10 tips to help you pass the beep test at your pfa

The beep test is a test that measures your aerobic fitness, basically measuring how well your lungs work while running.

​It can be daunting, especially if you’ve never been overly competitive before. Some people find it easy and enjoy the challenge and it’s likely that these people played a lot of sport at school or have recently competed in fitness events such as triathlons and know how to calm their nerves.

​For the majority of people though they have never had their fitness tested and doing it for the first time in-front of the Defence Force Recruiting staff and other ADF applicants at the PFA can be an overwhelming experience.

The 10 Tips
These tips have been drawn from the success of hundreds of TBG applicants who are now serving members of the ADF.

1. Understand that the beep test is a test and not a method of training. If you are doing the beep test every day then you are taking up training time which should be dedicated to conducting interval training such as 6 x 400m runs as fast as you can or 10 x 200m runs as fast as you can.
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2. Only do relevant running training 2 to 3 times per week. Any more and you are at risk of over training and your results will go backwards. Only do the beep test once a month at most. We do it once every 2 months and TBG members often have the highest beep test scores at the PFA’s.
   
   
3. Don’t add in too much weight training for your legs. 1 or maybe 2 leg strength session will be enough. Any more than this and you are likely to fatigue your legs which will reduce your running performance.
   
   
4. Sprint training is also essential for your beep test performance. As you get higher in the levels you are required to push off hard and sprint to the line to keep up with the beep. Add in some sprint training once per week to assist with this such as 8 x 20m sprints from a standing start with 30seconds rest between each 1. It’s generally best to do this before your interval training. 
   
   
5. Agility training will also help with your turn arounds. Setting up agility tracks before interval training will assist with this. Such as suicide runs, Yo-Yo’s or figure 8’s. 
   
   
6. On the day of your PFA chat to other applicants. It’s likely that most other people are also somewhat nervous, that’s ok it’s normal. A lot of TBG members are pretty relaxed at PFA’s because they are confident with their training so they find it easy to chat to other applicants and calm the nerves of those around them even making friends.
   
   
7. Nervous energy can be great for performance. On the other hand it can also significantly detract from your performance if you expend too much overthinking. A technique we use to help stop the train of overthinking and anxiety during the beep test is called a “shimmy”. A simple shake of the shoulders and arms while you are running will relax your upper body so it’s not so rigid and stressed and wasting too much energy. 
   
   
8. Keep your turn arounds super short. To do this, time your breathing when you are coming up to the line, take a breath, reach out and tap the line with one breath, turn and power off. If you add in extra steps every time you reach the line you could potentially add in hundreds of unnecessary steps, wasting more of your energy than you need to. 
   
   
9. Don’t stop until you are told to stop by the DFR staff. I’ve seen people get 5 warnings and still not get stopped and they end up passing. Stop when the DFR staff tell you to stop or well and truly after you’ve passed.
   
   
10. Run your own race! There will always be someone fitter than you and there will always be someone less fitter than you. Trust your preparation and give it your all!
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With proper training and adequate preparation both physically and mentally you’ll find that your nervous energy around the beep test and other fitness test will not be so overwhelming. You may actually enjoy the process.

If you have any questions about these tips then please don’t hesitate to ask us at team@thebarracksgym.com.au or jump in our ADF Recruit Fitness forum for many more tips like these.