FAST · PROPOSED FUNCTIONAL ENDPOINTS

Can useful skill survive when conventional food does not?

Keeping muscle is only part of the question. FAST would also examine whether vigilance, judgment, learning, precision, movement, and controlled self-protection skills remain stable during medically governed severe energy restriction.

Planning-stage conceptNo participantsNo full-contact testingInvestigator and IRB review required

Explore the candidate battery Read the FAST hypothesis Submit scientific critique

MUSCLE IS NOT THE MISSION. CAPABILITY IS.

A person can still look strong while timing, judgment, balance, or accuracy is deteriorating.

Useful performance is a chain. Weakness anywhere in that chain changes the result.

See the cue→Choose correctly→Move efficiently→Execute precisely→Recover and repeat

A fast response to the wrong cue is still a bad decision.

Muscle can remain while judgment slips.

Strength is not skill. Speed is not accuracy.

The objective is not to prove toughness. It is to detect degradation.

CANDIDATE CORE BATTERY · NOT AN APPROVED PROTOCOL

Twenty core ways to measure whether capability is holding, learning, or degrading.

The final endpoints, sequence, intensity, schedule, equipment, and stop rules belong to qualified scientific, medical, and technical owners. These cards describe measurement concepts, not instructions for a self-experiment.

DOMAIN 01

Perception, attention, and judgment

Score correct decisions and errors—not speed alone.

01 · Vigilance

Unpredictable signal response

Use a validated computerized task. Track response time, lapses, false starts, accuracy, and within-session variability.

Candidate low-risk core

02 · Choice reaction

Choose before moving

Select the correct neutral response among randomized cues. Record correct-response time and wrong-choice rate together.

Candidate low-risk core

03 · Inhibitory control

Go / no-go

Move on designated cues and withhold movement on others. Commission and omission errors matter as much as speed.

Candidate low-risk core

04 · Anticipation

Video cue recognition

Classify prerecorded sport movements or neutral scenarios before the outcome is shown. Measure decision latency and accuracy.

Candidate low-risk core

DOMAIN 02

Motor learning and memory

Test whether a person can still acquire, retain, and correct a skill.

05 · Acquisition

Novel movement sequence

Teach an unfamiliar, noncontact footwork-and-pad sequence. Record trials to criterion, time, and sequence errors.

Candidate low-risk core

06 · Retention

Delayed sequence recall

Repeat the same sequence after a prespecified delay without another demonstration. Track omissions, substitutions, and order errors.

Candidate low-risk core

07 · Coaching uptake

Correction-to-execution

Give one standardized technical correction and score whether it is applied on subsequent fixed trials.

Qualified coach; standardized script

08 · Dual task

Move while remembering

Combine a safe movement pattern with short neutral recall. Measure the tradeoff between cognitive and movement accuracy.

Candidate low-risk core

DOMAIN 03

Martial movement and technical precision

Use pads, targets, sensors, and scripted movement—not injury as the measurement instrument.

09 · Reactive footwork

Randomized floor-grid route

Move to light-cued floor markers. Track decision time, movement time, wrong directions, balance breaks, and repeatability.

Clearance and supervised space

10 · Strike response

Random-cue target pad

Deliver one gloved strike to the designated pad after a visual cue. Measure stimulus-to-contact time, correct target, misses, and false starts.

Qualified supervision

11 · Technical consistency

Scripted shadow round

Repeat a fixed noncontact sequence on video. Score timing drift, omissions, balance, and blinded-coach agreement.

Candidate low-risk core

12 · Submaximal output

Instrumented-pad consistency

Perform a small number of strikes at a prescribed nonmaximal effort. Track force, impulse, target accuracy, and variability.

Qualified supervision; no maximal effort

DOMAIN 04

Survival problem-solving and useful work

Measure planning, communication, fine motor control, and bounded physical work without field danger.

13 · Route planning

Tabletop map problem

Choose a route under fixed distance, time, terrain, and resource constraints. Score correct decisions, missed constraints, and completion time.

Candidate low-risk core

14 · Fine motor

Benign equipment assembly

Assemble a standardized nonhazardous kit or reproduce a defined knot from instructions. Record errors, drops, and completion time.

Candidate low-risk core

15 · Communication

Receive, retain, relay

Accurately relay a short neutral message containing fixed fields. Score omissions, substitutions, sequence, and time.

Candidate low-risk core

16 · Movement under load

Short level-course carry

Carry a predetermined nonmaximal load on a controlled indoor course. Record time, grip releases, path deviations, heart rate, symptoms, and exertion.

Medical and technical supervision

DOMAIN 05

Pressure, repeatability, and recovery

Find out whether the same task remains dependable across time.

17 · Decision under exertion

Pre/post bounded workload

Repeat selected cognitive and low-risk movement tests around one approved submaximal workload. Compare accuracy and speed deterioration.

Medical supervision

18 · Recovery curve

Return toward baseline

Retest selected measures after fixed recovery intervals. Separate immediate fatigue from slower recovery.

