Physical Training of med students/doctors

[CuriosityKillsMe]

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I'm interested in applying for the HPSP or going into military, specifically NAVY (not set in stone) after graduation from medical school, hoping to become a flight surgeon. What type of physical training do the medical students or doctors go through? Would I be stuck with academic duties solely pertaining to medicine or will I have a chance to pursue military training. If you have any stories that be great.

 

[TheEarDoc]

I'm interested in applying for the HPSP or going into military, specifically NAVY (not set in stone) after graduation from medical school, hoping to become a flight surgeon. What type of physical training do the medical students or doctors go through? Would I be stuck with academic duties solely pertaining to medicine or will I have a chance to pursue military training. If you have any stories that be great.

Learn to run and like it. No matter what you do in the military you are an officer first, provider second.

So I would suggest getting the physical fitness requirements for your branch and start training for those (they are switching over to new PT requirements after this year and they seem to be made by crossfitters).

You would have to complete basic officer leadership course (BOLC) training.

I am guessing they will still have the direct commissioning course when you would be in too (unless they decide to scrap that again and go back to 2 phases of BOLC).

 

[Perrotfish]

I'm interested in applying for the HPSP or going into military, specifically NAVY (not set in stone) after graduation from medical school, hoping to become a flight surgeon. What type of physical training do the medical students or doctors go through? Would I be stuck with academic duties solely pertaining to medicine or will I have a chance to pursue military training. If you have any stories that be great.

You take a physical fitness test every 6 months that consists of a weigh in, 1.5 mile run, push ups, and sit ups. You can google 'navy PFA' to see the standards. For most doctors the training for that test is 100% on your own, and the ones that get roped into group PT generally aren't that happy about it. The weight standard is hard for some people to meet but the fitness standards are insanely low. The test is basically pass fail, it doesn't affect your promotion to get a perfect school vs just barely passing, though failing is a big deal. I am told that that in the Army they care much more about having a really good score on the physical fitness tests.

Cool military training may or may not be available based on your job and duty station. You can do short courses on military topics, or longer courses like the 12 week trop med degree, flight school, or UMO school. If you can convince your command to pay for it you can also go to shooting competitions, jump school, ranger school, mountain leader school, or you could even do the 1 year wilderness medicine fellowship. Most people will only have the opportunity to do any of the above if they're doing a GMO tour, and even then it is dependent on operational tempo, budget, and having a good relationship with your command. That being said I think one reason hospital based physicians rarely do real military training is that they rarely ask. A short course or two may be doable even for a clinic doc. Again, none of this stuff really helps your career in the Navy. Again, I am told this is different in the Army, where I am told they care quite a bit about merit badges.

 

[HighPriest]

I am told that that in the Army they care much more about having a really good score on the physical fitness tests.

For any potential Army candidates: still not very important in the Army. It's a big deal if you fail. If you score a 300, maybe you get a three day pass. Maybe you don't. Depends upon your command. Other than that, it doesn't matter. I had two co-residents who as far as I know never got less than a 300 every time they did an APFT. I generally did what I needed to do to pass and then stopped - even if I could have done more - simply because I knew I wasn't going to get a 300 and nothing in between mattered in any way. My ego didn't require me to to pushups until my arms gave out. In any case, beyond them having an extra day off twice/year it didn't give them any advantage.

 

[244913]

I'm interested in applying for the HPSP or going into military, specifically NAVY (not set in stone) after graduation from medical school, hoping to become a flight surgeon. What type of physical training do the medical students or doctors go through? Would I be stuck with academic duties solely pertaining to medicine or will I have a chance to pursue military training. If you have any stories that be great.

This is more pertinent than physical exercise per se as a GMO or flight surgeon


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[colbgw02]

Because it looks like so much is getting shifted to FORSCOM, Army applicants should know about the tremendous emphasis MTOE units place on PT and the APFT. It's a whole different world than MEDCOM/TDA units.

 

[HighPriest]

Because it looks like so much is getting shifted to FORSCOM, Army applicants should know about the tremendous emphasis MTOE units place on PT and the APFT. It's a whole different world than MEDCOM/TDA units.

That’s an extremely good point.

There were two kinds of graders when I tested: 90% realized that I had no blocked time to prep and that the APFT meant very little for my MOS. 10% had it out for docs and were unreasonably strict.

I imagine the line is less lenient overall.

 

[Perrotfish]

That’s an extremely good point.

There were two kinds of graders when I tested: 90% realized that I had no blocked time to prep and that the APFT meant very little for my MOS. 10% had it out for docs and were unreasonably strict.

I imagine the line is less lenient overall.

Though with the new APFT I'm not sure how much the graders really matter. You can do half of a pushup or sit up and have it look kind of OK, but its really hard to do half of a deadlift in a way that looks even remotely acceptable.

