Physical Training for Armor Crewmen

This thesis examines the physical requirements of armor crewmen and provides a method for training them to meet those requirements based on current Army doctrine and emerging fitness doctrine using the components of fitness listed in FM21-20. It compares the methodology with current training methods used by the armor force as derived from a pilot survey. The author found that muscular strength was the most important component of physical fitness followed by muscular endurance, flexibility and cardiorespiratory endurance. The author concluded that if his sample population represented the entire population then armor leaders were neglecting muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility in their physical readiness programs. He also concluded that units are training for the Army Physical Fitness Test instead of to mission-essential physical tasks.