Countless times I’ve heard Sailors ask the question “Why should I try for anything higher than a ‘GOOD LOW’ on the PRT?”, after all it “doesn’t count for anything”, right? Wrong. It does, and I’ll explain why.
First of all, if you’re not in the military, I’ll explain what the PRT is. PRT stands for Physical Readiness Test and is one of three parts of an overall health assessment conducted by the Navy called the PFA, or Physical Fitness Assessment. The other two parts of the PFA are the medical screening and the BCA (body composition assessment, which measures body fat in proportion to height and weight). Overall, these three parts provide the Navy with snapshot of a Sailor’s physical health and the entire thing is normally conducted twice per year.
So, if the minimum score of ‘GOOD LOW’ is passing, why strive for anything higher? Well, there are several reasons which I’ll explain below.
The Minimum Shouldn’t Be Good Enough for You
Anyone in the military has heard the old adage that we don’t do the minimum in anything. If you want to succeed, it simply isn’t good enough. Sure, the minimum is all that’s required, but it reminds me of the scene from Office Space when the restaurant manager is asking Jennifer Aniston why she isn’t wearing more flare than the minimum required amount. While funny, this still illustrates a good point. That point is that the minimum is just the line drawn to distinguish passing from failing. But it isn’t the line that we want people to border. Those bordering the minimums are just that much closer to potential failure. Any Sailor, or Marine, Airman, Soldier, or Coast Guardsman for that matter, should know that this isn’t what we learned in our training. We learned to strive for a better self, in all regards, and to always keep improving. Because of this, the minimum simply shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone wishing to truly improve themselves.
It Provides a Snapshot of Your Current Physical Health
Though simple in its three-part composition, the PRT does a pretty good job of giving Sailors an idea of where they stand in terms of their physical fitness. The medical screening and BCA also provide some insight in this area, but I’ll expound on those in a future post.
If you never test yourself, you’ll never know whether you’re improving, remaining stagnant, or, worse, declining in your performance. Just as the preceding section suggests that the minimums shouldn’t be good enough, this section adds that the PRT allows for you to measure your improvement. With upper body, core, and cardio portions of the PRT, it really does provide a good idea of the Sailor’s physical fitness.
Using myself as an example, I always strive to improve my scores in each area. Though I’m already performing at the ‘OUTSTANDING’ level, I continue to push myself to do better on each PRT. For example, I’ve always been a decent runner and gotten a good score on the cardio run portion, but I wasn’t maxing it out. A couple of years ago I was able to achieve the maximum score on the cardio run portion, but I have continued to attempt to beat my own score on each successive PRT even though it affords me no more points. The idea here is simple; even though I can do something that is labeled as ‘GOOD’, ‘EXCELLENT’, or ‘OUTSTANDING’, it shouldn’t be where I stop trying to improve myself. I can always be better.
It Reminds You to Always Focus on Your Health
Your health is one of the most important aspects of your life. Without health, you’d likely not be able to enjoy any other success that you achieve. Your health is one of those things in life that doesn’t lie. You can’t win the lottery with health like you can with money. If your health deteriorates, there won’t be any hiding it and it will drain you of all enjoyment of the other things you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
The CDC reports that “regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age,” and that it can also “reduce your risk of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better” (CDC, 2020) That alone should make it a no-brainer. And, if you consistently workout to improve your health, why wouldn’t you want to test yourself on the PRT to show it and benefit from it?
It Could Be That One Thing That Helps You Stand Out at a Board
If you’ve ever been up for a Sailor of the Quarter/Year board or a promotion selection board, you should know that every little thing counts. You never know when that one extra step you’ve taken can pay off and mean the difference between your selection, or someone else’s. Most Sailor’s don’t seem to think that it matters, but if the one thing separating you from your competition is PRT performance, who do you think will win? Again, this falls in line with the idea that the minimums should never be good enough for you. If you’re doing the minimums, you can’t expect to be on top at a selection board.
What I’m getting at here is that physical activity is inarguably one of the best things you can do for your body aside from proper nutrition, which I’ll also cover in another post. If you are truly concerned with maintaining a lifestyle of healthy activities and improving your physical performance, what reason could you have to only strive for the minimums on the PRT? I don’t’ think you should strive for the minimums. I think you should strive for the best you can achieve, even if you’ve already ‘maxed out’ all the points for the PRT. It doesn’t matter because that’s not the point. You can do more, and doing more will open more doors for you as you progress in life and in your Navy career.
*The opinions expressed in this article are my personal opinions and do not represent those of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, or any other military organization.
References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020, December 2). Benefits of Physical Activity. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/pa-health/index.htm.