 

[TheEarDoc]

For any potential Army candidates: still not very important in the Army. It's a big deal if you fail. If you score a 300, maybe you get a three day pass. Maybe you don't. Depends upon your command. Other than that, it doesn't matter. I had two co-residents who as far as I know never got less than a 300 every time they did an APFT. I generally did what I needed to do to pass and then stopped - even if I could have done more - simply because I knew I wasn't going to get a 300 and nothing in between mattered in any way. My ego didn't require me to to pushups until my arms gave out. In any case, beyond them having an extra day off twice/year it didn't give them any advantage.

No war eagle for you? 🙂


I too am curious how the new fitness test will be. I will be taking the first APFT in April if I have orders by then and am drilling by then and if not well then it looks like my first APFT will be the new crossfit games one. I've heard from many friends who have done it that it is a lot harder than the traditional push ups, sit ups, and run (especially depending on who is grading you for the traditional APFT ). I was happy to see longer run times. I can run, just not fast and I like the fact that you aren't expecting an office worker or medical officer to perform at the same level as a special forces or combat arms MOS. It will be interesting to see it.

 

[HighPriest]

Though with the new APFT I'm not sure how much the graders really matter. You can do half of a pushup or sit up and have it look kind of OK, but its really hard to do half of a deadlift in a way that looks even remotely acceptable.

Are they doing that already? I assumed it would take four generations to implement.

 

[pgg]

Most people who fail do so because they're out of weight standards.

I'm not entirely sure anyone has ever failed the physical fitness test who wasn't ALSO out of weight standards. Or injured. Or doing an experiment to see if they could get kicked out before their ADSO was up if they failed 3 in a row.

The performance standards are pretty low. It seems half of the Navy is in the 3 mile per year club.

Personally, I'm in the 0 mile per year club. The ~190 calorie per year stationary bicycle club meets inside a climate-controlled building, and we can watch TV during the test.

 

[backrow]

Personally, I'm in the 0 mile per year club. The ~190 calorie per year stationary bicycle club meets inside a climate-controlled building, and we can watch TV during the test.

I read that as 190 calls per test at first and was wondering how in the world....then I realized you’re one of the low weight folks who basically have to breath on the bike to pass 🙂



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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

You take a physical fitness test every 6 months that consists of a weigh in, 1.5 mile run, push ups, and sit ups.

Don’t forget you can do the bike in the Navy without any reason other than wanting to. And they also changed the pfa instruction. A low excellent gets you a pass on the next prt, so being in good shape means you only have to take it once a year.

During my last prt I watched the beginning of The Martian on my phone while cruising on the bike.

 

[Perrotfish]

Don’t forget you can do the bike in the Navy without any reason other than wanting to. And they also changed the pfa instruction. A low excellent gets you a pass on the next prt, so being in good shape means you only have to take it once a year.

During my last prt I watched the beginning of The Martian on my phone while cruising on the bike.

Or swim or treadmill, yeah.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Or swim or treadmill, yeah.

Yeah, but I find the swim to actually be more difficult than the run. The treadmill is nice, but they crank it up to 3% incline, and then I'm bouncing around too much to be able to read or watch a movie.

 

[backrow]

Yeah, but I find the swim to actually be more difficult than the run. The treadmill is nice, but they crank it up to 3% incline, and then I'm bouncing around too much to be able to read or watch a movie.

Did they change the instruction? Should be 1% incline, no?


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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Did they change the instruction? Should be 1% incline, no?


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No, you're right. It's been 4 years since I've done the treadmill. I've either run on the track or done the bike (mostly bike) since then.

 

[deuist]

I'm interested in applying for the HPSP or going into military, specifically NAVY (not set in stone) after graduation from medical school, hoping to become a flight surgeon. What type of physical training do the medical students or doctors go through? Would I be stuck with academic duties solely pertaining to medicine or will I have a chance to pursue military training. If you have any stories that be great.

For the Air Force, physical training was 100% on our own. So long as we passed, nothing else was said. As for military training, we weren't allowed to do anything unless we were hard-tasked for deployment and had to get through a particular school prior to going overseas. So no jump school, Ranger school, or tropical medicine courses for us.

 

[j4pac]

FYI...the Flight Surgeon standards for Navy at API in Pensacola are more difficult. You HAVE to run (no treadmill/swim/bike), run on a wood chip trail, and still pass at “good”. In order to pull that off...you really need to prep for “excellent” on pavement. You also have to have some basic skills at swimming...as you’ll do a TON of swimming in API.

There were a handful of baby flight docs who got a bit flabby but still passed PRT standards in internship, but struggled with API fitness.

 

[d2305]

When the AOCSers were there, there was an obstacle course. Not easy.