Air Force TFOT Physical Training (PT) Prep

Congratulations on your selection for Total Force Officer Training (TFOT)!  The first thing you should do as you prepare for the physical portions of the course is become familiar with the Air Force physical training (PT) program.  Everyone in the Air Force has to take a PT test every six months / every one-year depending on their score.  If the score is between 75-89, you must test every six months.  If the score is between 90-100, you must test every year.  I should note that it is officially called the Fitness Assessment program, but everyone refers to it as “PT.”  Here is a post I did about the Air Force Fitness Assessment.

At TFOT there are 2-3 physical assessments depending on whatever is in the curriculum at the time (the curriculum may change about every two years).  The first one is the Physical Fitness Baseline (PFB), and the final one is the Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA).  The main takeaway is that each one is administered exactly like an Air Force Fitness Assessment.  Due to this, I recommend you tailor your pre-TFOT training regime to target a score of 100.  There is too much at stake to slack off on this.  If you fail a test, 9 times out of 10 you will be dropped from the course.  The good news is that all of the fitness assessment criteria is available online to include what you have to score and how the test is administered.  You really have no excuse for not being prepared.

A member of the Air Force Journey Forum on Facebook has a degree in sports physiology and is a certified clinical exercise physiologist.  While he is available, he has offered to assist people with their TFOT-prep training plan.  Here is some general advice he offered.  If you have a question, post a comment to this blog post or to the post in the forum, and he will reply (as long as he is still available).  Here is his general advice.

Here is a link to this post in the forum.

Preparing for the TFOT Physical Assessments

There is no universal routine to fitness that fits every person’s schedule, needs, or goals.  Find what time and activities work best for you and plan toward what you need to succeed.  That can differ from having a workout partner, getting up at 0300 every morning, or not grabbing that Starbucks on your way to work.  Make your goals real and sustainable, and it will transfer to your training and PT results.

The key to improvement is constancy – running once or twice a month will not cut it.  Eat healthy, stay active, and avoid injury.  Perform a mock PT test once a month.  Have a friend time you, make them read the rules and be strict on form and time.

Running

Safety should be your priority.  If you are just starting to be active, run no more than 2-3 times a week for the first 2-3 weeks.  Start by going to a track or somewhere flat so you can get an idea on what condition you are in for the assessment.  Try to increase your distance or your speed a little each week.  Generally, increase the total mileage by about 10% until you are more acclimated.  Try gearing your runs towards distance (run for X number of miles), speed (run at a set pace for a set duration), or sprint repeat (for example 60 second sprint, 120 walk/jog, repeat).  Always remember to rest, the body rebuilds muscles and makes repairs on the time off, not time on.  Swimming laps and biking are examples of great alternative to running that also increase cardiovascular endurance without stress on the bones.

Strength

The sit ups and push ups are the easiest to improve by continual practice.  The PT assessment is a timed event, but you do not need to practice timing yourself when first starting out.  Start with something as simple as ‘one by threes’ and your body will adapt quicker than you may think.

Don’t Forget

• More does not mean better.  Two-a-days and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts are not necessary to create meaningful results.
• Incorporating resistance training throughout the week will improve fitness and aid in multiple areas of training for the PT assessment.
• Eating healthy does not mean starving yourself or going on fad diets.  If it helps, research into the foods you know you like and make a healthy plan around that.

What sort of pace should I be prepared for on long longer runs 3-5 miles?

Depends on your current ability to run.  When going for longer distances in running I usually recommend not to worry so much about the time.  My reasoning for this, once you can run 5 miles easily you can begin to run 5 miles faster.  The first step would to get condition to body and muscles to tolerate the stress of running for 5 straight miles.  Once that is done you can break into speed drills and hill repeats.

Just for a ball park I like to be about 85% of maximum effort on longer runs.  Use the talk test if a heart rate monitor is unavailable, you should be able to hold a decent conversation at the longer runs.

Heart rate is more ideal, to calculate a rough maximum heart rate, take 220 and subtract your age.  If your 20 then it’s 200.  Very conditioned individuals will not get to that number.  For example my max in theory is 195.  I’ve never seen over 190.  But for my runs 185 Is about 95% of my Max speed so 160hr is what I consider comfortable for longer distances.

Lactic acid builds up faster as heart rate increases, this is know as vo2 max or lactic threshold.  At 160hr my body can remove more lactic acid then it produces, at 185 my body produces more then it can remove which results in that burning sensation, fatigue and the inevitable slowing down or walking.

Heart rate will change over training.  Your heart will become more efficient and the heart rate needed to maintain certain speeds will go down.  Approximately 1bpm per week, so after 10 weeks of training your max hr might drop from 190 to 180 with no change in mile time.

To summarize, work on running 5 miles without stopping.  Just because you can run a 6 minute mile doesn’t mean you could run 3 miles at 9 minute mile paces.  Forget the stopwatch and look at those mile markers.