Ship Shape

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Sailors assigned to Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) participated in a three-day fitness workshop Feb. 25 to 27, conducted by the Health and Wellness department to help them stay mission ready year-round as well as prepare them for the upcoming physical readiness test (PRT).

"This program [was] started for the simple reason of [providing] health education to active duty members, educating them about the resources we provide at the Health and Wellness department," said NMCSD's Command Fitness Leader, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Aubrey Matthews.

During the workshop, Sailors learned about the different services Health and Wellness offers, including nutrition and smoking cessation.

Matthews also imparted valuable advice.

"They need to take away three main principles: fitness does not have to be long, grueling, and boring; nutrition is over half the battle to improving weight loss and health fitness enhancement; and recovery is very important (if not equally important) as your workout-make sure you add a stretching regimen to your workout routine," said Matthews.

Fostering an environment of healthy choices and physical well-being is vital to the military and Navy Medicine, said NMCSD Command Master Chief Yenhung Duberek.

"Our main mission at the hospital is to have a ready medical force that can prosecute any contingency that [the] government of this great nation needs us to do."

This year's workshop-NMCSD's third-was to focus more about the services provided by the Health and Wellness department.

"Last year during our first workshop we incorporated a lot local partners [and] outside entities, such as people [who] organize 5k runs and things like that, but this year we are working closely with our on-base population to bring it back to the base to let people know services we offer here at the hospital," said NMCSD's Command Fitness Leader, Chief Hospital Corpsman Dempsey L. Tomblin.

Participating in the workshop was also a way for Sailors to help their shipmates.

"I loved being part of this class. I love PT (physical training) anyway; I wanted to see if they had any new tools to keep me motivated. It hit a lot of key things, [like] different ways to help motivate shipmates [and] help them meet PT goals," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Octavius Smith, workshop participant and NMCSD staff member.

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Justin Reiter, Health and Wellness department's leading petty officer, commended his Sailors' dedication to healthy lifestyles.

"This department contains some of the most motivated Sailors I have ever served with. They tirelessly work on developing creative measure in an effort to install a culture of fitness here at NMCSD."

For more news from Naval Medical Center San Diego, visit www.navy.mil/local/sd/.