The future of fitness testing.
 

The US Army Times has asked the troops for suggestions as to how physical fitness testing should evolve.. should it be refined as more fit for role? Should the Royal Air Force do the same, is our testing too tough at the moment as it is, should it change; if so, how?

New Army PT test ahead: What do you want fixed? | PT365

Apologies if this has been discussed before. :}

Yr joking, right?

It was in yesterday's paper that the Police have introduced a fitness test and that 70% of the failures are from women doing the bleep test. Admit I am surprised seeing the porkers we have here.

But fit for purpose might be fine for an ammunition hauler or infantry. In the small RAF would you have a trade standard or a job standard?

Without singling out any trade, you have the telephone answer who could argue that BMI +25% is fine where they are working but could counter that the same role OOA demands fitness o fight if necessary.

It would, IMHO, have to be implemented trade wide.

PN,

I award you my first PPRuNe whoosh parrot. ;)

BMI count, The US troops simply go under the hoover to get rid of that problem, sad isn't it.

US troops resort to liposuction to pass military's body-fat test - National Celebrity Fitness and Health | Examiner.com

There's no excess fat there Doc, just folds and folds of redundant skin... URGH

PN.
The Police fitness test is laughable at the moment. 5.4 on the bleep test. That's barely jogging. However, it's going to get gradually harder in the next few years. A cynic might see a correlation between that and the longer time officers have to serve before receiving their pensions.


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5.4 on the bleep test? Walking!

And please don't tell me that BMI is still being used. I thought that most people had realised that it is bogus science.

Beep tests
 

When the RAF introduced the beep tests (mid/late '90s??) my Young sgt went for his test and recorded 20! Mind he was a joint service middle distance runner and had just returned from a JS athletic trip to Arizona Me? Too old, static bike and the ludicrous "grip"test for us wrinklies.

We later learnt that Seb Coe had (reportedly) done 21.

PM

kb, and before that we had someone that could not meet the 1.5 mile run standard.

He was a super-marathon runner. I am not sure how far that was but if you can run 50 miles or more and never imbibe caffeine you must be fit.

The future of RAF fitness?

http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/a...psd5f94e24.jpg

Bring it on!

Looking forward to the warm down!!!^^^^

Only a problem if you have a sedentary lifestyle where the only jogging you do is jogging your memory and running a bath!

If people were to regularly go for a 30 minute run, 3 times a week, throughout the year (and not just one week before the fitness test) you'd get so used to running that come test time you'll pass effortlessly and getting into the Blue zone is easy.

The thing with running, is start of small and gradually build up the distance so you don't injure yourself. Most running injuries are doing too much too soon, or the wrong trainers for the way your feet roll. Then the more you run, the better you become. Can only make you fitter.

The biggest problem I see with the young guys, is their idea of going to the gym is to lift weights for a big chest and arms vanity. They totally neglect any cardio fitness. Therefore still struggle running the fitness test.

Sorry techie, while what you say is true I am afraid the mouse theory also applies.

Whilst I didn't meet your 30x3 I did do the Canadian 5xX but my knees have now given in. I can't kneel. If I go on bended knee I have to have something to climb up to get up again.

You need a good diet, good life style and moderate exercise.

Would they be the ones required to sustain 9G in their office?

Fortunately, it's not something I need to worry about!:eek:

If the aim of the fitness test is to maintain a standard of fitness across the year then it is, in my view, unfit for purpose. This is evidenced by the relative scarcity of people in the LOO gym until the month before a fitness test is due when the gym dodgers drag themselves into the gym for a couple of weeks in order to make the low pass standard.

At least the move to a fitness test every 6 months has resulted in relative 'fitness' for 2 months of the year instead of one!

While it would be a nightmare to administer , Stations should spring a fitness test on personnel in a similar way to CDT. This might put the fear in people to force them to take their health and fitness seriously, resulting in regular physical exercise rather than panicking in the month leading up to RAFFT.

wT

Perhaps they should bring back Wednesday sports afternoons.

Commanders (yes Cpl all the way up to Air Mshl) do you not have a duty of care to ensure those whom you command are of the right fitness level to carry out ALL duties to which they can, and are, called upon to complete - at the same time YOU MUST be of the same level to carry out those same duties. I think this then comes back to ensuring all ranks complete PT, perhaps as a Sqn PT session, which will then bring back some of the lost 'Esprit de corps'.

It seems that because a large proportion of the RAF are involved in relatively sedentary jobs, there will always be arguments concerning fit or fit for role. Personally, I think that people putting those arguments up are missing the point - fit and fit for role are not mutually exclusive.

In this sense, I do wonder if the Army doesn't have it right? Why not have a baseline fitness test that everyone has to achieve twice a year as we do now, but then introduce a role based fitness test on top of that testing fitness for operations. The Army's CFT is done on top of the personal fitness test and is graded according to your specialisation, so someone in the AGC will be carrying a lower weight and have higher times than someone in the line infantry, and in turn, the line infantry will be higher than the Paras etc etc.

I'm sure that such a suggestion would no doubt meet with howls of outrage, most of which in my experience has come from a the SNCO section of the RAF who joined up when hard drinking, hard smoking and sport solely through the medium of darts and watching the football on Saturday night was the idea of being physically active. Just because they have so far dodged a heart attack and can lift a pen to sign off what ever bit of paper they need to sign, they argue they are fit for role and that's that. I have been on units in the past where even making CO's PT a formal parade couldn't get some of these individuals into the gym. But equally, the RAF has a part to play in this by freeing up time for individuals to do some phys, so as suggested, let's bring back Sports afternoons and other formally programmed sessions.

But at the end of the day, to my mind, being fit for role and fit for Ops is but a by product. Being fit for life should be the objective and many people seem to lack the pride and self-discipline to keep themselves fit and are happy to be a walking bucket of lard with the Grim Reaper following close behind.

Quite. Makes you wonder how they get through their annual aircrew medical each year. Must have had (or still have) very sympathetic/gash doctors at Kinloss, Lyneham and Brize :E:E:E;)





Only kidding. Doctors are never gash. And now awaits flaming....

As I understand it, the 5.4 level for the Police is not comparable to the Armed Forces 5.4 as the police have to run 15m between turns whereas the Armed Forces have to run 20m.