What are some PT ideas that might make my soldiers hate me, but not dread PT?

2020-05-01T20:16:52-04:00

Current Squad PT schedule:
Monday-Run day 3 miles
Tuesday-Ruck March 4miles
Wednesday-60/120’s
Thursday-PU and SU’s drills
Friday-run 3miles/released run after 3 miles

This isnt awful but it's awful and risk of injury was not taken into consideration. So I need PT ideas that will get them a good, balanced, APFT/ACFT prep centric workout every week while minimizing the risk of injury. I'm redoing the warm up and cool down routine as well and incorporating a "Flexibility/Mobility" day.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 1 at 2020 8:30 PM

2020-05-01T20:30:23-04:00

You gotta give the legs some recovery time

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made May 1 at 2020 8:31 PM

2020-05-01T20:31:24-04:00

Heck it looks pretty simple to me-

Response by SGT Chris Stephens made May 1 at 2020 9:20 PM

2020-05-01T21:20:29-04:00

I'll go ahead and tell you, if you ever want to be a good NCO, risk factor is important to take into consideration. When making a proper PT plan, that has to be accounted for.

Now, as far as the plan, what is your end goal? Any time I made a PT schedule, I did backwards planning. I had an end goal in mind and I set it up so they could be successful for a specific task (usually a PT test). But, if you're doing it just to make your soldiers hate you, then don't do it under the guise of PT. Just make up some excuse to smoke them and be done with it.

A good plan ensures that they can recover from the previous day's work. Upper body one day, lower body the next day, and mix in core all days. From your plan, it looks like you have four lower body days and one upper body day. That's not a good plan.

Response by CW2 Private RallyPoint Member made May 1 at 2020 9:53 PM

2020-05-01T21:53:35-04:00

Don't just train for a pt test, that makes you good at a pt test, rather than being good at fitness. That schedule you have is the "pre-PRT" style, it made everyone lean and mean, and actually meet the dated body fat standards....but also came lots of knee and ankle injuries.
You need to mix everything up, you can build cardio without running. Hit me up on email [login to see] (anyone can). I'll send you the workout plan we give to candidates getting ready for selection. Its still kind of leg heavy, but not nearly as "making people hate you". Super effective, great results, minimal equipment.

Response by GySgt Gary Cordeiro made May 1 at 2020 11:22 PM

2020-05-01T23:22:32-04:00

Wind sprints and grass drills

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made May 2 at 2020 12:11 AM

2020-05-02T00:11:10-04:00

“This isnt awful but it's awful and risk of injury was not taken into consideration”, I’m not sure what this sentence means but I think you’re trying to say it’s awful and I agree. This is going to be long winded but hopefully it’s useful.

-What are your goals? Be specific. “I want my squad to be faster” isn’t good enough. Are you familiar with the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals? “I want my squad to run their 2 mile run by an average of 10% faster in 2 months.”

-What kind of equipment do you have? I firmly believe that pretty much everyone should be doing some type of resistance training. Unless a patient comes into my clinic with 8-9/10 pain I will probably have them doing some type of resistance training. I know that not everyone has access to free weights on a regular basis, but there are other alternatives such as fuel/water can, tires, full ruck, vest, etc.

-What is your MOS and overall mission? Rather than training just for the ACFT you should also be training for occupational demands. If you’re artillery and you’re lifting heavy rounds maybe try some type of rotational lifting like a landmine or Russian twist. If you’re carrying litters may do some work with a trap bar or do some Farmer’s carries. Does that make sense?

-Where are in your deployment cycle and what type extended training events does your unit have planned? You don’t need to get into super specific periodization with Macro and micro cycles and what not, but there should be some type of intelligent lead up to these events. This is where I think having a simple 5 day template is insufficient. You don’t need a super specific plan for the next 6 months or anything, but having a general long term plan with more specific plan for the next few weeks can better help meet your long term plan.

-What does the make-up of your squad look like? When I was a squad leader many, many yers ago there always seemed to be a couple studs, a couple folks who struggled, and the rest were somewhere in the middle. The inclination might be to tailor towards the best person, but this can backfire. You risk pushing everyone else too hard and then they’ll be seeing me in my clinic. I find the best approach is to tailor workouts to a level slightly above the folks in the middle. Maybe you’re lucky and have a whole collection of super Soldiers though and don’t need to worry about that.

