What can we do to motivate our troops to stay fit and pass the PT besides the normal punishment?

Maj Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 20 May 2016 09:29:39 -0400

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 20 at 2016 10:03 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 20 May 2016 10:03:04 -0400

I had this issue as a platoon Sergeant and I realized that my joes wanted to be like me. I got into the best shape of my life and challenged them. I offered 3 day passes for PT scores. I made it cool to be a PT stud and they bought in. You're gonna have those rebels that don't listen but the Army will weed them out. I made PT fun and became what I wanted them to be.

Response by Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth made May 20 at 2016 10:11 AM

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth — Fri, 20 May 2016 10:11:23 -0400

To me...this has always been a personnel responsibility and accountability issue. Give them the standards...they are adults. It isn't something you do...it is part of what your job entails...it is in the job description...this ain't the boy scouts. If getting kicked out of the service and losing your ability to serve because you failed to train and stay fit isn't enough motivation, then I believe there is nothing you as a leader can do to motivate them. I tried everything from passes for excellent scores, PTing with them, making them log their PT training and sending it to me for a record...finally, I just went to rewarding excellent scores, and kicking out the repeated failures...don't have time for them if they don't have time for themselves. Self Critiquing is the way I look at it. I agree with the comment below. This is a simple task...if they can't get themselves right, how can we trust them with a greater mission.

With all that being said, we need leaders that are living the mantra...we have some leaders who can barely pass the test because they don't make it a priority...how can they expect their subordinates to make it a priority as well. The unit and its personnel will take on the attitudes and ideals of its leadership...top down.

Response by Capt Michael Greene made May 20 at 2016 10:14 AM

Capt Michael Greene — Fri, 20 May 2016 10:14:49 -0400

Two thoughts come to mind from the perspective of an old retired guy. First, the most effective way to improve the fitness of a group is to do regularly group PT like the Army--each day or perhaps twice each week. Second, in real life, I never needed to sprint across the tarmac to get a toolbox to the other side, so exactly why is physical fitness a problem? Maintainers aren't storm troopers. What is the Air Force's real motivation for requiring fitness? Why does the AF feel the need to discharge an expensively trained, highly experienced technical specialist because he's overweight and underfit?

Response by SGT Dave Tracy made May 20 at 2016 10:30 AM

SGT Dave Tracy — Fri, 20 May 2016 10:30:46 -0400

My flippant answer would be: On a group run, have the unit PT Studs chase everyone else with cattle prods.

On a serious note, I honestly don't know. Hell, it's hard for ME to stay motivated to do PT, even though I pass my PT tests. The problem is particularly acute with regard to drilling Reservists and Guard as PT is 100% individualistic. With the guys on my team--who passed their PT test last weekend too BTW--I have been checking in weekly with them regarding their personal PT, and with a couple of them, I have worked out a PT plan to at least provide a framework for what they can and should do to keep themselves fit and ready for the test. In truth, outside of this, I have no great ideas about what I can do to motivate them to do what they must to stay fit. Though based on their last test, my team seem have the motivation they need to pass.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made May 20 at 2016 10:43 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 20 May 2016 10:43:00 -0400

Do engaging PT.
My section doesn't always do PT together, because of schedules and physical limitations. But when we do, we are in the gym, doing core, working machines, jump roping, Tabata, etc.
PRT and running every other day are fine and dandy, if you want half the group to burn out.
We get our cardio with rowing, biking, and those who can run go on 1-2 runs a week.
we literally finish an entire workout in 20-30min, that at our unit would take 90min. Then we go and challenge ourselves individually for an additional 10-20 min, and are exhausted and well worked.
I am in better shape now (doing maybe 1-2 sessions as a group each week) than I was doing 5xwk with my last unit, or even 5xmorning-4xafternoon when I was recovering from my knee injury.

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made May 20 at 2016 1:08 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Fri, 20 May 2016 13:08:34 -0400

Good leadership provides two things: the desire to excel and the desire to support the team. It requires good PT Trainers to provide good, physical PT. We also played flag football on Fridays. We ran a lot and the team scored on had to do push ups and sit ups. If we scored a 250 average as a team I gave them 4 day weekends to be staggered. If you score 270 and above you get to do PT on your own on Fridays. Good luck.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made May 20 at 2016 2:40 PM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Fri, 20 May 2016 14:40:29 -0400

Stop treating Health as something that needs to be Rewarded or Punished.

- We don't punish people for being unhealthy (Which is what the Physical FITNESS Test is about). We "punish" them for failing to maintain a regulatory standard. The regulatory standard for failure to pass PFTs (et al) is explicitly defined, but it isn't "punishment" it's "administration."

Stop Training for the Test.

