>BY: Teh Joo Lin & Lim Heng Liang
THE chance to slash two months off his full-time national service was motivation enough for Mr Henry Neo to train for his fitness test.
The 20-year-old bought a chin-up bar and installed it in his house. He hit the gym as well from last June.
His efforts paid off five months later when he managed seven chin-ups during the test, compared to two before he
started training. He went on to make the silver grade at the National Physical Fitness Award, which includes a 2.4km run, chin-ups and standing broad jump.
Mr Neo, who played floorball and badminton in Ngee Ann Polytechnic where he studied mobile business solutions,
will enlist next Thursday, a month later than some of his peers who failed to make at least the silver grade in the fitness test. He will also end a month earlier.
Found to be fit for most combat vocations following a medical screening, the son of a navy officer starts his basic
military training (BMT) in Pulau Tekong next week.
But in the months since his fitness test in November, Mr Neo has eased up on his fitness training, although he still plays floorball once a month. He said: "All my friends who are in the army advised me that it's not a good idea to go in to get fit, you should go in already fit. But I think I should be able to cope."
The advice his friends gave him was similar to the message Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean had for parents and pre-enlistees earlier this week. He said that while the SAF has a responsibility to provide realistic and safe training, individuals also have a responsibility to get themselves physically fit for national service.
The SAF has designed "progressive training systems...to help servicemen of different fitness levels adapt gradually
to the various types of training," said Colonel (Dr) Benjamin Seet, the chief army medical officer.
Recruits are streamed into different BMT programmes based on their physical and medical fitness levels. Fit and
healthy new recruits like Mr Neo will be trained for nine weeks, while enlistees who are slightly obese undergo a
15-week BMT regime.
According to Dr Seet, the physical training programme is designed by a team of exercise scientists and physiologists
to ensure "proper progression" for the recruit to build up his strength, endurance and mobility. This ensures a minimal risk of injury.
In 2006, a panel comprising specialists in various fields of sports medicine found the SAF's physical training programme "scientifically sound and robust", and in line with the principles of exercise science, Dr Seet added.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 4, 2008.
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