I thought it would be fitting to make my first post about the very first thing I do several days a week: PT.

 

PT stands for Physical Training and is an integral part of Army ROTC and the Army overall. Being in shape is important because technically, you should be able to complete any kind of mission without the physical fitness aspect holding you back. However, the ability to complete missions isn’t the only thing it’s useful for. Practicing the discipline it takes to strengthen your body and push your limits creates character and those concepts will ideally transfer to other tasks you will have to do as an Army officer. I feel that since Army ROTC’s main focus is not completing missions, the latter is what we really do PT for.

The uniform for PT is called the Army Physical Fitness Uniform (APFU). It consists of a t-shirt, shorts, a reflective PT belt, and whatever sneakers you want. During the winter, we wear a long sleeve t-shirt on top of the other one and then a track suit as well. If we are inside when we wear the winter uniform, we take off most of the layers.

Let’s get into what PT actually is. Three mornings a week, I meet with the rest of my company from 0550 until 0700. The usual meeting spot is the Multi-Sport Facility (the indoor track by the BJC), however sometimes we meet at the IM Building, Rec Hall, or other spots around campus. We get into a typical formation and take accountability. Our company first sergeant will tell us what the PT plan is for that morning. We then break into squads and conduct the standard Army prep drills, which is basically just a warm up.

The actual PT sessions can be a number of things. Some days we do intervals on the track, some days we run up and down the stairs the whole time. We also do things like circuit workouts focusing on legs, abs, etc. On Wednesdays we often alternate between doing Ability Group Runs (AGRs) and ruck marches. For AGRs we get into groups based on our 2-mile times and run around campus. These really help with preparing for the 2-mile run on the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) that we take every semester for a grade. Ruck marches are a little harder; we fill backpacks with about 35 pounds and walk/run around campus. These can range anywhere from 2-10 miles. Our battalion even did a 26-mile marathon ruck last year. Rucking is a crucial part of the Army so we do it pretty often.

The cool part about PT is that it is the responsibility of the cadets to come up with them. When you’re tasked with coming up with a PT session, there are specific measures you have to follow that are the same as what an officer in the Army would follow. Cadets can come up with basically anything they want, as long as it gets approved by higher up. I think it’s a really cool way for us to get practice with Army procedures as well as be more interactive with our activities. If we’re gonna wake up at 0515 to work out, we might as well have a say in what we do, right?

This is an example of a PT plan that a cadet would have to make.

After the main part of the workout is complete, we conduct standard Army cool down drills. Lastly, our company leadership gathers us all up and delivers any important information or announcements for the day or week. For example, every Thursday they make sure we all know what our lab is for that afternoon, where it will take place, and what the uniform is. After this point, we are released from PT and we all go off to start our day like any other PSU student.