Training for the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT)

Greetings health and fitness enthusiasts,

Today, I have a special treat for you. Some tips and tricks and training advice for the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). For those of you unfamiliar with the APFT, it

is the army's way of evaluating a soldier's fitness levels. Personally, I don't believe

that it's the best test to evaluate fitness levels (especially after you learn some of

my tips and tricks ;) ) but it's at least standardized. The test consists of three

events in the following order: Push ups- maximum number of repetitions in a 2

minute time limit, sit ups- maximum number of repetitions in a 2 minute time limit,

and a two mile run for time.

Each event has a set of standards that are based on age and gender. Each event is

score between 0 and 100 points. The minimum total passing score is 180 points with

a minimum of 60 points per event.

Tips and Tricks

Push ups: The key here is technique and practice. DO NOT FLARE the arms. This puts extra strain on the shoulders, increases the chance for injury, and uses up energy that could be put to use doing more push ups. I like to start out with my hands close together and slide them wider as the test continues (slide not lift, lifting can lead to disqualification). This does 3 things: 1) it shifts the exercise from weaker triceps to the stronger chest muscles, 2) reduces rate of fatigue, 3) reduces the range of motion and travel distance to do a push up. Foot placement is an over looked key to adding a few more reputations. This depends on the size of your feet, place them up to 12 inches apart and bring your heels together. Sit ups: Again, technique and practice. Make sure your legs form 90 degree angles and spread your knees/legs/feet apart to where you have the lease amount of resistance from your body (make sure things don't get in the way and make it harder). 2 mile run: Keep moving. Don't stop moving, even if you must slow to a walk. The air borne shuffle is a good method depending on your needed/wanted run time. If running on a track, hug the inner loop as much as possible. This is a shorter distance than running on the outer loop.

Training

Push up and sit up training: This is the method that I used while in the reserves. Take the number of push ups or sit ups that you want/need and divide that number by 2. Then do 3 sets of them. Example: if you want 60 push ups and sit ups. Do 30 push ups then 30 sit ups. Keep your rest under 1 minute, then repeat 2 times. Adjust this accordingly if you have a high goal or not where you want to be. Try to add 1 or 2 reps per week. Depending on your current physical training program. Do this work out 1 to 3 times per week. Running tips: Don't be a heel striker. Try to minimize landing on your heels when running. Heel striking not only slows down the run but increases the chance for injuries such as shin splints. 2 mile run training method 1: The only way to get better at running is to run. Here are a couple training methods to prepare for scoring well on the PT test. You must condition for both distance and speed. There are a few different ways to do this. Here are the methods that I used. Break your runs into a distance day and a speed day. On distance days you want to work up to about 2.5 miles, you may choose more or less. I like 2.5 miles because it allowed me to have more reserve capacity when running just the 2 miles. Speed days choose shorter distance and run it as fast as you can, then take a break short break. Repeat until tired, alloted time is up, or desired number of reputations have been completed. Try to shoot for at lease 40 yards. Alternate speed and distance days. Try to do this 2 or 3 times per week. 2 mile run training method 2: The speed distance method: This method combines the speed and distance days into 1 and is best when used on a track or area with defined 1/4 mile increments. Calculate the number of laps needed to get the distance. 2 miles divided by 1/4 mile track equals 8 laps. Take the time you want/need and divide that by 8 this gives you the time per lap in minutes multiply by 60 to get seconds per lap. 13 minutes divided by 8 equals 1.625 minutes times 60 equals 97.5 seconds per lap. Now that we calculated our lap time, this is the maximum time per lap to make our goals. Try to keep the laps under this time. After each lap rest/walk/catch your breath for 1 to 2 minutes. After your break, run the next lap and rest. Repeat this until tired or number of desired laps are completed. After each work out, try to reduce rest time by a few seconds per work out, don't try to make jumps over 5 or 10 second per. Eventually, the rest time will reach 0 and all laps will be completed in succession resulting in the desired run time. 2 mile run training method 3: Combine the previous 2 methods. Alternate between speed run, distance run, and speed distance run. This adds more training variety.

Training schedule:

You may decide to incorporate this into an existing program or use it as a main plan. Experiment and see what works best for you. You may decide to do push ups and sit ups 2 days a week and run 3 days per week, push ups and sit ups 3 days a week and run 2 days per week, or alternate your weeks.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Until next time, take care and always try to improve.

Steven DG