Saturday, November 19, 2011

Welcome to the Rapid PT Blog!

Let me introduce myself (I'm not the guy pictured above). My name is Bryan and I'm excited to start the Rapid PT blog, which I created to help everyone in the USAF achieve at least an 80 on their PT test within 42 days (for those who don't know, this is the standard re-test period). Ideally, if the program is followed exactly, then 90s should be effortless.

At its core, my Rapid PT program is built upon sports nutrition, Paleo diet theory, and traditional human diets, as well as Paleo lifestyle theory. Fueled by my own curiosity, my personal diet and lifestyle philosophy have been influenced by several years of intense research, which has radically changed my understanding of how the human performs.

How the Rapid PT Program Got Started
Like many people in the military I struggled with my PT test. After the cycle test was replaced by the 1.5-mile run, I had to run for the first time since Basic. I worked out at the gym religiously (lifting weights), so I knew that my push-ups, sit-ups, and waist measurements would all be good. As for the run, I thought I could just show up without any preparation and blow the run out of the water. Of course, that’s not what happened: I labored to complete the 1.5-mile run in a blazing 13:59 (at the age of 27!).

This experience was so thoroughly unpleasant that I started to do some research into how I could improve my run times. I wasn’t prepared for what I uncovered (and am still uncovering). I thought that nutrition would be fairly straight-forward (it’s the 21st Century after all), but I quickly discovered that living underneath the simple official narrative of proper nutrition was a community of skeptical investigators all searching for a better explanation for the Diseases of Civilization (e.g., obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer). As I followed these investigators I came to understand more about obesity, metabolism, and fitness.

My curiosity was awakened as I started to understand how important nutrition was to human health. I devoured as much nutrition and fitness information as I could for about three years, reading more than 50 books that covered health, nutrition, and fitness related topics. And that doesn't even count the hundreds of articles I've read online. It took a while, but I started to see a pattern in the noise.

As I was gathering data I would test my new-found knowledge on myself. The first thing I noticed was a lower body-fat percentage, then increased strength, and finally a more athletic physique. On the track, my run times started to improve. Before I knew it, I had clocked an official time of 11:26. This still wasn’t blazing fast, but I had reduced my run time by more than two minutes and I didn’t feel destroyed after each test.

At some point, I wondered why the Air Force didn't have an official training program that guaranteed 90s on the PT test. They often argue (rightfully) that the USAF needs to be fit to fight because we might be embedded with Army or Marine units. However, for whatever reason, they don't seem to consider PT the same as an Airman's job training. This means that Air Force members are largely on their own when it comes to passing their PT test. So, I decided to change that by creating the Rapid PT blog.

What do I hope to Achieve with this Program?
My goal with this blog is to improve both your PT score and your health in general. I am a firm believer that if you eat right and occasionally exercise then you can improve and maintain your health until you are very, very old. I personally want to look and feel exactly the way I do now, but at age 70, 80, or possibly even 90 (everything I’ve been reading implies that it is possible!). The natural state of the aging human body is not to be diseased. Modern Western foods and eating habits have stripped your body of essential nutrients and replaced them with highly-refined carbohydrates, nutritionally empty and chemically filled engineered foods, and highly unstable polyunsaturated fatty acids that all conspire to destroy your youth and vitality decades before you are genetically designed to. But it doesn’t have to be that way: Your transformation is just 42 days away!

Bryan

(And, as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at RapidPT@hotmail.com. You can also join me on the Rapid PT Facebook page.)

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