- If you know all the answers to a test before you walk in, you'll pass the test. You'll never truly excel at it though. To do that, you need to understand the underlying concepts regarding the Subject Material, and APPLY it to the Test. Fitness is the Subject Material. Run, Push-up, Sit-up are the "questions." Make people Experts at their own Health and Fitness and they will excel at the stupid test.

This gets into Philosophy of Fitness. If your folks "dread" PT they won't PT, and they will be bad at it. If you make PT something that shouldn't be dreaded, you're on the right track.

CC MAJ Private RallyPoint Member

Response by SSG Carlos Madden made May 20 at 2016 4:01 PM

SSG Carlos Madden — Fri, 20 May 2016 16:01:40 -0400

From my experience, the younger generation is far more motivated by rewards, not punishment. Punishing them just makes them resent you, it does little to alter their behavior.

Response by LT Isaac Gordon made May 20 at 2016 5:33 PM

LT Isaac Gordon — Fri, 20 May 2016 17:33:56 -0400

Aside from all the leadership theory stuff, one solution that I saw work very well at a small unit was to run a PT test for the whole unit every Friday morning. As long as everyone passed, we played beach volleyball the rest of the day and grilled steaks for lunch.

Response by SPC Kenneth Koerperich made May 21 at 2016 6:48 AM

SPC Kenneth Koerperich — Sat, 21 May 2016 06:48:46 -0400

It's not punishment. It's administration. Which is "Remedial" Training. Now, it all comes down to how motivated are you, the OIC?? When I was in, our officers ran minimum 3 times a week PT w/ us. It's a great motivator. Especially when, sorry, @ their age they are smoking the 20 yr old bracket in all 3 events....That's motivation for most. The rest, if remedial can't correct it, then you, as the OIC, have to follow Regs & kick their asses to the curb. They aren't worth your time after that. If they can't cut it/don't want to cut it, you did what you could.

Regs are Regs. So I wouldn't fret over it.

Enjoy Maj!

Response by CPL Patrick Brewbaker made May 21 at 2016 8:42 AM

CPL Patrick Brewbaker — Sat, 21 May 2016 08:42:14 -0400

Well what you can do is stop poisoning the water with Florine and chlorine. Start disinfecting with iodine. Iodine is the only friendly halogen. Increase iodine to 12 mg/day, and you would see a huge weight loss in the the troops. 12 mg/day is the average dosage of the Japanese individual. Do you see overweight Japanese. Stop using GMO foods. Suppliment probiotics, That would be a start.

If you are in right now and are weight management try this. It'll help you out.

But what do I know? I'm only a biologist/environmental microbiologist and clinical scientist.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made May 23 at 2016 10:36 AM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Mon, 23 May 2016 10:36:17 -0400

Personally, I believe more unit functions/PT would be a good motivator. When I joined the Fleet, I thought we'd be PTing every day. I thought everything would be just like Boot Camp. I think my squadron did unit PT 1-2 times a year. It was basically left to your individual work centers to oversee your PT. I was part of a small work center with few Marines to challenge me, so normally I was left to PT on my own. Pting on your own is fine and all, but you perform much better when you are in constant competition with others.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made May 26 at 2016 1:38 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 26 May 2016 13:38:00 -0400

The simplest answer is to make PT fun, and make fitness part of the Soldiers’ lifestyle. I'm not talking about just playing sports every day or week- but getting out from under the PRT, setting goals, and building towards them. It wasn’t until I was at TRADOC HQ when PT was totally on my own that I got in the best shape of my life. Knowing what dates I had to plan around a PT test, I set a goal to run a marathon and worked toward it every day. With my goal in mind, I could track my progress and use a plan to build on each previous day’s exercise. Also, when this goal became part of my life, I became more invested in it, and pushed harder to achieve it.

Something similar can be done at the unit level. Help Soldiers set goals- run a local 10-miler, field a team to run an endurance/obstacle challenge like Tough Mudder, climb a local mountain, hike/ruck a trail, find a local powerlifting competition, etc. With a goal far enough in advance, you can do the second most important thing- build towards it. Too often unit level PT is just a unit run or show up and do whatever the SGT leading today wants to do- it’s no wonder the PT failures don’t improve if there’s no effort to build fitness. Focus on progression and building off previous days, and Soldiers will notice gains. These gains build confidence, and achieving that goal is a great motivator.

Notice nowhere in here did I go back to PRT or the APFT events. These goals integrate fitness into their mindset (or at least it did for me), and makes it something fun and a valued part of life. The APFT is just a “measure of fitness,” and if appropriate goals and fitness plans are set and adhered to, they will pass.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 2 at 2016 12:52 PM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 12:52:16 -0400

dozen donuts at the end.