CommunityEditor
08-25-2009, 07:29 PM
If you want to pass your PT test next year, you’d better turn on the juice.
New scoring sheets show faster run times and more push-ups and sit-ups. The one bit of good news: You won’t have to suck in your gut — the 32-inch waist is history.
The weighted point system is the finishing touch to the service’s facelift of its fitness program, scheduled to take effect in January.
Air Force Times on Aug. 13 obtained a draft of the scoring sheets, one that service leaders are using to update the Air Force Instruction. The release date for the rules manual is in September.
The Air Force released the sheets Aug. 21 on its personnel center Web site.
“These [scores] are based on current scientifically published data and are a historical first,” Capt. Christina Hoggatt wrote in an e-mail to Air Force Times on Aug. 20.
Former Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley and other service leaders worked on the new program for more than a year after recognizing the “fit to fight” program, started in 2004, didn’t deter cheating or keep airmen from falling out of shape after taking their test.
The service used databases employed by the Cooper Institute, a physical fitness organization, and recognized by the American College of Sports Medicine in developing the test, Hoggatt wrote.
When the officials rolled out the new PT test in June, they warned airmen that scoring would be tougher — and it is, matching the other changes:
* You’ll have to take the PT test twice a year at a centralized location, “a fitness assessment cell,” and your scores will be recorded by a civilian fitness expert — not another airman — so there’s no chance of cheating.
* Age groups for scoring will be in increments of 10 years instead of five. The new categories: younger than 30, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60 and older.
“This is simpler, more direct and more efficient,” Hoggatt wrote.
* Components of the test, though, stay the same: one minute of push-ups, one minute of sit-ups, a 1.5-mile run and “abdominal circumference.”
* The maximum waist measurement is increasing from 32.5 inches to 35 inches for men and from 29 inches to 31.5 inches for women, though height and age still won’t be taken into account.
* The point totals for each activity: sit-ups and push-ups stay at 10 each, the run increases from 50 to 60, and the waist measurement goes from 30 to 20. The increments to earn points also have changed. For example, the old test required an airman to shave 45 seconds off his run to improve his score. The increment is now 15 seconds.
“We adjusted the scales so they have some more sense to them,” Maj. Gen. Darrell D. Jones, who helped oversee the changes, said at the time the new test was released.
Officials laid out the new increments to encourage airmen to improve their scores.
A perfect score is 100 points — the same as it is now. To pass, you still must earn at least 75 points, but next year you also will have to get a minimum score for each component. The days of making up for a poor push-up score with a fast run time are over.
For a woman in the 40-49 age category to pass, for example, she must do 11 push-ups, 24 sit-ups, finish the run in 18:14 and have a waist no bigger than 35.5 inches. A perfect score for her: 38 or more push-ups, 41 or more sit-ups, a run of 11:22 or under, and a waist no bigger than 29 inches.
At the time of the rollout, Jones explained the service decided not to factor age and height into the waist measurement because medical reports show they shouldn’t play a part in it.
“Height isn’t going to come into it because it’s about the visceral fat that surrounds the abdomen,” McKinley told Air Force Times earlier this summer.
Officials chose to keep the waist measurement because it predicts future health problems, said Jones, director of force management policy.
The new scoring sheets will help airmen make that connection. Risk levels — low, moderate or high — are attached to each run time and waist size as a predictor to “cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers and other health problems.”
Airmen, though, shouldn’t get comfortable being at the moderate level because they are still at increased risk of “creeping health problems,” Hoggatt wrote.
“Movement from high to moderate or moderate to low health risk signifies an improvement in fitness and a reduction in health risk with a corresponding important reduction in health care cost,” she wrote.
Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/08/airforce_pt_test_082409w/
Scoring Sheet for Men: http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/airforce_ptscoring_men.pdf
Scoring Sheet for Women: http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/airforce_ptscoring_women.pdf
New scoring sheets show faster run times and more push-ups and sit-ups. The one bit of good news: You won’t have to suck in your gut — the 32-inch waist is history.
The weighted point system is the finishing touch to the service’s facelift of its fitness program, scheduled to take effect in January.
Air Force Times on Aug. 13 obtained a draft of the scoring sheets, one that service leaders are using to update the Air Force Instruction. The release date for the rules manual is in September.
The Air Force released the sheets Aug. 21 on its personnel center Web site.
“These [scores] are based on current scientifically published data and are a historical first,” Capt. Christina Hoggatt wrote in an e-mail to Air Force Times on Aug. 20.
Former Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley and other service leaders worked on the new program for more than a year after recognizing the “fit to fight” program, started in 2004, didn’t deter cheating or keep airmen from falling out of shape after taking their test.
The service used databases employed by the Cooper Institute, a physical fitness organization, and recognized by the American College of Sports Medicine in developing the test, Hoggatt wrote.
When the officials rolled out the new PT test in June, they warned airmen that scoring would be tougher — and it is, matching the other changes:
* You’ll have to take the PT test twice a year at a centralized location, “a fitness assessment cell,” and your scores will be recorded by a civilian fitness expert — not another airman — so there’s no chance of cheating.
* Age groups for scoring will be in increments of 10 years instead of five. The new categories: younger than 30, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60 and older.
“This is simpler, more direct and more efficient,” Hoggatt wrote.
* Components of the test, though, stay the same: one minute of push-ups, one minute of sit-ups, a 1.5-mile run and “abdominal circumference.”
* The maximum waist measurement is increasing from 32.5 inches to 35 inches for men and from 29 inches to 31.5 inches for women, though height and age still won’t be taken into account.
* The point totals for each activity: sit-ups and push-ups stay at 10 each, the run increases from 50 to 60, and the waist measurement goes from 30 to 20. The increments to earn points also have changed. For example, the old test required an airman to shave 45 seconds off his run to improve his score. The increment is now 15 seconds.
“We adjusted the scales so they have some more sense to them,” Maj. Gen. Darrell D. Jones, who helped oversee the changes, said at the time the new test was released.
Officials laid out the new increments to encourage airmen to improve their scores.
A perfect score is 100 points — the same as it is now. To pass, you still must earn at least 75 points, but next year you also will have to get a minimum score for each component. The days of making up for a poor push-up score with a fast run time are over.
For a woman in the 40-49 age category to pass, for example, she must do 11 push-ups, 24 sit-ups, finish the run in 18:14 and have a waist no bigger than 35.5 inches. A perfect score for her: 38 or more push-ups, 41 or more sit-ups, a run of 11:22 or under, and a waist no bigger than 29 inches.
At the time of the rollout, Jones explained the service decided not to factor age and height into the waist measurement because medical reports show they shouldn’t play a part in it.
“Height isn’t going to come into it because it’s about the visceral fat that surrounds the abdomen,” McKinley told Air Force Times earlier this summer.
Officials chose to keep the waist measurement because it predicts future health problems, said Jones, director of force management policy.
The new scoring sheets will help airmen make that connection. Risk levels — low, moderate or high — are attached to each run time and waist size as a predictor to “cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers and other health problems.”
Airmen, though, shouldn’t get comfortable being at the moderate level because they are still at increased risk of “creeping health problems,” Hoggatt wrote.
“Movement from high to moderate or moderate to low health risk signifies an improvement in fitness and a reduction in health risk with a corresponding important reduction in health care cost,” she wrote.
Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/08/airforce_pt_test_082409w/
Scoring Sheet for Men: http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/airforce_ptscoring_men.pdf
Scoring Sheet for Women: http://www.militarytimes.com/static/projects/pages/airforce_ptscoring_women.pdf