Wiesbaden, Germany
Being in the military you may think that soldiers spends hours, upon hours in the gym or always working out. On the contrary, soldiers do focused physical events that focus on battle readiness, and general physical fitness. PRT is the new system of PT that the Army has gone to which many of the old cats in the Army call it a joke or too soft. The purpose of the new PRT system is to reduce injury and maximize overall full body fitness.
Physical training events are always a fun activity to watch. So we think of physical fitness as going to the gym, running on the treadmill and lifting weights, then calling it a day; well some soldiers do the same thing. But for the most part a regular PT schedule changes events to help develop that total health. Some events I’ve seen for PT are Obstacle courses, rucking, company runs, team building events and even Army combative.
Company runs are used to build morale or esprit de corps. Company runs can be from a small company to the entire brigade (multiple companies running one after the other.) These run can be dragged out over many miles because of the long tail of the formation.
Normal pushups and sit-ups are a standard of testing in the Army world. If you can do pushups and sit-ups, you’re a star in PT.
When walking isn’t enough we train walking while carrying a minimum of 35 lb ruck (backpack). And sometimes we even get competitive and make it a race.
And even if that wasn’t enough we also do fight training as part of our physical fitness activities. There are even days were you get a certified combatives instructor to strike you in the face; with gloves of course.