Twice a day, personal training officers at RAF Lossiemouth put staff through their paces with a gruelling fitness circuit.
Themed around different types of exercise, they offer a fast and thorough workout, keeping fitness levels high on the base.
But they’re not for the faint-hearted – and even our own sprightly live news reporters had to tap out halfway through when they gave it a try.
Could you fare any better?
The set-up
Following a quick demonstration from one of the PTOs, the two-dozen-or-so participants got into place at one of seven stations around the gym.
Today, it was based around Tabata – focusing on high intensity exercises with minimal downtime.
One of the advantages here, we were told, is that it’s the sort of activity a “civilian” gym wouldn’t really be able to replicate.
Between the space needed for everyone to take part, and the availability of equipment, it’s a circuit that’s been specifically designed for RAF Lossiemouth.
But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t try parts of this yourself.
How does the RAF fitness circuit work?
With a GBX, or George Bowie Experience, mix blaring through the room and a robotic voice keeping pace, everyone got straight to work.
Each station comprised two activities – you go full-out on the first for 20 seconds, rest for 10, then work just as hard on the second exercise.
Another 10 second rest, and you start all over again.
After four minutes, it’s all-change as you move to the next station in the gym.
What are the exercises?
For our reporters, first up was one of the classic military boot camp exercises – burpees.
A squat, a press-up and a jump all in one, they were flat out for 20 seconds before a quick rest, then it was off to some thick crash mats for some high knee jogging.
Other stations had a mix of skiing machines and medicine ball slams, shuttle runs and lunges, and different types of battle rope exercises.
Altogether the fitness session was over in about half an hour, with everyone exhausted by the end.
What’s the benefit?
RAF Lossiemouth runs 15 different fitness classes per week – and staff also take part in a wide range of sporting activities covering everything from surfing to luge.
Physical training instructor Cpl Samantha Russel explained: “We need to be fit and healthy to serve on operations… It’s not just about getting people in the gym and making them sweat, though!
“We inform people about health and nutrition, are able to create bespoke fitness plans for each person and place a real emphasis on mental health and resilience.”
Fellow instructor, Cpl Jamie Pollock, added: “It’s not just the basic fitness needed for service life that we help maintain for our people.
“We also provide specialist classes and sessions with our aircrew to help them deal with the rigours of flight and also our RAF regiment colleagues, who need to be robust enough to carry heavy weight over long distances.”
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