So I wanted to do a little something about Physical Fitness Tests for security contracts. It’s important stuff, because if you don’t pass these tests, you won’t get the job. In the Smokejumpers, we called it “running for your job” every year. And for those of you who were in organizations that required yearly or even quarterly PFT’s, you know how much of a pain in the ass they can be. So it is important to keep up with your fitness.
Now with security contracting, you have the same thing, but with a different twist. You never know who you are going to get a job with, and the standards are always different from company to company. Or sometimes the company implements a PFT out of the blue, do to some new policy that came down the pipe. So being ready for the various PFT’s out there can be kind of a challenge.
The best thing to do, is to train to a level that would satisfy any PFT from any company. And this is what I have attempted to do with the information below. This is not a complete list of companies by any measure, nor is it particularly current. But what this does, is give you an idea of what is expected out there over the last couple of years. And as a disclaimer, you need to develop your own plan based on your own research and talking with the companies. I don’t want to give the impression that if you train to my standards below, that it applies to you. There are too many factors(age, body weight, etc., location) and all I am attempting here is to show you my methodology.
From the information below, we can start to see some patterns in what is expected. What I will do is list those standards for each type of exercise, based on the most stringent requirements of the grouping below. Also, you should keep in mind the location of the PT test’s. If you have to do a test up in the mountains, and your not ready for that elevation, then that can be a problem. The SOC test is like that. Or running body armor on can be a challenge, if you haven’t done that in awhile.