Today we are going to take a shot at the new Army Physical Readiness Test (APRT). The APRT will soon become the Army's new assessment of physical fitness and will eventually replace the APFT once scores and standards are determined.
Meet at Shea Stadium.
APRT:
Event #1: 60-yard shuttle run (5 yard, 10 yard, and 15 yard marks): place a small wooden block at each yard mark, sprint from the start point, pick up the block at the 5 yard mark, return to start, drop block (don't throw), turn and sprint to 10 yard and repeat the process until you complete the 15 yard portion. Post total time to comments.
Event #2: 1 minute "Rower": this exercise is an abdominal/core work-out and does NOT involve a rowing machine. You have 1 min to complete as many reps as possible. If you stop at any point, your performance is terminated at the point. See article for description of the rower (http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/03/army-first-look-at-new-pt-030411w/ & http://ncosupport.com/military-training/APRT-rower.html): basically you start flat on your back, arms extended overhead, palms facing inwards, you sit-up until your feet are flat on the ground and arms are extended forward, palms inward, that's one rep. You obviously can't use your hands to grab your thighs, clothing, etc. to help pull you up. Post total reps completed to comments.
Event #3: Standing broad-jump (best of 3 attempts): You must start with your feet in line with your shoulders (no stagger steps), bend at the hips and jump forward as far as possible. Feet must land together. Distance measured from where the closest part of your body touches to the start point. Informal standard is you should be able to broad jump at least as far as you are tall (i.e. I'm 5'10" and therefore should jump at least 5'10"). Post furtherest jump out of your 3 attempts.
Event #4: 1 minute of push-ups: Knock out as many push-ups as you can in 1 minute. Unlike the APFT standard, if you stop at any point, your performance is terminated. No resting, sagging, shifting hands, etc. Post reps to comments.
Event #5: 1.5 mile run (6 laps on a 400 meter track). Run as fast as you can. Post time to comments.
That's the future of your physical fitness assessment in the Army. Standards/scores have not been determined yet, so not sure what is good, great, etc. for each event.
In addition to posting event scores, also publish your thoughts on the APRT to comments.
5 comments:
That was interesting. Great work by Mac and ErinM this morning.
Shuttle run: 15.18 sec
Rower: 40
Long jump: 75.5", 77.25", 78.75" (I'm 70" tall, so I did body length +)
Push-ups: 55
1.5 mile run: 9:46
I need some work on the shuttle run, it felt a bit awkward.
The rower was strange in that I never reached muscle fatigue, but I felt I was moving as fast as I could without knocking myself out (literally, your head can smack the ground if not careful).
Long jump continued to improve for all of us as we practiced a bit more. I think a lot of it is technique.
Push-ups - makes you realize on that APFT you do about 75% of your push-ups in the first minute. Need to work on keep a high intensity pace for the entire minute.
1.5 mile run - my time and effort was a bit disappointing - my split times were almost identical to my 2 mile split times. I felt like I was going my fastest, but I guess mentally and physically I set a certain pace on longer distance runs and just stick with it. I think the APRT should either go with a shorter run (maybe 1 mile) or a longer run (3 miles or more). 1.5 seems to be stuck between high intensity and pacing yourself for endurance.
All in all I thought the APRT was good, but not great. Definitely needs pull-ups to be a true fitness assessment. The one upside is that it will force units to do more at daily PT than just push-ups, sit-ups, and run. I look forward to seeing what the standards are so I know how I did.
Shuttle run: 15.03
Rower: 41
Long jump: 83, 84.25, 88.5
Pushups: 49
Run: 9:36
Overall I'd give the APRT a B/B-. Although you can obtain some high intensity in the 1 minute time frame of most of the exercises, I definitely did not feel taxed by anything other than the pushups and the run. The pushup event is mainly strange due to how I've trained on it for the last 17 years; normally push hard for 45 seconds or so, and then take a break before breaking the remaining minute 15 seconds up into bite-sized pieces.
I don't know that I'd feel confidence in someone's overall fitness after having them do these exercises. With that said, I don't know that the intent of the APRT is for the results to be analyzed in a vacuum (neither was the APFT, frankly). Units must continue to tailor physical readiness standards according to their mission profile. Infantry units, as an example because that's what I know, must also work on Soldier's physical strength (heavy weight), endurance, and endurance under weight (footmarching). It is unrealistic, and disingenuine, to expect one test to accurate gauge mission readiness.
Shuttle run: 16.87 sec
Rower: 37
Long Jump: 72", 73", 74"
Push-ups: None due to shoulder
Run: 10:31
Extraordinarily sore from the past few days - hope to do better on the running.
I feel that this is another type of physical test where you know you are out of shape if you can't pass it, but it doesn't say a whole lot about your fitness if you do. I like that it incorporates more dynamic forms of fitness: changing direction while sprinting, jumping, etc., but it feels a little watered down.
Aloha,
PCS Leave WOD #5.
I did a new movement today. With the rings about 10" off the ground, I did a push-up, kicked through and then did a dip, and then kicked back to the front leaning rest. That was one rep.
3 RFT:
10 x Ring push/dips
100 x double unders
14:44
Same feelings as those above
Did not do the run
Shuttle: 14.25
Rower: 41
Jump: 82 (70" tall)
Push-ups: 50 (stopped at 50 seconds)
Post a Comment