Most people who know me, know I served 23 years in the reserves. I served 19 of those years in the National Guard, and my last 4 in the Army Reserve. When I joined the National Guard, physical fitness tests were a joke. I was in a mechanized infantry battalion, serving in the battalion operations section. Most years the physical fitness test was conducted at a desk.
A senior NCO would pull out the Army Physical Fitness Test score card, and have me fill out the personal information. He'd then ask how fast I run, and I'd say "real fast". We'd negotiate the time, and he'd fill in the information for my 2 mile run. We'd then negotiate the push-ups and sit-ups, with the card finally completed and turned in. The only time I broke a sweat was when the air conditioner broke.
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Then things started to change. The Army standards were slowly enforced, and the physical fitness test cycle followed the Regular Army's twice a year schedule. The Army also instituted regulations where a test could only be administered by someone who had already passed the test. It became real obvious that staying in shape was very important if you wanted to continue to serve. But there was still some of the "good old boy" shirking of the rules happening, but not nearly to the scale as it was in the past.
Then Iraq invaded Kuwait, and there were huge call ups of reserves. At the mobilization sites, units were losing up to half of their numbers due to physical condition and weight issues. Suddenly the idea that compromising fitness standards to keep unit rosters full, left the units unable to perform their war time mission. And overnight, the standards changed. It was a great time to be a junior NCO, because promotions suddenly became available as the unfit were sent out of the service.
Up until this time, most people I served with treated the annual (and then semi-annual) physical fitness test and weigh-in as an event. The lifestyle the lived was sedentary, and fitness was not a thing to think about. They would mark their calendars, and a month before the test, they'd have one dessert after a meal instead of three, and dig their sneakers out of the garage and shuffle around the block a few times. After the first few days, they were generally crippled over, and feeling the pain. Even after several weeks of occasional preparation and dieting, many would still fear failing the test, so they'd get a "profile". This medical form kept them from having to take the test for a specific period of time. These were usually for some undiagnosable ache or pain, and would provide the person with a few more months to pretend they were getting ready for the test. The event caused dread. It was something to train for, and then they could stop exercising again for 5 months.
A small percentage of the soldiers would live a fitness lifestyle. A fitness lifestyle is one where decisions around diet, and time to exercise are worked into the person's life. Approaching fitness as a lifestyle turned the physical fitness test from being a dreaded event, to just another opportunity to exercise. As a person who lived a fitness lifestyle, I could determine how much effort I exerted for the test, and knew that I could put in minimal effort and still pass the test. Sometimes I did this in protest, maybe doing 41 push-ups when the minimum was 40, or I'd jog slowly and cross the line with time to spare. They wouldn't call it "the minimum", if it wasn't good enough. Striving for mediocrity.
On transferring to the Reserves in 2000, I was asked by my new Sergeant Major if I would be able to pass the physical fitness test at the next drill (a month later), so I could help administer the test for the rest of the unit. I chuckled, and said I could pass it right then, in my battle dress uniform, with the combat boots on. He asked if I had been training, and I said that I lived the lifestyle, so the event was just recording the workout for that day. We became instant friends, and much to his disappointment, he was no longer the fastest NCO in our unit.
Much of life is like this. We know what we should be doing to have a great quality of life, yet we postpone doing the necessary stuff until it resembles a wall we must climb. Transitioning from inaction to action can appear to be insurmountable. We dread the pain. Yet we know that once we get over the initial pain, we will find the happiness that is found in the lifestyle. This applies to many aspects of life. Inaction is self perpetuating.
Is being healthy a lifestyle for you, or are you still waiting for that one event to motivate you? Be the lifestyle. This journey called life is not a dress rehearsal.
If you like this blog post, please share it through your social media channels by using the buttons below.
A senior NCO would pull out the Army Physical Fitness Test score card, and have me fill out the personal information. He'd then ask how fast I run, and I'd say "real fast". We'd negotiate the time, and he'd fill in the information for my 2 mile run. We'd then negotiate the push-ups and sit-ups, with the card finally completed and turned in. The only time I broke a sweat was when the air conditioner broke.
View Army Physical Fitness Test and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.
Then things started to change. The Army standards were slowly enforced, and the physical fitness test cycle followed the Regular Army's twice a year schedule. The Army also instituted regulations where a test could only be administered by someone who had already passed the test. It became real obvious that staying in shape was very important if you wanted to continue to serve. But there was still some of the "good old boy" shirking of the rules happening, but not nearly to the scale as it was in the past.
Then Iraq invaded Kuwait, and there were huge call ups of reserves. At the mobilization sites, units were losing up to half of their numbers due to physical condition and weight issues. Suddenly the idea that compromising fitness standards to keep unit rosters full, left the units unable to perform their war time mission. And overnight, the standards changed. It was a great time to be a junior NCO, because promotions suddenly became available as the unfit were sent out of the service.
Up until this time, most people I served with treated the annual (and then semi-annual) physical fitness test and weigh-in as an event. The lifestyle the lived was sedentary, and fitness was not a thing to think about. They would mark their calendars, and a month before the test, they'd have one dessert after a meal instead of three, and dig their sneakers out of the garage and shuffle around the block a few times. After the first few days, they were generally crippled over, and feeling the pain. Even after several weeks of occasional preparation and dieting, many would still fear failing the test, so they'd get a "profile". This medical form kept them from having to take the test for a specific period of time. These were usually for some undiagnosable ache or pain, and would provide the person with a few more months to pretend they were getting ready for the test. The event caused dread. It was something to train for, and then they could stop exercising again for 5 months.
A small percentage of the soldiers would live a fitness lifestyle. A fitness lifestyle is one where decisions around diet, and time to exercise are worked into the person's life. Approaching fitness as a lifestyle turned the physical fitness test from being a dreaded event, to just another opportunity to exercise. As a person who lived a fitness lifestyle, I could determine how much effort I exerted for the test, and knew that I could put in minimal effort and still pass the test. Sometimes I did this in protest, maybe doing 41 push-ups when the minimum was 40, or I'd jog slowly and cross the line with time to spare. They wouldn't call it "the minimum", if it wasn't good enough. Striving for mediocrity.
On transferring to the Reserves in 2000, I was asked by my new Sergeant Major if I would be able to pass the physical fitness test at the next drill (a month later), so I could help administer the test for the rest of the unit. I chuckled, and said I could pass it right then, in my battle dress uniform, with the combat boots on. He asked if I had been training, and I said that I lived the lifestyle, so the event was just recording the workout for that day. We became instant friends, and much to his disappointment, he was no longer the fastest NCO in our unit.
Much of life is like this. We know what we should be doing to have a great quality of life, yet we postpone doing the necessary stuff until it resembles a wall we must climb. Transitioning from inaction to action can appear to be insurmountable. We dread the pain. Yet we know that once we get over the initial pain, we will find the happiness that is found in the lifestyle. This applies to many aspects of life. Inaction is self perpetuating.
Is being healthy a lifestyle for you, or are you still waiting for that one event to motivate you? Be the lifestyle. This journey called life is not a dress rehearsal.
If you like this blog post, please share it through your social media channels by using the buttons below.
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