Tag: physical fitness

On the surface the claim the six event ACFT causes less injuries than the prior three event APFT may not seem to make sense. More events mean more opportunities to get injured. However, there is a reason why the numbers may be unchanged or less, how easy the ACFT is:

Researchers at the Rand Corp. examined data related to the administration of the test and found that the new one presented a similar or lower injury risk than the previous Army Physical Fitness Test. The Army Combat Fitness Test, launched in 2022, was designed to better prepare troops for the rigors of combat. Another aim was to curb preventable injuries. “More than half of soldiers experienced a new injury in 2021, so success in reducing the risk of injury could have a significant impact on both medical costs and lost workdays,” the report released Monday said.

Stars & Stripes

This statement shows these researchers do not have proper understanding of what is happening with the ACFT and injuries:

The study found that soldiers who failed the test were about 20% more likely to have an injury in the 180-day window following it. Better performance on the test also was associated with reduced risk of injury in that 180-day window, Rand said.

The Soldiers that fail the ACFT which is very easy to pass are usually the ones that immediately go on profile to delay having to take the ACFT again. Repeated failure of the ACFT can lead to being chaptered from the Army. The Soldiers that pass the ACFT tend to not go on profile because they don’t need to avoid taking the ACFT again. The fact the ACFT is so easy to pass is likely why injuries remain the same or are lower compared to the three event APFT.

The injury risk I think is actually very similar because the worst event for a Soldier’s body with the APFT was the situp that led to many back injuries. The Army replaced this injury prone event with another back breaking event, the deadlift. For lower leg injuries I would not be surprised if the sprint drag carry combined with the two mile run doesn’t lead to more lower leg injuries. However, the minimum times are so low on the 2-mile run not much effort has to be put into it to pass. Maybe the little effort put into the run is actually better for preventing leg injuries?

I hope everyone has their profiles ready because the Army Combat Fitness Test is coming to an installation near you:

The Army spent six years developing the ACFT to better align fitness standards to the physical skills soldiers need in combat, compared to the four-decade old APFT. The new, 50-minute test requires a soldier to perform three repetitions of a deadlift, throw a medicine ball backward over his or her head, perform as many hand-release pushups as possible in two minutes, complete a sprint-drag-carry course, perform as many leg tucks while hanging from a pullup bar as possible in two minutes, and complete a two-mile run in less than 21 minutes. Each of the exercises, Army officials said, correlates directly with common activities that soldiers perform on the battlefield.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

The Army’s new physical fitness test is on its way with units beginning to field the equipment to take the test this year and final implementation in 2020:

There are six events in the ACFT:

• Strength Deadlift. This is a three-repetition maximum deadlift to test muscular strength; it mimics movement to safety and effectively lifting and carrying heavy loads.
• Standing Power Throw. This event involves throwing a 10-pound medicine ball as far as possible over the head and to the rear. It measures upper and lower muscular power, balance and whole body flexibility.
• Hand-Raised Push-ups. This event forces the soldier to go all the way to the floor and raise his hands before coming back up again, measuring upper-body muscular endurance.
• A 250-Meter Sprint, Drag and Carry. This is five different events within one event — a 50-meter sprint; a backward 50-meter drag of a 90-pound sled; a 50-meter movement; a 50-meter carry of two 40-pound kettle bells; and a final 50-meter sprint. It measures muscular strength, power, speed and reaction time.
• Leg Tuck. A soldier hangs perpendicular to the pull-up bar and brings his knees up to his elbows and back down again for one repetition. It measures muscular strength, endurance and grip.
• Two-Mile Run. The ACFT retains the two-mile run portion of the APFT, which is designed to measure aerobic and muscular endurance.

All events must be completed in 50 minutes or less, so there is mandated rest and a maximum time for each event, Frost said. Each soldier gets two minutes’ rest between each of the first five events and five minutes of rest before the two-mile run.  [Military.com]

You can read much more at the link, but if soldiers must complete the test in 50 minutes or less I will be interested to see how a company level unit will be able to execute this with six events.  It seems units would have to make this a multi-day event to get everyone complete.

I am also interested to see what the minimum scores will be considering this is a gender and age neutral test.

It is about time the US Army reassessed its body composition standards because I have seen too many fit troops be considered “fat” over the years due to the tape test.  There has to be a better way of determining who is really fat:

For the first time in 14 years, the military is rewriting its body composition standards and the methods used to determine whether troops are too fat to serve.

Pentagon officials intend to publish a new policy later this year, a document expected to have sweeping effects on how the military defines and measures health and fitness. The review comes amid rising concern about obesity. Among civilians, it is shrinking the pool of qualified prospective recruits. And in the active-duty force, a rising number of overweight troops poses risks to readiness and health care costs.

“You can look around and see all the soldiers that are pushing that belly,” said Dr. David Levitsky, a professor of nutritional science and human ecology at Cornell University who has studied military nutrition and obesity. “They have to do something about it.”  (…………….)

Medical experts say the BMI is flawed at each end of the spectrum. It unfairly penalizes weight lifters and other athletic people who are healthy but have a lot of muscle mass that increases their weight. And the BMI test can fail to catch unfit troops who are naturally tall and thin.

“When you have groups of individuals who are fit and highly trained, then BMI is absolutely useless,” said Dr. Dympna Gallagher, the director of the body composition unit at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center.  [Military Times]

You can read the whole thing at the link, but I have always felt that the physical fitness test should be the determining factor if someone is unfit for service.  From what I have seen generally people who are truly fat have a hard time passing the PT test.

I wonder if the activists are willing to accept 6 out of 7 females failing the fitness test or will they they try and force the Marines to change the test to let more women qualify to be in frontline combat jobs?:

New physical standards established so women can compete for combat posts in the Marine Corps have weeded out many of the female hopefuls. But they’re also disqualifying some men, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

In the last five months, six out of seven female recruits — and 40 out of about 1,500 male recruits — failed to pass the new regimen of pullups, ammunition-can lifts, a 3-mile run and combat maneuvers required to move on in training for combat jobs, according to the data.

The tests, taken about 45 days into basic training, force recruits who fail into other, less physically demanding Marine jobs. And that, the Marine commandant says, is making the Corps stronger.

The high failure rate for women, however, raises questions about how well integration can work, including in Marine infantry units where troops routinely slog for miles carrying packs weighed down with artillery shells and ammunition, and at any moment must be able to scale walls, dig in and fight in close combat.

The new standards are a product of the Pentagon’s decision to allow women to compete for front-line jobs, including infantry, artillery and other combat posts. But Marine leaders say they are having a broader impact by screening out less physically powerful Marines — both men and women.  [Marine Corps Times]

You can read more at the link, but remember this is just the fitness test; there is a lot more training that occurs that will further reduce the number of females who want frontline combat jobs.  I have always said that women who want to work frontline combat jobs should have the opportunity to do so, however be prepared for very small numbers which is exactly what is happening.