By Sean Emery
For anyone who has ever been in the military, you know as well as anyone, that it’s fairly easy to pass the Navy’s Physical Readiness Test, or PRT. But what you might not know is how hard it is to get a perfect score.
For a 20-24 year old man (the highest physical standard in the Navy) you only need to do 46 sit ups in two minutes, 37 push ups in two minutes, and run 1.5 miles in under 13 minutes to pass. A perfect score for a 30 – 34 year old male, on the other hand is much more difficult: 98 sit ups, 80 push ups, and a 9:20 mile and a half run.
Give it a try. Give yourself a PRT next time you need to do a workout from your hotel while you’re traveling. Here’s how the WOD would look in CrossFit talk:
2 Min AMRAP
– Push Ups
2 Min Rest
2 Min AMRAP
– Sit Ups
2 Min Rest
1.5 Mile Run for time.
This is the exact workout Josh Arvizu recently performed one early morning in early May. Having done this workout many times before, Josh was not concerned about passing, but with 6 months of CrossFit under his belt, Josh was wondering if he could get a perfect score.
Josh laid face down in the rubber pellets of the nearby turf field waiting for the dreaded “3,2,1…go!” But when it came there was no dread in Josh’s heart. There was no fear in Josh’s soul. And 90 seconds into doing push ups, there was no lactic acid build up slowing Josh down. When the Chief running the PRT yelled “Time,” Josh collapsed to the ground after having done 81 push ups. One more than required for a perfect score. Josh did 80 push ups for the Navy, but that last one, that one was selfish. That last push up was a thumb in the nose of all those who set standards and to all those who only strive to meet them. He was off to a good start.
The second AMRAP breezed by just as easily as the first one. At the end of that 2 minutes Josh had accumulated 98 sit ups, continuing his quest for perfection.
During the 2 minute rest, Josh asked the Chief what he would have to run the 1.5 miles in to achieve complete perfection on the PRT. The Chief replied with slight indignation: “9 minutes and 20 seconds.”
Concerned, having not really done much running since joining Old City CrossFit, Josh was slightly concerned that he would be unable to display this kind of endurance. Josh stepped up to the line knowing there was only one way to find out…
“3, 2, 1….go!”
And they were off. Josh pushed the pace and ran comfortably for the first 1/2 mile. By the end of the second 1/2 mile Josh was comfortably in the lead. Surprisingly when it was time to push during the last 1/2 mile, Josh still had gas in the tank! He dug deep and pressed on, sprinting towards the finish line. As he was approaching it he heard his Chief calling out the time as it moved forward unaware of Josh’s desire for it to slow down.
9:12
…Josh lowered his head and pumped his arms…
9:15
…Josh gritted his teeth and lengthen his stride…
9:17
…Josh leaned forward like Jasmine the first time Aladdin took her on a Magic Carpet Ride…
…and broke the finish line with his chest out and arms in the air. Unlike Jasmine, however, Josh didn’t need Aladdin, a magic carpet, or a weird blue genie helping him out. He simply needed someone to tell him (get your best Aladdin karaoke voice ready) “where to show, and when to go, and say that he’s not dreaming….”
Josh’s final score: 81 push ups, 98 sit ups, and a 9:17 mile and a half run. Perfection – a difficult thing to achieve in life, and a seemingly impossible thing to achieve in the Navy, but this early spring on a no-name turf field somewhere in South West DC perfection was achieved. From here on out, whenever passers by see Josh leave the 4pm class they’ll mutter under their breath in admiration: “There goes perfection. There goes Josh Arvizu.” Josh, you’re not dreaming. You’re perfect; now welcome to a whole new world of possibilities!
