PT Expectations

This post is for Hannah, who asked me to talk about PT expectations as incoming female freshman. Thanks for the question Hannah!

First off, as an incoming rook, you should not be afraid of coming to the school out of shape. As long as you are physically able to perform 1 situp, 1 pushup, and jog 2 laps around the UP (2/3) Mile, then you are qualified and fit enough for the Corps. With this being said, you must build up your PT score to the point of passing an Army PFT. The minimum passing standards for females are 19 pushups in 2 minutes, 53 situps in 2 minutes, and a 2 mile run in 18:54. These are easy to achieve if you stick to the PT plan at Norwich and put forth a strong effort to get into better shape. This means going to the gym on your own time, climbing up Paine mountain for exercise, and most importantly, watching what you eat in the chow hall.

When i came to this school as a rook, i was able to pass a PT test, but almost got the minimum for every catagory. By the end of the year, i was maxing every event with ease. Like i said, as long as you want to get better, you will. Your cadre and rook buddies are a great motivator to help you reach your goal.

So don't let your fear of "not being in good enough shape" stop you from coming to Norwich. There will always be someone in better and worse shape than you.

My best advice for some workouts before coming to the school would be to run as much as you can. Try to run stairs and hills because they are both all over this campus. Distance is more imporant than speed because running 4 or 5 miles is how you get better at running 2 miles. But work your way up to 5 miles. Run the same distance for 6 days a week (you pick your rest day) and then move up a half mile then next week. Also, get used to pushups. Try doing 3 sets of as many as you can do and when you feel like you can't bust out anymore, hold the front leaning rest (push-up position) for as long as you can. This will help building your arm/shoulder muscles up. Also, do lots of situps. Some people think these are the easiest event in the PFT but they are also that hardest to improve on. For situps, i recommend doing as many as you can for 2.5 minutes. Do 2 sets of these and then do 53 situps in however long it takes you. Another ab workout is to do 100 situps, then rest for 2 minutes, then 75 situps, then rest for 1min 30seconds, then 50 situps, then rest 1 minutes, then 25 situps.

Hope this helps Hannah and any other prospective incoming Rooks!

Feedback for post ideas are still welcome!

Until next time,

Pam

Comments

[Hannah T.]

Hey thanks, I really appreciate this. I can absolutely use this to help me out with my prep workouts. I can pass an APFT but with the very minimum scores and I'd like to have more a safety net if possible and this sounds like a very reasonable plan to use. Thank you!