-What do the people in your squad like to do and what are they good at? I’m not saying cater completely to their every whim but at least consider them. I think we’ve all seen the marathon runner who just runs their squad into the ground. On the flip side there’s the power lifter who thinks squat, deadlift, and bench are the be all, end all. It’s entirely possible to find workouts they actually like and actually work. There’s no need for them to hate PT.

-Some will disagree but I personally don’t think you need to ruck every week to get better and there’s research to back that up. One study found that there was no significant difference in ruck times when rucking 2x month versus 4x. Rucking plays a part in a large percentage of the injuries I see. I’m not saying you shouldn’t ruck. I actually like to ruck myself. I find it’s a good way to clear my head and I ruck 3-4 times per month. What I’m saying is you can ruck smarter. When I ruck I don’t always do the same thing every time. Sometimes I use a light ruck and go fast, sometimes I use a heavy ruck for shorter distances, and other times I use a pack in the middle to go for total distance. I’m also a firm believer that you can improve your ruck times by increasing your overall cardiovascular endurance and strengthening your load carriage/chassis (back, shoulders, hips) with heavy, compound lifts such as squats and deadlifts.

-I don’t think a specific mobility day is necessary. If you’re squad is looking or feeling beat up/overtrained you can sneak in a dedicated day, but that stuff can generally be incorporated before or after your workouts.

-Last, but not least: Don’t feel the need to do it all alone. The Army is getting better at hiring strength and conditioning coaches and athletic trainers. Unfortunately they are underutilized in many places and then their contracts end up getting cancelled. MFTs can be good resource as well.

I’ll get off my soap box now. We all know that if you don’t cut us off we officers can talk all day. If you have any more questions feel free to repack out to me. Good luck!

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 2 at 2020 4:00 AM

2020-05-02T04:00:34-04:00

There's a lot of ways to take this down. For squad PT I'm a big fan of Monday, Wednesday, Friday is running; Tuesday and Thursday strength training. One of the run days should be rucking. Thats the base of the plan. Then you have to plan the periodization. For instance, your runs and rucks should never increase more than 10% in distance or weight from one week to the next. One of those run days should be intervals, speed play, hill sprints, or something like that. Most people choose to do a distance run one a week, though I've never found that to be necessary. But it will appease the runners in your group to do a 3-5 mile run once a week. You can use the time after the run for your mobility time.
As for the strength days, that comes down to your equipment available. Ideally you'll cover the basics of chest push, back pull, overhead press, overhead pull down, Squat and Deadlift. Toss some toes to bar ab work in there and you've covered most of your bases. You can get fancy by doing your forward and reverse work on one day and your lateral and unilateral work on the second day.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 2 at 2020 6:48 AM

2020-05-02T06:48:55-04:00

Maybe something like,
Run day
Upper body day
Run day
Upper body day
Ruck day

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 2 at 2020 10:56 AM

2020-05-02T10:56:49-04:00

Run three miles one day and then ruck 4 miles the next day? Yea...that's gonna cause some injuries. And next time you plan a PRT schedule, you need to take risk of injury into consideration. Remember, not everyone is muscle bound as you. You have a good idea for a base line...it just needs some clearing up. Perhaps....speak with your unit Master Fitness Trainer...or any Master Fitness Trainer...and get their input.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 3 at 2020 5:39 AM

2020-05-03T05:39:38-04:00

Ref. Fm 7-22

You have 3 consecutive days of EM, one day of SM, and then another EM. As in, run, run, run, strength, run. That’s increasing the risk for you to injure your soldiers vs. enhancing them. Consider
Monday em (AGR),
Tuesday strength training (4 for the core, cd 1,cd 2, cl 1, pu/su),
Wednesday 30/60 or 60/120,
Thursday combatives and guerrilla drills
Friday UFR.

Once again FM 7-22 lays this kind of program out. You’ll achieve balance, challenging activities, and intro during combatives encourages the warrior spirit and esprit de corps.

In lieu of combatives, try to coordinate an obstacle course. Encourage competition and collective training for team success.

Good luck