Page 170 - Mind, Body and Spirit 2015-16

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
THE ALTERNATIVE AEROBIC ASSESSMENT:
THE EVOLUTION OF ARMY TESTING
The world has changed dramatically in the last 30 years; technology advancements in particular have transformed the way we live our day- to-day lives. Organisations have had to adapt to this, none more so than the British Army. Con icts, threats and tactics have changed, and how we train and test our troops has had to adjust in light of this.
For the last 30 years, the Army has tested Soldiers tness levels via a number of assessments including a timed 1.5 mile run, sit ups and press up tests. Recently, however, it has become increasingly apparent that these tests require updating as they do not fully re ect the demands of current and future military operations.
Gary Mason, the Armed Forces Sales Manager for Wattbike, has been working with the UK armed forces for the past 20 years so has seen rst-hand the changes that need to be made. Having started working with Wattbike in 2008, right at the start of production, he immediately recognised the bene ts that the Wattbike could provide to answering the current dif culties in testing. So in collaboration with the RAPTC (Royal Army Physical Training Corps) he raised the idea of ‘of oad training’ and an alternative option to the run designed to test the physical capabilities of troops.
The rst to really welcome the concept of using the Wattbikes were the Special Forces in 2008 who immediately bought into what the Wattbike could offer and integrated it into their programmes. This was shortly followed by Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court who initially asked for 2 bikes, followed by 13 more due to its success in their rehabilitation programmes.
Soon after, the Defence Primary Healthcare centres took a total of 350 Wattbikes across their portfolio of 14 Regional Rehabilitation Centres and 152 Primary Care Rehabilitation Centres.
In 2013, Gary joined forces with Eddie Fletcher, Wattbike Consultant Sport & Exercise Physiologist, and together they spent two years developing, designing and testing an alternative to the 1.5 mile run, what became the Wattbike Alternative Aerobic Assessment (A3 Test), the answer the army had been looking for.
The A3 test was designed as a three part assessment on the Wattbike that allowed
PTI’s (Physical Training Instructors) and the Chain of Command to accurately gauge and monitor the aerobic tness of each individual, provide a challenging low impact individualised training routine and offer an alternative to the 1.5mile running element of the current PFA, should an individual not be able to currently complete this part of the test due to injury.
Standards are correlated via predicted VO2 Max with the 1.5 mile run. The test consists of a sub-maximal ramp test to determine individuals training zones, a 12 week individualised training plan and a 10 minute continuous ride to achieve gender and age related standards, in watts per kg of body mass.
Having taken the idea of the A3 to the British Army, support quickly grew amongst decision makers, in particular from Brigadier John Donnelly, Director of Personal Services (Army), Major Ian Phillips and Lt. Col. Brian Dupree both members of the RAPTC. This support resulted in a movement of discussion within the ranks and in April 2015 the Wattbike A3 pilot launched, with 600 Wattbikes introduced across the country and PTI’s being offered Wattbike training, in order to run a year long evaluation period to see how the alternative test performed in real settings.
“The Alternative Aerobic Assessment on the Wattbike was an exciting new development and our rst of cial partnership with a supplier to progress physical training assessments. These bikes give people the tools they need to set speci c goals, giving a real sense of purpose to their training. The research undertaken by the RAPTC with Wattbike has allowed us to design an assessment that will allow soldiers to stay t and injury free, bene ting both the Army and individuals.”
Over the past year, the test has seen great success and continues to pick-up of support. There are now 1,500 Wattbikes within Army units and now over 100 specially trained RAPTI’s. These Master Trainers will be delivering ongoing ‘train the trainer’ courses throughout the Army.
Based on the success of the 2015 evaluation period, the Wattbike A3 test is now to be of cially written into the MATT2 Fitness document (Military Annual Training Tests and Workplace Induction Programme), which maps out the mandatory tness tests, from April 2016, written by Major Ian Phillips, as the mandatory test for medically downgraded troops.