Strengthening Warriors Through Science: The Valkyrie Project’s Data-Driven Approach to Tactical Fitness

Meg Tucker began her military career as an Army Kiowa Warrior pilot. After the aircraft was retired from service, she was selected for Army Special Operations as a Psychological Operations officer. Throughout her career, Meg held roles across conventional, Joint, and Special Operations Forces in South Korea, El Salvador, and Syria, ultimately leaving the Army as a Major in 2023. Meg is the founder of The Valkyrie Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing American servicewomen through research, education, and advocacy.

What inspired you to start The Valkyrie Project?

I started VP as an LLC in 2018 because, although the Combat Exclusion Rule had been lifted, the organic Special Operations human performance support I had did not have any knowledge or willingness to incorporate women’s factors or customize my programming. I wanted there to be a bridge between the gritty women seeking gritty jobs, and the necessary fitness to get there. We expanded the mission and converted to a nonprofit in 2023 to meet other glaring needs of American servicewomen.

How do you define success in fulfilling your mission to empower female service members?

We will have worked ourselves out of a job when: women get research-based, sex-specific human performance training and nutrition coaching, when sex-specific medicine is organic and integrated into healthcare teams, when women are issued safety and MOS gear that is made for women, when antiquated ideas about women’s military service have died, and when women are not barred from professional success based on sexism and bias.

Female service members face unique physical and operational challenges. How does your Tactical Training Program specifically address these needs?

Our program is built around a menstrual cycle paradigm. Each eight-week block has two weeks of follicular training, for when our bodies are more likely to produce higher performance benchmarks. During this period, we do close to max-effort lifts, lactic and anaerobic work, and more arduous, explosive tasks. During the luteal period, when women tend to experience premenstrual symptoms, have less favorable physiological markers (lower heart rate variability and higher core temperature), and tend to display less capacity for high-intensity work, we do more steady-state work, with lower weight and higher repetitions. Though our program is built around a menstrual cycle, women on birth control also benefit from it because an intuitive deload is built in with the rest of the work.

The program emphasizes evidence-based, phased training tailored to female biology. Can you share more about how this approach sets your training apart from traditional military fitness programs?

Most fitness programs in the military are currently led by untrained or minimally trained male noncommissioned officers. The issues with this are (a) lack of foundational training and experience in overall human performance for men and women, (b) lack of understanding and ability to empathize with and program around individual factors, like injury, extreme premenstrual or menstrual symptoms, physiological differences in different life courses across the sexes (perimenopause), etc. Some units have better performance support in teams like Army H2F (holistic health and fitness), but these teams often lack training in women-specific protocols or women practitioners.

The program offers a wide variety of movement from weightlifting to gymnastics to functional odd-object training. How do these exercises prepare women for the physical demands of military schools and operational roles?

We focus predominantly on the needs of tactical athletes. In our experience, all military women need the ability to sustain aerobic work, carry odd objects, maintain a strong core, and move their body weight in a functional and agile way. Our Green track has a higher volume of these types of movements to better prepare women for arduous courses. We do not typically do popular “functional fitness” movements like snatches, muscle-ups, handstand work, etc, because it is not functionally needed for military women.

The Air Force contributed to the development of specialized body armor designed for female service members to reduce injuries. How does your work assist in injury prevention and promote career longevity?

Injury prevention remains a hotly debated topic in the human performance realm. Some claim to be able to prevent injury, others say it’s impossible. We believe that being human means being susceptible to injury to some degree or another, and contributing factors can be numerous and varied. But generally, bodies that are strong in broad ranges of motion rebound from injury faster and survive physical duress or accidents better. We think female tactical athletes wearing gear made for men is likely a huge contributor to injury (and we’re currently working to research this issue through a pilot study). However, when women have no option for female-fit gear, we do the best we can to make a strong chassis. This involves moving joints like the hip and shoulder through various ranges and loads to improve stability and strength. We are also undulating progression in lieu of linear progression to avoid injury from an excessive increase in load and volume, which is a technique the National Olympic Committee supports in its position statement.

The program also includes interactive forums and mentorship opportunities. How do these community aspects contribute to participants’ long-term success?

Athletes have free access to our experts and coaches for support. We discuss a range of topics in the forum, from menstrual support to mental techniques for success in assessment and selection courses, to adjusting daily workouts to accommodate injury or lack of certain equipment.

The military is grappling with a worsening recruitment crisis and concerns over declining discipline and military values. How can initiatives like your Tactical Training Program contribute to addressing broader challenges, and what strategies should the military and organizations adopt to make military careers more appealing and sustainable for women?

VP believes that the DoD not investing in women is the biggest opportunity cost the military is currently making. Reallocating some defense funds from technology and using it to research FTAs, train human performance teams on women, buy female-specific kit, and bolstering Tricare to treat women with in-house resources would make gargantuan steps in solving this crisis. Women who feel good, perform well, have sufficient family support and advance in their careers do not tend to quit. Yet, military women leave at a 28% faster rate than male counterparts after a few years. Investing in women means making them more lethal, more ready, more likely to stay in uniform, and more likely to bring in more recruits by word of mouth.

Visit the Valkyrie Project website for more information about their upcoming Military Women's Symposium.