Must disagree. I found the charts immediately understandable and I have no military background. The columns beyond the first indicate how many to do the header signifies the sex and the score is available on the first column. Age groupings as marked. The goals may be more than a civilian needs or not but the charts themselves, I found to be fairly self explainatory.

I was hoping for more tho. For example what about chin-ups? What about squats? The situp / pushup / running combination is minimal in terms of a workout. There are whole muscle groups and joints that will never be stressed by just that.

I have been aiming for a goal something like this

50 pushups

100 situps

20 chinups

50 squats

5 miles running / jogging (the aerobic nature not the speed is the goal here) under 1 hour

15 mile walking in one day with 35 pound pack

I'm not there yet but that's the goals so-far.

The APFT has always been kind of weak in what it actually tests, it may be some kind of bench mark for something, but probably not combat fitness. a 2 mile run is ok, but a better measure is how fast you can march 12 miles in full kit. Or how fast you can sprint 100 meters with two ammo boxes of .50 cal ammo and full kit. Anyway, this is a link about how to prepare for the Special Forces Assesment School. (I think that is what SFAS stands for) It might be more of what you are looking for. Preparing for SFAS

APFT isn’t the ultimate test of fitness, that’s why I also included some other stuff in my first post. I mentioned the APFT because it is one objective measure of being “reasonably fit”. Active duty lightfighters (11-X, 18-X and the like) routinely score 275+ in the “18-21 male” group without too much effort, …at least we did when I was soldiering for a living.

APFT scores are calculated by how many pushups and situps you can do in 2 min (meaning 2 min for each event), and by a timed 2 mile run on a flat course (like a school track) while wearing PT clothes.

SFAS stands for “Special Forces Assessment and Selection” aka “selection” and is a prerequisite for the Q-Course. It’s several weeks long and consists of mostly ruck marching and orienteering. It’s a weed-out course designed to cull the SF students prior to the phase training.

Gary

A good subject..having spent more hours than I would care to recall trying to keep in shape, may I suggest a couple of things which have worked for me [ sixty years young and still learning ]..

Point One: experiment to find the type of exercise YOU ENJOY. For some, it will be jogging or hiking, for others it will be swimming, for others it will be aerobics, tai chi, boxing, weights, etc etc...
which leads to..

Point Two: fitness is a full time job. If you don't believe it, start your favorite exercise regime, practice religiously for a month or so,... and then drop off for a few weeks. Your decline in fitness will be depressing, which leads you back to Point One.

Point Three: Consistency and Persistency... I see a lot of guys at my local gym come and go... dead keen for a couple of weeks, and then they drop away. Instant results are the stuff of dreams and slick marketing.

Point Four: You need a goal... may be it is losing/gaining weight... being able to beat your son at squash... [ mine ] or whatever... otherwise boredom sets in...

Point Five: related to Four... tailor your fitness regime to your pastime... for me it is seakayaking... and all the gym work I do means very little if I don't spend time with my butt in my kayak, actually paddling. Call it 'match' fitness, and it sure helps your mental attitude under stress.
my 0.02c

Peter Rattenbury, Australia.

Aye, physical condition is important. Just this Tuesday I injured my knee when I fell and smashed it directly into the concrete. Right now I couldn't see myself Buggin' Out! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Plus I had to work all week so first aide could only be administered in the evenings. But it'll heal in a few days.

It's reasons like this that I tend to pack as light as possible. I.E. the crowbar stays in the car, even though it can be handy in the woods too! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> But I also know I wouldn't have gotten hurt if I was in better shape... <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

In most military PFT's they list the minimum standards for passing.A service member can allways perform better to score higher.