How a Failed PT Test Inspired an Airman to Create a Fitness App for Troops Everywhere

An Air Force captain has created a mobile app any service member can use to get “actionable guidance” on improving or maintaining their physical fitness.

The My Fitness Score app, available to both iOS and Android users, is free to download and use, can be based on any service’s fitness requirements, and give the user action steps to work on their fitness goals, build an initial program, and adjust it over time.

The software tool also helps the user assess their current fitness level, said Capt. Zachary Hicks, a family medicine physician and emergency medical services medical director at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

“If you are doing well and you want to do great, then this app will help you,” Hicks said in a release from the 374th Airlift Wing. “If you are doing great and wish to maintain that greatness, then this app will help you retain your fitness.”

Hicks taught himself programming and app-building skills over the past seven years, but the inspiration to build this particular app came from a personal experience.

“I ended up failing a fitness test due to a lack of preparation,” Hicks told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an email response. “I thought I was doing OK but ended up far behind where I needed to be. In that moment, I found that resources to help me get back on track were scattered and not well organized to a truly actionable starting point.”

That experience taught him about how much a person struggling with fitness needs to know to get better.

When the Air Force released their new fitness standards earlier this year, Hicks saw a way to give back.

“I knew that now was the time to make this happen and help out my fellow military members that may need the same help I did four years ago,” he wrote.

Hicks looked at what was already out there, including the Navy’s official, government-created score calculator known as the Official Navy Physical Fitness Assessment, released in 2019 with 2.6 out of five stars on the Apple Store’s rating with 180 ratings.

The Air Force does not appear to have an official mobile app for physical fitness training geared toward assessment and guidance. The service does have the My Fitness portal, which lets users track and calculate PT scores. The Space Force, meanwhile, is testing a method that ditches the annual fitness assessment in favor of a wearables approach for continuous health monitoring known as the Holistic Health Approach.

A spokesperson for the Air Force Personnel Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Aug. 27.

The Navy app is specific to the service’s physical readiness program. So, Hicks looked at other privately developed apps geared toward service members as potential models.

“The biggest issue was the basic fact that apps only support one or two branches and none of them unify all branches into a single app,” Hicks wrote. “Another issue I found was a lack of actionable guidance. Most are score calculators only, and one of the main purposes behind this app was to build a personalized training program for members so that they could have clear guidance on how to improve their fitness and score higher.”

Hicks transferred each military branch’s scoring calculator from that service’s scoring charts and pulled in training information from official DOD sources, such as the Air Force’s Warfighter Fitness Playbook.

“I did not feel the need to reinvent the wheel, but simply made it more accessible,” he said in the release.

As far as data privacy, a prime concern for many app users, all of the data is stored on the user’s device, Hicks said.

But users can share information with a fitness manager via a dedicated tab that is locked by face or fingerprint scan, depending on the device type, he wrote.

He recently updated the app to include support for pregnancy and postpartum fitness needs, with guidance on appropriate exercise levels during those conditions.

“The next big addition I am now working on is a lifestyle section that gives guidance on the factors that affect fitness—nutrition, hydration, sleep, recovery, and supplements,” Hicks said.

The app is not the official U.S. Air Force fitness app, but anyone can download and use it.