Quote Originally Posted by Ski View Post
I did PT in the afternoon when I was stationed in the Beltway, and have continued this "new" found process here at Leavenweorth for the last two years.
I hated doing PT in the mornings when I was in a maneuver unit. But when I moved to the beltway, I started voluntarily waking up even earlier to hit the gym as soon as it opened. Maybe it's because I was doing a workout that made sense for me (someone who is naturally thin) rather than a workout designed to ensure that Soldiers don't get fat.

In the beltway, I hated being in a unit where the lowest ranking guy was an E6... except when it came to PT, because it was big boy rules. The downside was that some of the kids couldn't play by the big boy rules. I was embarrassed on behalf of the Army when our unit took an APFT. Commissioned officers failing the run, doing the minimum number of pushups/situps. During one APFT, I was the only person who did a full two-minutes of each, without quitting. Unbelievable. A Major actually asked me, "why did you do the full two minutes?" I was tactful.

Those cases aside, I think there is also a lot to be said for having greater control over one's workout. Much of our PT regimen in the maneuver world was dictated by higher (division mandated combatives on Thu; Div, Bde, or Bn held group runs on Fridays; other random stuff - my personal favorite was scheduling the obstacle course for my platoon and then being locked down in the company area for a surprise urinalysis and having someone call the unit to chew out my commander because my platoon was a no-show).

Regarding other comments about combat-focused PT...

One of the obstacles to not doing more combat-focused PT is that the chain of command gets too deep into the weeds, planning much of it for you; or you plan something and then the training calender gets turned upside down. For example, I was never a fan of doing combatives for PT, but it was dictated. Combatives requires a lot of practice. I think we sacrificed developing skills by using it for PT rather than looking at it in the way that we look at marksmanship. Would you do stress shoots as a form of PT before you teach your Soldiers the fundamentals of marksmanship? That is essentially what we were doing with combatives.