Fitness Testing

So now I've managed to pass the MSFT level required to start training I'm almost home clear.

I found everything about the MSFT (or bleep test) to be a complete ball-ache. It's not easy to train for without just doing the bleep test inself. And I don't recommend that for your joints sake. I was given some pretty good tips by various people that helped a fair but with my training and testing and I think I should share that here.

Training wise, I've been doing an hours CV workout at least 3 times a week. I've been keeping it low-impact (bike, X-trainer etc) to save my joints as much as possible but I also have two treadmill programs I've been using.

One starts at 8.5km/h and get 0.5km/h faster every minute. The theory being that this is pretty much the speeds required on the bleep test (just without the turn and such) so the increasing effort would help with the nature ofthe test.

The second one makes you look like a complete muppet when youre running it. basically it's short interval training designed for increasing your anaerobic performance. Mine was a 11km/h jog for 30s, then a 15s sprint, back down to jog for 30s, faster sprint, jog, faster sprint etc etc etc. You look crazy and it's very hard work but definately worth the pain.

The only other thing to train for is the turn part, I was given various techniques for saving your knees and ankles but they tend to include looping which increases the distance you have to run. The best way is to sprint through the middle, slow down using quick but shorter steps then just tap the line with one foot, drop your hips, pivot and push off hard.

On the day the only real advice is to just go for it. Depending on the PTI running the test, you may or may not have to stop at the line on later levels if you reach it before the beep. At Halton you must stop, but when I retook it the PTI yelled at me to keep running whenever I waited at the line on level 8.

The last trick is to use the 'warning' calls to your advantage. Everytime I've run the MSFT I've been told you have 2 warnings and on the 3rd you're out. Make sure you sprint to make the line before your 3rd strike as some places will count your score as the shuttle before you started struggling. Making the shuttle on your last warning negates this and usually gives you the energy boost to get a few more in.

The press-ups and sit-ups are fairly simple. If you can't do them all I can advise is doing alot more weights and manning up a bit. Needless to say I banged them out no problem.

Very boring post from me but I have one left to do for the final interview section and then, in four weeks time, I'll be blogging from RAF Halton on recruit training. So things will get much more interesting.