Staying fit and ready to fight is essential when Soldiers become Warriors of 2nd Infantry Division. Some might say it's a hassle, but others decide to make it a fun challenge in order to maintain their readiness.
Soldiers and officers with 302nd Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team competed against each other in the 'Ironhorse Physical Training Challenge' April 23 on Camp Casey. Every Soldier and officer competing tested their strength, endurance and inner motivation throughout the challenge. Each event occurred one after the other with little to no time for rest or recovery.
"We looked at how the 'Iron 6 PT Challenge' back in August brought together all the officers, and we said to ourselves that we could do something similar," said Maj. John J. Acevedo, the 302nd BSB operations officer. "I had a lot of junior officers bring it to my attention, so I brought the idea to the battalion commander and he liked it."
"We incorporated different exercises that would test upper and lower body strength," said Acevedo. He also added that making it challenging and bringing everybody together as a team was a must.
Pull-ups were the first event; participants did as many repetitions as their bodies would allow. Immediately following the pull-ups event were the 'laces to bar' repetitions, which consisted of Soldiers hanging from the pull-up bar, then lifting their legs and feet up to touch the bar. After that, participants had to lift a 160-pound dummy Soldier, carry it 70 meters to one side, put it down and pick up a rucksack to run back to the other side. The challenge concluded with a strenuous three and a half mile run.
"Since this was a continuous exercise, the whole thing was pretty challenging because you have to have endurance to get through each of the events and do the best that you can," said Acevedo.
As entertaining as this challenge may have been to spectators, participants also found it amusing.
"We were asked in each of our companies who wanted to participate in this challenge and see who wanted to give it their best shot," said Pfc. Jamie Blocker from A Co., 302nd BSB. "It was a lot of fun because we had a lot of competition from other Soldiers during the challenge." Although they were competing against each other, everyone encouraged and motivated their competition to finish all of the events.
"It's all about bragging rights, of course, and who's the better Soldier," said Acevedo. "But it's also about building a team that's physically fit and wanting to spend time with each other as a unit."
"Overall, it was a great event," Acevedo concluded.
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