My quest to get back in shape.

Post deployment, I was doing pretty good. Posted my 2nd highest score of my career on my PT test.

After that, the abundance of food I missed took over... I put 10 lbs on, and 3 inches on my waist. That led to me failing my next PT test by nearly 15 points. Thankfully that was just a mid way practice test before the next real one, so no career impacts.

So over the last couple weeks, until my next official test in mid September, I've been tasked with 4 work outs a week.

Each session a week is with a differant trainer. Last week I started out with circuit training. We ran 5 laps on an indoor track, which was just over a quarter mile, then would do two minutes of calisthenics, like push-ups, flutter kicks, and the like. We did 8 full circuits of that, and you were feeling pretty dead by the end.

The next session I did another PT test, were we ran through every segment of the test, just trying to push myself a little further on each one. Afterwards I was sent to do another 30 minute workout on my own, in which I did a 10 minute fast paced walk to cool down after the test, then spent the last 20 minutes doing a softer type of circuit training like I listed above.

Next was some cross training. 35 minutes on a stair climber. We spent the first 20 minutes increasing difficulty, and I went up to 13 out of 20. He then had me back it down to 11 for the last 10 minutes, then the cool down. Afterwards we went and did some push up training, since that's a particular weak point of mine on the test.

My final session of the week was probably the easiest. Started out doing calisthenics. Did some push-ups, flutter kicks, and lunges. We then ran a mile and a half, pushing ourself to run at our fastest pace.

Throughout the week I was noticing my muscles have been strengthening themselves, with my "recovery time" between each session becoming better and better.

Today was my first session of this week. We did interval running. Started out doing a half mile jog to warm up, then I stretched out a bit. From there we ran a good paced quarter mile, which I did in 1:37. We'd take a two minute break, and then run another, which I did in 1:35. After another break, we did our last run, which I did in 1:32. Took a few minutes to recover, and we did a three quarter mile cool down. After we were done running we went into the gym and did some more push up training.

Tomorrow I have another circuit training session like last weeks. He'll probably push us a bit harder then last week.

So far, I've noticed some good returns. My runs have been getting faster, and I've been noticing some strengthening of my muscles, allowing my to do a few more push-ups now then I was able to do before.

I've got about 5 weeks until my next test, so if I keep improving like this, it's very likely I'll be hitting my best score ever.

Good luck with that I know the military makes you do PT Tests but how often for each branch?

Right now the Air Force has us taking a test twice a year. It's standards are just as tough as the Army's, and arguably stricter in some categories.

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Originally Posted by djones520

Right now the Air Force has us taking a test twice a year. It's standards are just as tough as the Army's, and arguably stricter in some categories.

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Only an Air force guy would say that. :rolleyes:


although the Army's new PRT is going to be a joke.

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Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Only an Air force guy would say that. :rolleyes:


although the Army's new PRT is going to be a joke.

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Compair the tests and tell me how I'm wrong. I've done it. The Army gets two minutes to do push-ups and sit-ups, we get one minute. Someone my age in the Army gets a full minute to do 6 more push ups then I have to do. While the Army has to run two miles to our mile and a half, the same basic time is required.

Now that's just compairing minimum scores. All you gotta do in the Army is meet those minimums. In the Air Force, if I meet the minimums, I still fail my test.

Your scores are broken down in 4 year increments. Ours is in 10 years or more increments. So for us, a 29 year old has to meet the same standards as a 17 year old.

If you fail in the Army you have 3 months to retest. We have half that time.

If we fail 3 tests in a row, it's an automatic removal from the Air Force. The Army just makes you ineligible for things like reenlistment and promotions while your failing. Even if we don't get removed from the Air Force, a failure is something that gets us an automatic referral EPR, which halts reenlistments, promotions, etc. And that EPR screws our chances of promotion for the next 5 years by taking massive amounts of points off of our tests.

The Air Force did a total 180 on physical fitness over the last 5 years. We now have to be able to keep up with the Army, and our punishment for failure is a lot stricter.

I did not know that so many standards were placed on you Air Force personel. I have always thought it was the sweetest service as far as demands ect.

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Originally Posted by djones520

Compair the tests and tell me how I'm wrong. I've done it. The Army gets two minutes to do push-ups and sit-ups, we get one minute. Someone my age in the Army gets a full minute to do 6 more push ups then I have to do. While the Army has to run two miles to our mile and a half, the same basic time is required.

Now that's just compairing minimum scores. All you gotta do in the Army is meet those minimums. In the Air Force, if I meet the minimums, I still fail my test.

Your scores are broken down in 4 year increments. Ours is in 10 years or more increments. So for us, a 29 year old has to meet the same standards as a 17 year old.

If you fail in the Army you have 3 months to retest. We have half that time.

If we fail 3 tests in a row, it's an automatic removal from the Air Force. The Army just makes you ineligible for things like reenlistment and promotions while your failing. Even if we don't get removed from the Air Force, a failure is something that gets us an automatic referral EPR, which halts reenlistments, promotions, etc. And that EPR screws our chances of promotion for the next 5 years by taking massive amounts of points off of our tests.

The Air Force did a total 180 on physical fitness over the last 5 years. We now have to be able to keep up with the Army, and our punishment for failure is a lot stricter.

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relax.. Just teasin.

The Army realizes that two minutes is too much time now. That's why under the new standards it is going to be a minute now. But once you stop, you're done.

The Air Force requirement to make someone do the same standards in 10 year increments is beggin for reform. No way I can do now what I did when I was 30. It's ridiculous to base it that way.

Anyhow...good luck with staying in shape.

Will all that working out take off the 10 pounds or have they also given you nutrition counselling? Ten pounds I would think would easily come off with all that running.

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Originally Posted by noworries

Good luck with that I know the military makes you do PT Tests but how often for each branch?

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The Marines is once a year, but I know units do it more often.

The absolute minimum requirements just to pass are, IIRC are:

Pull-ups: 3
Crunches: 50 in 2 minutes
Run: 3 miles in 28:00

Of course, if you make these kinds of scores you'll never get promoted. It's a score based system, so the fast your run, under 28:00 the more points. The more crunches over 50, the more points. The more pullups the more points.

This is all calculated into your cutting score for promotion. If you fail any of the minimums, you fail the whole PFT. My best PFT ever was 14/20 pull ups, 100 crunches in 2 minutes, and a 19:00 3-mile run.

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Originally Posted by SaintLouieWoman

Will all that working out take off the 10 pounds or have they also given you nutrition counselling? Ten pounds I would think would easily come off with all that running.

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We'll see. My weight is holding, but i'm not concerned about that. 6'2" and 190lbs. Nothing wrong with that. It's the inches on the waist I need to burn off. That cost me 12 points on my test. Last time I got taped, I was down an inch. I'd like to burn 3 more off so I can get full points in that category. If I can do that, the test will be a shoe in.