I'm having great difficulty passing the "sit-reach" part of the PRT. I'm at "Good" or "Excellent" with all the other tests, but for some reason I'm just having trouble with this one. The trouble is with my lower legs, not my back. Can anyone suggest an exercise that will help me train for it? I've heard from more than one person that no one really cares if you pass it, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

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Originally posted by MajorDufus:
Can anyone suggest an exercise that will help me train for it?

Sit and reach is a flexibility issue and the way to "improve" is to work on stretches. Maybe look into some yoga stuff.

I have had trouble doing the sit reach since day one. All I can say is stretch. About 45 minutes before our last PFA I did every stretching exercise I could think of. Then when it was time I was fine for the couple of seconds I had to do it.

The sit and reach is no longer a "pass or fail" event.

It is only an observed event.

Oh boy, does this ever bring back memories!
When my son depped in back in May '06, he too had (still has) very tight hamstrings; and at the time his recruiter (incorrectly) led us to believe that he needed to be able to be successful in the sit-reach when he shipped out. And so for six very long months, just about every night, he worked & agonized at stretching. And finally, by the time he shipped, he really could touch his toes.

But guess what......

Not only did he NEVER have to do that sit-reach exercise in boot camp, he NEVER had to do it in A school, and he NEVER had to do it in C school; and so it was almost an entire 2 years before he finally had to do a sit-reach exercise when he got to the fleet. But as stated above, so far for 3 of the PRTs he's done, it's basically just an "observed" thing.

And so, while I'm sure that him having better flexibilty before shipping out was a good thing, both he and I could have done without the agony of worrying and stressing about it. I guess this one falls under the "if we knew then what we know now" category.