300 Club

[shootingman99]

Rangers,
I am now an Army ROTC cadet. I took my first apft test and got a 291 out of 300:

Pushups: 73
Situps: 76
Run: 13:24

So I missed 300 by 2 situps and 24 seconds of running. My question is right now I'm doing 3 days of morning pt a week and 3 days a week of lifting. Will this be enough to get me to a 300 by November (our next pt test)? The morning pt workouts have actually been pretty hard, I've puked twice and they are always intense. I re-tested situps the other day and 80 in 1:50, so I should have those. I'm just a little worried about the run cause we haven't been running as much, more sprints and long circuits with no rest. Should I add in 1-2 more sessions of cardio or calistenics a week?

[WhiskeyRiver]

Could you go into a little more detail, as far as what you do for PT with ROTC, as well as what kind of lifting you do? Without knowing any more about what you do, my advice would be to go ahead and incorporate long slow runs into your workout routine. If you're already getting 1-2 circuit training/sprint session a week, you don't need any more. Long slow runs (by long, I mean 5-8 miles, and by slow, I mean you should feel like you got a solid run in, but not be dying at the end of the run) are good because they build up cardio endurance. I never did any cardio outside of PT besides long runs, and always did well on my runs. It also has the added benefit of helping with your ab muscles.

On a related note, how do you fare on pull-ups? I ask because we never focused on pull-ups in ROTC, and it made for an uncomfortable time when I went to Airborne. I had to work a lot on my own to bring my pull-ups to an acceptable level.

[shootingman99]

Could you go into a little more detail, as far as what you do for PT with ROTC, as well as what kind of lifting you do? Without knowing any more about what you do, my advice would be to go ahead and incorporate long slow runs into your workout routine. If you're already getting 1-2 circuit training/sprint session a week, you don't need any more. Long slow runs (by long, I mean 5-8 miles, and by slow, I mean you should feel like you got a solid run in, but not be dying at the end of the run) are good because they build up cardio endurance. I never did any cardio outside of PT besides long runs, and always did well on my runs. It also has the added benefit of helping with your ab muscles.

On a related note, how do you fare on pull-ups? I ask because we never focused on pull-ups in ROTC, and it made for an uncomfortable time when I went to Airborne. I had to work a lot on my own to bring my pull-ups to an acceptable level.

Thanks for responding man! I had my pt test this morning. Got:

Pushups: 74
Situps: 81
Run: 13:00

For a total of 306!

I was really happy with this. I tested my run the other day and couldnt get faster than 13:24, and that was without doing pushups and situps beforehand. So I went into the test thinking there was no way I'd get 300. My split for the first mile was 6:26, meaning I'd have to run almost the same to get 13. Last 100 meters I started puking, then heard them say 12:57, 12:58 and I got a little burst of speed. Bam right over the line at 13.

As for what type of lifting I do, it heavy sets of bench, squat, deadlift, db row, and military press. No isolation. I can do 15 deadhang pullups so I should be fine for those. I used to put more of a priority on them, but we do them almost every day at pt.

[deathtaco]

I see this is a little over a week old, but hopefully you'll read this and be able to learn from my mistakes.

I say this not as a judgment of your character or physical fitness - but you are probably not doing PU to standard (note: nothing to worry about).

Noted on LDAC: You may have an 'easy' grader who lets you get away with shitty form, or the ROTC 'good' form. You may have a grader who grades to Army standard, you may have a grader who's pissed off at the world for the 2LT that screwed him in LDAC and will take it out on you. Get to the point where you can do 20 pushups over your max with GOOD FORM. I went to LDAC with the mentality that doing 82 Push Ups was awesome. I knocked them out fast and hard - but my form was acclimated to ROTC standards, which *in general* tend to be more lax. So note that.

IBOLC: if you branch Infantry - you are not to standard to IBOLC push ups. You will not "meet" the plane, you will "break" the plane. The grader must physically see your elbows over your triceps. If your hands are too far apart - you will not be able to lock out. If too close, your "titty bounce" will not allow you to break the plane. To forward, your chest will not go low enough, too far back your arms will block you. Technique? Hands directly under your shoulder, or a TINY bit more outward/forward (no more than 1-3 inches).

Practice cadence with a metronome of SOLID pushups. Do this for as long as you can, then go to your knees and keep knocking out that form. If you go to fast, your grader WILL tell you that you're going to fast. If you go to slow, you burn yourself out.

Your run time will suffer if you do not pass yourself accordingly. The 1-Mile track at Benning is 1-Mile per lap (hence the name!) and has a dog-leg in it, and it made of semi-loose small stone gravel. You also get a psych-out, as normally on 1/4 mile tracks, the straight away is roughly 100m....at Benning it's about 1/4 a mile! So you may sprint and run of of steam too early. So again, all about pacing off that 1-mile lap.

ROTC PT is worth nothing. LDAC PT is worth everything, IBOLC APFT is worth about 1/10 of your total score (little more) as well.
So food for though. Not putting you on blast or calling you a shit bag - this is just my experience and what's happened to me. Fix yourself off of my mistakes and excel beyond your peers. If you can match, and out preform their shitty form with perfect form, you are already leaps and bounds above them in capacity to use IBOLC as a learning tool, rather than focusing every minute of staying awake, sucking wind or hurting.

The less time you spend focusing on how out of shape you are, the more time you have to learn from the vast experience your NCO/Officer cadre!!!!


Good Luck.
Taco

[kclemens]

Actually ROTC PT does count for accession points. They take the Fall and Spring PT scores of your Junior year, or the year you go to LDAC.

[shootingman99]

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it. Seeing as how PT isn't counted till junior year I have been focusing on lifting for now as I really want a 315 bench and 500 deadlift. I got a 285 or so bench now at 185 lbs bodyweight, but I want the 3 plates haha. I know lifting isn't that important for the PT test or army fitness but I love it and while I have the time I want to get the best lifts possible then go back to max+ the pt test. Thanks for the advice on the push ups though I have do break parallel most of the time but probably not at torwards the end of the 2 minutes. Definitely something to work on.