Army Fitness: Improving the PT Test
For most of us, especially in combat units, the Army’s idea of the PT test is a real laugher.
I have been in the military since 1988. I served in an EOD unit and the Navy, and those PT tests were far more challenging and difficult to pass with an acceptable score than the standard PT test for the Army.
In my EOD unit, our PT test was similar to the Navy’s except that we also had to do a 500-meter swim. Our PT scores had to be the following:
- 500-meter swim in 9 minutes or less
- 100 push-ups 100 in two minutes or less
- 100 sit-ups in two minutes or less
- 16 pull-ups
- 1.5-mile run in 9:30 seconds or less
Age Discrimination in the Army’s PT Test
Our PT scores weren’t based on age either. Everyone in the EOD had to meet the same requirements.
When you compare these standards against the Army’s PT requirements, they are a far cry different. For one thing, the Army’s standards to pass the PT test decrease with age, something I think is ridiculous.
The fact is that an enemy doesn’t care about a soldier’s age. In addition, the job itself doesn’t care either. If you’re in an infantry unit, you’re going to have to do the same job no matter your age is. And, there aren’t any age standards for your weapons qualification or for expert marksman or sharpshooter. So, why then is the PT test based on age? It just doesn’t add up.
The PT Test Should Prepare Soldiers for Combat
For me it never made sense that the Army has more combat units than any other branch, yet their PT standards are the lowest.
The Army likes to boast about how we train as we fight. Well, I have been engaged in combat too many times to count, and I don’t remember one time where we all ran miles or even got in formation and jogged. What we did do, however, was put all our gear on and move from one position to another, eliminating the threat or enemy as we went.
For most people in the Army, their true fitness is based on what they do on their own. I have a degree in exercise and fitness and know that what the Army thinks is fitness and how they base their personnel on fitness is why so many people in the Army are overweight.
If you look at any college or even high school football programs, or even programs for other sports, you will see that their fitness is by far better than our very own Army. I could take a person off the streets and in at least two months or less and have them ready to meet the minimum PT standards for the Army’s PT test.
That is why the so-called fitness in the Army is ridiculous. There is no true challenge. A soldier is given a graded PT test twice a year and given months of notice of when that will take place.
Suggested Changes for the Army’s PT Test
In the military, drug tests aren’t announced, so why are PT tests? Any soldier should be able to pass the PT test with just a moment’s notice. However, most can’t because they don’t start preparing until 60 days before the test.
If you look at any unit’s PT test average or PT test failures, 70% of the time they’re so low is because of the 2-mile run. That’s because it takes more of a commitment than doing 2 minutes of push-ups and 2 minutes of sit-ups, so they don’t prepare for it as well.
In accordance with the Army’s standards, a soldier could really just work out 20 minutes a day to pass the PT test and the Army would consider them physically fit. There’s no way a professional athlete could work out just 20 minutes a day and be able to go out and win games!
In order for the Army to make sure its soldiers—especially those in combat units—are physically fit and ready to take on an enemy in any terrain or conditions, they need to come out with a better, more challenging fitness program that requires 90 minutes of exercise per day. Then, before a deployment, they should do two-a-days in the weeks leading up to it, just like professional sports teams.
True physical fitness for any team is based on commitment and dedication, and the best athletes stay prepared 24 hours a day. Our soldiers could deploy at any time, but if they aren’t physically fit, how can they be prepared to engage and eliminate the enemy?
In Conclusion
Rather than focusing on doing ridiculously boring 2-3 mile runs where soldiers are tripping over the person in front of them while going at a slow 10-minute mile trot, the Army should focus on making its units combat ready at all times.
The way things are now, I don’t believe counts as fitness at all, and all soldiers in the Army, especially those in combat units, should feel the same way.
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