Navy program focused on fitness, nutrition comes to 7th Fleet sailors in Japan

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy recently unveiled a $1 million upgrade to the Purdy Fitness Center at this naval base, the homeport of 7th Fleet, part of the service’s increased spending on fitness programs the past two years.

Base commander Capt. Jon Hopkins opened an area dedicated to the Navy Operational Fitness and Fueling System, or NOFFS, on June 26, according to images posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System.

NOFFS, launched in 2009, is the Navy’s official exercise and nutrition program, according to the Navy Morale Welfare and Recreation website. The program aims to prepare sailors for the physical demands of the job — lifting, pushing, carrying — while cutting injury risk and improving readiness, according to MWR.

At Purdy, the NOFFS zone includes a turf area for sled pushes and sprints, cardio machines and weights like those seen at fitness competitions and a recovery area for foam rolling and stretching.

The Navy has increased its budget allocation for fitness programs and equipment to $62.8 million this fiscal year from $53 million last year, according to the Navy’s fiscal year 2027 budget estimates. The service requested $67 million for those programs in the coming fiscal year.

Part of the drive is to curb a growing trend among sailors to fail the body composition assessment of the Physical Fitness Assessment administered twice a year.

Nearly a quarter of active-duty U.S. troops — 23% — are classified as obese, according to the Defense Department’s Health of the Force report in 2025.

In the Navy’s active component, that figure rises to 27%.

“The Navy body composition [failure rate] has been increasing for the past 15 years,” Michael Motohashi, the Yokosuka base MWR fitness director, said in a Wednesday interview with Stars and Stripes.

NOFFS programs focus on operational fitness, strength, endurance and sandbag training, each with instructional videos, along with a meal planner for goals such as weight loss, gain or maintenance.

“The purpose of NOFFS was to create something that was easy for anybody to follow,” Motohashi said. “A workout program could be very complicated, but we take away all the questions and just follow the simple system.”

The system centers on the NOFFS workout builder, available on the MWR website and mobile apps, which lets users tailor workouts to their needs.

MWR also runs a one-day NOFFS certification course for anyone who wants hands-on experience with the equipment. The course is led by certified fitness staff and open to the entire base community; sign-ups are available at the fitness office at Fleet Recreation.

Naval Installations Command is working to bring a NOFFS zone to every installation, Motohashi said, with Naval Air Facility Atsugi next in line.

For command fitness leaders, the zone is an effective way to get their units in peak shape, according to Chief Petty Officer Justin Williams, an information systems technician with Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station Far East.

“I do like it,” Williams said. “You can achieve the same type of intensity and frequency that you would be able to get in another setting.”

Williams said his goal is a 95% pass rate on the physical fitness assessment his sailors take twice a year.

“I’d consider the program, within my own command, a success,” he said.