Medical supervision

19 · Technical escape

Capped-resistance position

If approved, use a standardized position without neck compression, strikes, submissions, or throws. Score safe technical movement and completion time.

Held for qualified coach and medical approval

20 · Controlled scenario judgment

Recognize, communicate, disengage

Use a scripted low-intensity scenario to score cue recognition, boundary awareness, communication, inhibition, and the decision to leave.

Held for specialist review; no weapons

Download the candidate test matrix (CSV)

CONNECTED INITIATIVE · WOMEN'S SELF-DEFENSE

What happens when the first defensive tool does not stop a persistent threat?

The Women’s Self-Defense initiative includes a 24-test planning module measuring threat recognition, use / do-not-use judgment, everyday access constraints, escape, communication, and recovery.

“Highly motivated” becomes a fixed persistence rule for a controlled role player rather than permission to improvise.

Explore Women’s Self-Defense

Supervised non-contact self-protection scenario using a padded role player and independent observers

BORROW THE MEASUREMENT LOGIC—NOT THE MISERY

Elite military courses show why useful performance is broader than strength.

Army Ranger School is a combat-leadership course; it is not Army Special Forces selection. Navy BUD/S is a different training pathway, and Hell Week is a crucible within its first phase. Both illustrate how cumulative stress can expose failures in vigilance, judgment, communication, and work capacity that a rested strength test might miss.

FAST should not recreate Hell Week, sleep deprivation, combat danger, or survival exposure. The transferable principle is narrower: establish rested baselines, repeat standardized tasks, score accuracy as well as speed, control confounders, and define stopping rules before the stressor begins.

Sleep should initially be stabilized and measured, not deliberately restricted. Otherwise, a decline could be caused by fatigue, nutrition, or their interaction—and the study would be harder to interpret and less safe.

Conceptual editorial illustration of a supervised austere human-performance assessment

THREE SAFETY TIERS

The first protocol should be built to detect decline without manufacturing danger.

A medically risky nutritional stressor does not need head impacts, weapons, environmental exposure, or deprivation theater layered on top.

CANDIDATE CORE

Low-risk, repeatable endpoints

Computerized cognition and vigilance
Video-based anticipation
Noncontact motor learning
Low-intensity footwork after clearance
Tabletop route planning
Fine-motor assembly
Neutral communication and memory

SUPERVISED / HELD

Requires qualified owners

Instrumented-pad contact
Moderate reactive agility
Load carriage
Submaximal exercise testing
Capped-resistance positional movement
Scripted low-intensity scenarios

EXCLUDED FROM THE PUBLIC BATTERY

Risk outweighs measurement value

Full-contact or maximal sparring
Head impacts, chokes, or joint submissions
Maximal throws or uncontrolled falls
Weapons or weapon-draw scenarios
Water confidence, heat, cold, or altitude exposure
Vehicle operation or wilderness exercises
Deliberate sleep deprivation
Multiple extreme stressors stacked together

WHAT MAKES THE DATA CREDIBLE

Standardize the test before interpreting the person.

Use familiarization sessions so learning the interface is not mistaken for improvement.
Establish more than one rested, fed baseline.
Fix equipment, warm-up, instructions, task order, time of day, hydration controls, and assessor.
Prespecify one primary outcome for every task and score speed and accuracy together.
Use automated scoring or blinded video review where practical.
Estimate test-retest error and the minimum change considered meaningful.
Keep the battery short enough that testing does not become uncontrolled training.
Record sleep, prior exertion, symptoms, deviations, and recovery.
Give the medical monitor unconditional authority to stop a task or the entire study.

SOURCE TRAIL AND PROFESSIONAL REVIEW

Use validated tools where they exist. Challenge the rest.

No military organization, combat-sport federation, coach, laboratory, or institution is affiliated with or endorses this proposal. This is not participant recruitment, tactical instruction, or authorization to combine fasting with strenuous training.

Suggest a low-risk test Offer professional critique Review the scientific packet

A person can still look strong while timing, judgment, balance, or accuracy is deteriorating.

Twenty core ways to measure whether capability is holding, learning, or degrading.

Perception, attention, and judgment

Unpredictable signal response

Choose before moving

Go / no-go

Video cue recognition

Motor learning and memory

Novel movement sequence

Delayed sequence recall

Correction-to-execution

Move while remembering

Martial movement and technical precision

Randomized floor-grid route

Random-cue target pad

Scripted shadow round

Instrumented-pad consistency

Survival problem-solving and useful work

Tabletop map problem

Benign equipment assembly

Receive, retain, relay

Short level-course carry

Pressure, repeatability, and recovery

Pre/post bounded workload

Return toward baseline

Capped-resistance position

Recognize, communicate, disengage

What happens when the first defensive tool does not stop a persistent threat?

Elite military courses show why useful performance is broader than strength.

The first protocol should be built to detect decline without manufacturing danger.

Low-risk, repeatable endpoints

Requires qualified owners

Risk outweighs measurement value

Standardize the test before interpreting the person.

Use validated tools where they exist. Challenge the rest.

Get meaningful project updates—not noise.