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Every month, KMC members who score a perfect 100 in all testing categories on their official Air Force Fitness Assessment are recognized with a certificate or letter of recognition and have their picture displayed in the base paper.
Last month we highlighted Chief Master Sgt. Michael Crain, who took a year-round approach to maintaining excellent fitness. This month we talk with a technical sergeant who has been “getting functional” in preparation for jump school and earned his first perfect 100 along the way.
Tech. Sgt. Robert Angel
Expeditionary Crew Chief, 435 Air Mobility Squadron
PT Score: 100 percent, October 2009
Q: After 15 years in the Air Force, this is your first 100 percent. What made the difference this year?
A: I was always pretty ‘fit’; I just couldn’t quite get that perfect score. This year I started training for jump school, incorporated CrossFit training and changed up my diet.
Q: What was your experience with CrossFit?
A: I went through a fundamentals class with CrossFit Ramstein and learned a lot about how to work out better. Even without a gym. Being able to use my body weight and my environment effectively has really helped because I travel a lot.
Q: What’s an example of a workout that you have done while on the road?
A: You can always do squats, pushups, situps, burpees, and mountain climbers. Sometimes I will bring bands along to add extra resistance. A typical workout might look something like:
Four rounds:
• 25 burpees
• 50 situps
• 25 mountain climbers
• 40 pushups
I go through that entire circuit four times and try to get it done in as short a time as possible.
On another trip, I was in Croatia for a whole month. We found steel pipes in a dumpster and created a pull-up bar. We also created a set of weights from pipes and jugs full of water. This enabled us to do pull-ups, shoulder presses, dead lifts and tire flips from ‘trash’ we found lying around.
Q: As a physical training leader what workouts do you do with your unit?
A: I have started using some of these types of workouts within my squadron too. We never have enough equipment, so we tend to stick to body weight movements and circuits. Occasionally, we will throw on body armor for some of our workouts or shorter runs.
Q: Have any of your other squadron members experienced improvements similar to yours?
A: My commander checked our scores before and after we began implementing CrossFit concepts in our workouts and noticed that our scores went up. One individual went from scoring a 79 to scoring an 89 on his annual test.
Q: How did you change your diet?
A: My diet used to be higher in sugars, sodium and saturated fats. Now I am incorporating a lot of veggies and healthy, high-protein foods. This has helped me to keep on my muscle mass while losing weight. I went from 255 to 217 pounds and my strength actually increased.
Q: What’s your favorite meal?
A: For lunch, I have a big salad with spinach, chicken, raw garlic and extra veggies like peppers or broccoli. In the morning I eat whole grain cereal.
Q: What will you expect from jump school?
A: On day one, we will take the Army physical fitness test. The first week, they will try and burn us out with a lot of PT and challenges. From then on we will spend a lot of time jumping from towers and getting ready to jump out of planes.
Q: Has your new training approach helped you to get ready?
A: Yes. Having the type of endurance to carry a 250-pound person on your back for the length of a football field is the kind of thing that CrossFit has prepared me for that I did not get from traditional PT. We need to be quick, be able to throw, pick things up and get out of harm’s way. I will be ready.
Final Words:
Last month we talked about dedication and consistency. Sergeant Angel is a great example of an Airmen who has embraced a lifestyle change in an effort to become more fit and healthy. By utilizing the natural resources available – body armor, steel pipes, tires, and his own body – Sergeant Angel has been able to not only maintain his fitness while stuck in a hotel or on isolated TDYs, but actually increased it and earned his first 100 percent score. In an age where expensive machines, colorful squishy balls and bands are becoming the norm, sometimes it is worthwhile to get back to the basics and remind ourselves that fitness does not have to be flashy or expensive.
It is about learning how our body moves, and preparing ourselves for unexpected challenges. The Ramstein Physical Therapy Clinic just hosted a Functional Fitness Challenge, featuring an obstacle course-like circuit of rowing, pull ups, kettle bells, litter carries and more – testing our Airmen’s readiness to perform when it really counts.
For more information on functional fitness, check out the Hard Core Fitness classes at our Ramstein Fitness Centers or attend the Total Fit PTL training courses.
Getting functional and fine tuning his diet helped Sergeant Angel take his first leap in to Club 100. Do you have what it takes?
