Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Army Revises Basic Training for "unfit recruits"

KirStang · 09-01-2010, 09:26 AM

I just came out of Basic Training from Fort Jackson on August 26th. I had no idea that our PT was a new program implemented this year. Regardless, despite the new PT program being 'easier,' I took away marked gains, including lowering my 2 Mile run time by almost 2 minutes. That's pretty remarkable, considering that we did not run that much (we went on ability group runs at most 8 times in my 10 weeks there). We also did 30/60s (Sprint for 30 seconds, walk for 60, repeat for 8 reps), and later on 60/120s.

However, many, *many* of our recruits had a hard time passing our PT standards (which is 50%--basically about 45 pushups, 50 sit ups or so, and about 17:00 in the 2 mile). I really do think the current PT program could use some more work. As the article mentioned, a lot of recruits bust up their hips, especially during road marches (2mile, then 5 mile, then 7 mile, then 10 mile march with about ~50lbs of gear). I knew one hold-over who fractured his hip and was chaptered out because he stepped in a pot hole during a road march. So there was a lot of emphasis on hip-stability drills. We also did things like the side-bridge, the prone row (think super-man), quadriplex, etc.

I personally think this is the right way for the Army to go--that is to emphasize productive, full body work outs that target small muscles which may be needed for agility and survivability. However, I also think the intensity of our PT program is lacking. The only time I really made upper body gains was when I did push ups and sit ups on my own during free time. Most of the time we would do maybe 20 push ups in the morning, maybe 5 pull ups, and a couple of core exercises.

Occasionally they'd have us do push ups for 45 or 60 seconds, then sit ups for 45 or 60 seconds, but that depended on how much the recruits pushed themselves. We had graduates who couldn't do the side bridge for 5 seconds. In addition, when we got smoked, it depended on how disciplined the recruits were. I'd do my best to do all the push ups and get the concomitant strength benefits, but more than once I saw some of the recruits say, "oh fuck this" and just lay on the ground while everyone else did push ups(and they graduated.)

So in short. Good PT program, bad on lack of intensity.

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*ETA:* Also wanted to add, that some of the people who could not meet PT standards were also some of my best soldiers, who carried around our M249s (a 16lb brick) in addition to their packs. That is to say, some of the standards that the Army requires have very little to do with field utility.

09-01-2010, 09:26 AM	#11 (permalink)
KirStang Future Bureaucrat	I just came out of Basic Training from Fort Jackson on August 26th. I had no idea that our PT was a new program implemented this year. Regardless, despite the new PT program being 'easier,' I took away marked gains, including lowering my 2 Mile run time by almost 2 minutes. That's pretty remarkable, considering that we did not run that much (we went on ability group runs at most 8 times in my 10 weeks there). We also did 30/60s (Sprint for 30 seconds, walk for 60, repeat for 8 reps), and later on 60/120s. However, many, many of our recruits had a hard time passing our PT standards (which is 50%--basically about 45 pushups, 50 sit ups or so, and about 17:00 in the 2 mile). I really do think the current PT program could use some more work. As the article mentioned, a lot of recruits bust up their hips, especially during road marches (2mile, then 5 mile, then 7 mile, then 10 mile march with about ~50lbs of gear). I knew one hold-over who fractured his hip and was chaptered out because he stepped in a pot hole during a road march. So there was a lot of emphasis on hip-stability drills. We also did things like the side-bridge, the prone row (think super-man), quadriplex, etc. I personally think this is the right way for the Army to go--that is to emphasize productive, full body work outs that target small muscles which may be needed for agility and survivability. However, I also think the intensity of our PT program is lacking. The only time I really made upper body gains was when I did push ups and sit ups on my own during free time. Most of the time we would do maybe 20 push ups in the morning, maybe 5 pull ups, and a couple of core exercises. Occasionally they'd have us do push ups for 45 or 60 seconds, then sit ups for 45 or 60 seconds, but that depended on how much the recruits pushed themselves. We had graduates who couldn't do the side bridge for 5 seconds. In addition, when we got smoked, it depended on how disciplined the recruits were. I'd do my best to do all the push ups and get the concomitant strength benefits, but more than once I saw some of the recruits say, "oh fuck this" and just lay on the ground while everyone else did push ups(and they graduated.) So in short. Good PT program, bad on lack of intensity. ===================== ETA: Also wanted to add, that some of the people who could not meet PT standards were also some of my best soldiers, who carried around our M249s (a 16lb brick) in addition to their packs. That is to say, some of the standards that the Army requires have very little to do with field utility. Last edited by KirStang; 09-01-2010 at 09:38 AM..