Air Force Technical Sergeant. Alexander House took hundreds of new annual Air Force fitness tests and learned a trick or two that could help others pass the test with as little pain as possible. The chief of staff for the F-35 at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, where he also serves as the fitness unit’s program manager, House recently took to the Air Force’s unofficial subreddit to share some of his hard-earned wisdom, as several other commentators seemed to appreciate the effort.
said House, who confirmed that he is neither the Hill’s fitness program director nor a spokesperson for the Air Force Fitness Test. “I’ve included my opinion and some pointers to help them prepare better.”
Last year, the Air Force announced that it was making several changes to the physical training test to give pilots more flexibility to prove their fitness. The old test involved a 1.5-mile run to demonstrate cardiovascular fitness. Push-ups to show the strength of the upper body; The sit-up to show the core strength. The new test still has these options, but it also allows pilots to choose the shuttle sprints for the heart portion; push-ups with manual release of the upper body strength part; and crunches or reverse planks across the leg for the core strength portion.
The Air Force also briefly considered allowing pilots to choose a one-mile brisk walk for the cardio option. The Air Force said in a press release that the service later dropped it due to “equipment requirements and the need for continued testing,” but it is still available to pilots who did not have medical clearance to operate or run. While the Air Force is still testing the new components, it has rolled out registration guides for every event and for each of its nine age groups. Pilots warned: Just because some options are new doesn’t mean they’re easy.
“New components can be very useful, but they are not free passes,” House said. Most people who have tried a new device are because they did he heard It was easy, but they didn’t test a full range themselves, they ended up performing worse than they had hoped.”
House’s first round of advice was for the shuttle run test, officially known as the multi-shuttle high-air run. In Hamar, the pilots ran back and forth between two lines spaced 20 meters apart. The time they have to go from line to line gets shorter because they’re doing more iterations, and if you miss the mark three times in a row, your test is over. House said that people who were reasonably fit could reach the sixth or seventh level, even though the best result he saw was at the ninth level. He said most pilots withdraw from Hamar airport before they miss a shuttle. While HAMR starts slowly, it can quickly become overwhelming.
“If you don’t know how your legs, lungs, and stomach are going to react to five minutes of fast sprints and continuous axes, don’t wait until [physical fitness assessment] Today to find out, House warned.
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Keep in mind that participants are not the only ones who are new to Hamar. House wrote that some of the fitness assessment cells that scheduled and scored the tests “didn’t quite figure out how to score these and would sometimes insist on rolling out missed shuttles,” which is incorrect.
“Make sure you know how your FAC is calculated, and have copies of your shuttle count sheet to fight for a better score,” he said.
House’s second round of tips included manual release push-ups. They are similar to traditional push-ups, except that instead of bringing the chest to the ground and then jumping back, the pilots rest their chest on the ground, spread their hands all the way to their side, and then return them before making another push-up. House push-ups are the most popular and underrated component, because many people “don’t realize how much your shoulders burn after 20 reps,” House said.
The pilot found that participants either hit their max at 40 repetitions in less than 80 seconds or struggled to get 30 to 35 repetitions in a full two minutes. An interesting loophole found at home is that you can take your time lying on your stomach, “as long as your hands are moving and away from the floor.”
Like the manual push-up, reverse leg crunches are similar to regular crunches but require more coordination. Participants lie on their back with their hands folded across their chests. With their backs still on the floor and their legs bent, participants raise their knees above the waist, raise their right elbow to touch their left thigh, and then come back down before doing it again using the left elbow to the right thigh. House said reverse leg crunches are easier to maximize than sit-ups if you have more lower-body strength than core strength. However, it’s not a free pass, and it’s even impossible if your gut is big enough, he explained.
“Make sure you have the coordination to do it right; a lot of people end up kind of rolling on the floor from trying to lift and roll their upper body too much,” House wrote. as much as possible.”
Not everyone is queuing up for new options. House estimated, in fact, that only one in 50 pilots chose to try the plank over sit-ups. The pilot noted that “knowing your scoring arcs beforehand can be a huge help in pushing” the plank. He said he also allowed participants to watch videos on their phones or choose a familiar song to play to help them pass the time in the plank position.
House had advice for pilots even if they didn’t end up choosing any of the new options. For the traditional running portion of the test, for example, House noted that most pilots are better at running than they think, “they tend to be fast.”
“Everyone I ran with and spent had a remarkable performance better than they had hoped.” “The most common mistake is running too fast on the first lap and shooting yourself in gas. Get a buddy pacer or a Garmin watch, and for God’s sake, don’t try to keep up with the group of fast runners from the starting line if you’re not a sprinter. “
House said this happens to a lot of people, including himself and some plump pilots who were nervous about running but apparently wanted to “keep up with Captain Crossfit’s 9-minute pace” once the timer started. Other commentators agreed.
Someone said, “Your opinion of running is very correct.” “I have a serious running problem that was only resolved with a running watch.”
As with many of the big changes, House said, the Air Force is still catching up with recent changes in the Labor Party. It’s been particularly chaotic because PT exams have been erratic over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Air Force is still working on kinks with its online myFitness system. Meanwhile, House wrote, “Make a mistake, be very early, and keep all your papers on hand when you arrive (check the files uploaded to myFitness)”.
Despite the bumps, the pilot said the new changes are a welcome addition to testing. It’s also helpful that pilots can now try a diagnostic fitness assessment before completing the formal assessment, which he said is “an excellent way to relieve PT test anxiety.” Best of all, if a pilot does a good job of diagnosing, he can use that as an official score.
“I tell everyone to ‘stay with the devil you know’ and do the classic ingredients if you haven’t tried the other things, but man, some new stuff directly saves people,” he wrote. “Check your score chart and try a two-minute combination of each one to see if you’re one of those people who can max out without problems.”
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