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Mandatory PT time ends Jan. 1

There will be no more mandatory workday workout time starting in January.

The Air Force is getting rid of the requirement next year, leaving it up to commanders whether to build exercise time into your shift. Right now, according to Air Force Instruction 10-248, your leaders should be giving you at least 90 minutes three times a week for physical training — unless going to the gym interferes with getting the job done.

Though that edict will not be in the 2010 edition of AFI, the revised statement will hold commanders accountable for “providing a work environment that supports healthy lifestyle choices,” according to Maj. Richelle A. Dowdell, an Air Force spokeswoman.

“The new policy is focused on placing responsibilities for individual fitness where they should be — with the individual,” Dowdell wrote in an e-mail to Air Force Times. “Commanders are required to establish unit PT programs and they are encouraged, but not required, to schedule or authorize time for physical fitness training during the duty day.”

There are airmen on both sides of the issue.

A few of you said you wonder how it makes sense to eliminate the workday workouts, yet institute a tougher PT test, which also debuts in just three short months. Others, though, argue fitness should be an airman’s responsibility — not the commander’s.

And there’s a mix of the supporters and opponents who point out that many commanders either already give short shrift to fitness — using “the mission” as a way to skirt the mandate — or can’t get the unit PT program quite right, making it it’s too easy and not getting anyone body in shape or too hard and putting airmen at risk of injury.

Say what? Word of the new rule went out on the Web in a round-about way.

A user of www.airforcetimes.com, “technomage1,” posted a poll that asked his fellow airmen: “Should unit PT be prohibited under the new AFI?” “Technomage1” put out a little explainer with his question and a bit of personal history.

“With the new fitness AFI coming out, I’m wondering if it’s not time for a return to the days when fitness was solely the member’s responsibility,” he told his fellow forum contributors. “When I first came in, you had your bike test once a year;, if you failed you took the consequences of it. There was no unit PT; at best you had a supervisor that liked to work out and would give you time (mission allowing) to do it. But if that wasn’t the case it was still on you to find time to do so on your own.”

The poll drew 35 votes, 18 — or 51 percent — in favor, and went over the pros and cons of mandatory workouts. Of the more than 70 responses on Air Force Times’ site, only a handful thought ending the mandate was a bad idea.

“I say do not eliminate unit PT. No unit PT, for most people, will mean ‘No PT,’ especially for leadership. It’s just going to make things worse,” wrote a user who goes by “sanguines.” “You can’t institute a higher standard and simultaneously lower the required practice, in any field.”

From “JTAC_Sean”: “I don’t get what you guys all have against forming up as a group, doing some push-ups and sit-ups, maybe some circuit training, and then going on a two or three mile run together. No, it isn’t going to make you Superman, but you’ll at least be in some kind of shape.”

At an open forum of command chief master sergeants, an unidentified audience member asked the senior noncommissioned officers what they thought about eliminating the workday workouts.

“This appears inconsistent with the new emphasis to create and maintain an atmosphere of fitness,” the questioner wrote on a card, read aloud to the panel by Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy.

Across the board, the enlisted leaders supported the new rule and put the responsibility of getting and staying in shape on airmen.

Chief Master Sgt. Michael P. Gilbert, of Air Force Special Operations Command, pointed out that the new AFI “doesn’t prevent airmen from working out,” but they might have to exercise more “after hours” and “on the weekends.”

Air Force leaders wanted to leave a unit’s fitness program to a commander’s discretion because the mission must come first, he said.

“Look at the position you are putting commanders in,” Gilbert said. “You are required to do fitness and you are required to fly these jets by 9 o’clock. You pick.”

The senior NCOs are in line with the way many airmen are thinking.

“The current system is broken and should be tossed, just tell people to do it on their own,” wrote “DomoreWithless52.” “Op tempo for many units is crazy and there’s no time for organized PT.”

A user who goes by “Bael” put it this way: “Unit PT should be at the discretion of the commander. Commanders need the flexibility to turn group PT on and off according to manning needs.”

“VFFSSGT” is more than willing to take care of himself: “I sleep, eat, bathe, haircut, brush teeth, CDC’s, promotion study, work, etc. on my own; I should be able to PT on my own too.”

Unit PT for “technomage1” has been “very much been [a] mixed bag.”

“Since the changes started in 2004 [the year that the Air Force instituted the PT test], I’ve only seen effective unit PT for about a year — the other PT programs were either way too hard and resulted in injuring many people participating, or way too easy and were a waste of time. Since everyone has different ability levels, to me the only effective unit PT is to do a series of stretches, strength building exercises, then release people to do cardio on their own, to their pace,” technomage1 wrote.

“I’m so fed up with the PT programs either injuring people or being way to easy (and this is at various bases and with different cc’s too, this just isn’t applying to my current unit PT) that I’m ready to wash my hands of the whole thing and bring back the days when we as members were responsible for our own fitness.”

Those who deal directly with fitness — PT leaders, civilian health workers — are hopeful that commanders will work in exercise time for their airmen if they can.

Tech Sgt. Chris Gibson, for one, said he doesn’t expect the 6 a.m. PT sessions that he leads at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, to end just because his commander’s mandate does.

“Our program isn’t going anywhere,” said Gibson, who puts the 15th Medical Group through the motions.

After the Air Force announced the tougher test this summer, civilian fitness expert Jason Ham told Air Force Times that commanders might give their airmen more time — not less — to work out since there is more focus on results.

“This is a high-visibility item for commanders because they have to report these metrics to their major command,” said Ham, who directs Hickam’s Human Performance and Rehabilitation Center. “Commanders will be more accountable for this program.”

Staff Sgt. Joseph Sparlin, the unit fitness program manager for the 437th Maintenance Operations Squadron at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., said he hopes commanders don’t lose sight of those priorities.

“It’s challenging from a leadership perspective because they have to get the mission done,” he said. “My rebuttal is that the airmen are the mission. Having them fit to fight is taking care of your people.”

DISCUSS: PT time