By Noelle Wiehe
Staff writer

Step one: wake up. Step two: personal hygiene. Step three: physical training.

Cadets attending the Leader’s Training Course quickly become accustomed to the routine. In fact, they may even wind up being a step ahead of the Soldiers who have trained in years past.

Physical training regimens are being altered to better fit the everyday rigors required by a Soldier. Intertwined with sit-ups and push-ups, Cadets at LTC will be doing exercises such as the windmill and the rower.

The changes stem from recent revisions in the way the Army conducts physical training, which was deemed in studies by Army fitness experts somewhat ineffective. What they found was that there are few instances where a Soldier has to run two miles straight in the battlefield.

Instead, the new structure, known as physical readiness training, is considered more realistic to train the Soldier to do short-dash runs with dead weight on their back to prepare for instances where he or she might have to carry an injured person to safety.

“We’ve trained on the same particular body parts for over 40 years and found that it didn’t help the Soldiers of today in building muscle and strength,” Sgt. Maj. Michael Thompson, the sergeant major for LTC.
PT is carried out in the Army nearly every morning, in some form or fashion, to condition men and women to be able to handle the running, lifting, weight bearing and whatever else they may endure in a combat environment.

The revamping of the old PT regimen the Army uses will better prepare Soldiers for what they will be subjected to overseas, officials said.

Within physical readiness training, some traditional exercises were kept, but new ones have been added such as the windmill (alternate toe-touches), the V-up (a rendition of a crunch) and the rower, all of which target the torso. A modified version of an old exercise brought back is the straight-leg body twist, but it is now called the bent-leg body twist (targets trunk muscles). The straight-leg body twist was found to actually hurt the lower back, but the new version will strengthen the abdomen without causing this back pain.

“We incorporated those particular exercises to better assist them,” Thompson said.

Within the new PT test, the two-mile run has been eliminated and is now a mile and half run. Also included in the test will be a 60-yard shuttle run, a one-minute rower session, a standing long jump and a one-minute push-up session.

While LTC Cadets will be put through the new physical readiness training, they will still be tested using the traditional PT format of the two-mile run, two minutes of sit-ups and two minutes of push-ups. Cadets are not expected to be evaluated using the new PT test until sometime next year.

To assess the Cadets performing the PT, the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) is used. Typically, the test is performed twice a year with Soldiers and points are assigned based on a person’s age. A Soldier must earn a minimum of 60 points in each event to pass. LTC Cadets must obtain a minimum of 50 points in each event.

For each event in the test, a score is given based on the number of reps they completed within the given time. Currently, to achieve 60 points in the traditional test, a male ages 17 to 21 must complete at least 53 sit-ups and 42 push-ups and run in 15 minutes, 54 seconds. Females in the same age must complete 19 sit-ups, 42 push-ups and finish the run in 18 minutes, 54 seconds.

Cadre at LTC spend extra time working one-on-one with Cadets who struggle to pass or who fail the test until they can pass.

Age groups are reconfigured in five categories: younger than 30, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 and 60 and older. Scoring scales with the new test, however, will be the same for men and women.

“One thing we didn’t do (with the traditional PT program) — and I think it hurt us a lot — is we didn’t consider that we’ll be throwing 70 pounds or more on a Soldier who only weighs 100 to 140 pounds,” Thompson said. “Yes, there’s a standard, but we have to be smart when we’re doing those things.”

A big issue the new training is supposed to fix is the pain the weight of a 70-pound rucksack used in the field can cause in the lower backs of Soldiers. Thompson said some Soldiers wind up with back problems that contribute to doing less abdominal work and bigger guts later in life.

The new training should eliminate those issues by effectively building up their cores.

“I’m a true fan of the new (physical readiness training),” Thompson said. “I do it every morning.”

Before Cadets jump into the new training, however, each performs a one-one-one assessment within the first few days of arrival. In this assessment, Cadets run one mile, perform one minute of push-ups and one minute of sit-ups.

“This gives commanders a quick assessment of the physical ability of his Soldiers,” said Sgt. Daniel Sisto, a drill sergeant with Alpha Company.

Most Cadets in Alpha Company, which took the assessment last week, said they felt they did well. Fantasia Parker of St. Augustus College in Raleigh, N.C., and Lisa Stone of Morehead State University in Kentucky both were impressed with how much better their run times were at Fort Knox than back at their colleges.

“I usually run 17 (minutes) for two miles, but today I ran 7:59 for one mile,” Parker said.

“Me too,” Stone said. “It takes me like eight minutes to do a mile, but I did it in 7:15.”

The women said they were not pressured to stay with the group during the run, but instead considered it motivating to have close to 50 other Cadets running alongside them.

“You have got to do it yourself if you want it,” Parker said of being motivated.

Sisto had high expectations for his platoon because he had made certain the Cadets knew how to properly do the exercises the night before they were set to do their first PT assessment.

“I can’t speak for the whole company, but my platoon did pretty good; they ran pretty quick,” he said.

Sisto has a system working for his platoon. He may yell at them, but when the situation calls for it he takes a struggling Cadet aside and works with them individually.

“You have to try to weed out the people who have the most trouble,” he said. “We’re teaching them to be officers, so we want to try to get their battle buddies to help them. If they start to fail because they don’t have the ability that we do in training, then we will take them aside and help them individually. They know that I’ll yell and I’ll scream, but when it comes down to it, I’m completely approachable.”

While most drill sergeants portray a mean-guy persona, they know as former trainees themselves how hard physical training can be and how important it is for Cadets to be able to go to the drill sergeant with concerns about falling behind. For every one drill sergeant, there are about 50 Cadets so each Cadet can experience more individualized training.

In their second session of PT — the first session of the new physical readiness training — drill sergeants were modeling the exercises every step of the way.

“You should look like me, second platoon – just not as pretty,” a drill sergeant said as he laid down on the shredded rubber PT surface demonstrating a simple leg lift.

Drill sergeants were demanding, correcting Cadets when they were positioned incorrectly during V-ups, or “the crucifixion” as one cadre referred to it, or if they would not stretch far enough in the mountain climber exercise. Yet, they were also helpful in lightening the mood by nudging a Cadet to draw out a smile if they seemed overly stressed out.

PT is only the start of the Cadets’ intense training at LTC, but it is not meant to scare away those who struggle. Instead, physical readiness training is meant to help condition Cadets for later trainings such as stream crossing, rappelling and land navigation — activities which require the use of most of the upper body, abdominal and leg muscles.

“A lot of the older guys that have been in 20 years plus, they don’t like (PRT) until they do it,” Thompson said. “Unless you do it, you will never understand how it affects your body.”