alt="Remember"/> Every soldier is held to the same standards on the ACFT. The grading scale doesn’t distinguish between males and females, and you don’t get a break because you’re older than your battle buddy. The days of knocking out a couple of dozen push-ups and sit-ups before shuffling around the track for 18 minutes are gone — now, it’s all about whether you can keep up with your teammates.
Every job falls into one of three physical demand categories. For example, the infantry has the highest minimum standards. Other MOSs, like Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Specialist have the lowest minimum standards. Some jobs, like Parachute Riggers and Water Treatment Specialists, are somewhere in the middle. See Chapter 4 to find out how the test is scored, as well as what physical demand category your MOS falls into.
Training on your own time — and helping your team
To improve your ACFT score, you have to put in the work. That means hitting the gym after COB and on weekends, or doing small-but-mighty exercises while you’re at work or in the field. But there’s an upside (other than passing the test, that is): Creating a PT plan for yourself and your team, squad, or platoon that results in a 100 percent pass rate makes a great counseling or evaluation report bullet. (I promise I won’t tell anyone that you lifted some ideas from this book.) Check out Chapter 26 for tips on maxing out your score, and head over to Appendix A for a blank workout calendar you can use to set yourself — and your team — up for success.
The Army Performance Triad
The Army’s Performance Triad, or P3 for short, includes sleep, activity, and nutrition. Your daily routine in these three areas can either increase or decrease your physical and mental performance, which ties into your unit’s performance. P3 is important to the ACFT, too, in these ways:
Sleep: The Army recognizes that adequate sleep is critical to mission success, even if it’s tough to implement. Getting enough rest while you’re training for the ACFT and immediately prior to taking it is incredibly important — it determines how well you build strength and endurance, how quickly you recover, and even how you perform on short notice.
Activity: The ACFT measures your physical fitness level and how well you’re likely to perform on the battlefield, and training for it is critical. Physical activity improves your mood, makes you live longer, and helps keep your mind clear so you can make good choices.
Nutrition: The Army isn’t testing whether you’re vitamin D-fortified on the ACFT, but putting the right fuel in your body can help you perform your best. The right foods can increase your energy and endurance, shorten the recovery time you need between activities, improve your focus and concentration, and help you look and feel better, too.
Chapter 2
Getting an Overview of the ACFT
IN THIS CHAPTER
The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) is the official test of record for American soldiers all over the world, and like all the moving parts in the Army, it’s governed by its fair share of field manuals, technical manuals, and Army regulations. When you’re training for the ACFT, you need the right equipment, but don’t sweat it, because your on-post fitness centers and your unit are supposed to have it on hand. Your unit needs special equipment to administer the test, too, which I cover later in this chapter.
With gender- and age-neutral scoring requirements, every soldier is required to meet the same scoring standard. The six-event ACFT covers it all: muscular strength and endurance, balance, agility, cardiovascular endurance, anaerobic endurance, and range of motion. Unlike the old APFT, you can’t just show up on test day and expect to perform well. This one requires plenty of preparation because it’s about functional fitness — not just push-ups, sit-ups, and a two-mile run.
Reading Up on the Army’s Resources and Requirements for the ACFT
The Army has a variety of rules for both you and the test site on the big day. The following sections break down some of these requirements.
Checking out Army regs and training resources
Soldiers are still subject to AR 40-501, Standards of Medical Fitness; AR 670-1, Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia (the APFU is the only authorized uniform for the ACFT, in case you were wondering whether you can wear yoga pants); AR 350-1, Army Training and Leader Development; and AR 600-9, The Army Weight Control Program.
Field Manual 7-22, Holistic Health and Fitness, is the Army’s newest training resource to prep soldiers for the ACFT. Additionally, CALL Publication 20-09 goes into detail about the test itself, ATP 7-22.01 regulates testing, ATP 7-22.02 covers conditioning and training drills, and the Army set up a special webpage to address ACFT basics at www.army.mil/acft.
Surveying site and equipment requirements
The Army is very specific about the type of PT field units can use to conduct the ACFT. It has to be a flat field space approximately 40 meters by 40 meters, and it should be well-maintained and cut grass or artificial turf that’s generally flat and free from debris. Check out Chapter 3 for more information on the ACFT field’s required setup. For the Two-Mile Run course, the start and finish point must be close to the Leg Tuck station. The Sprint-Drag-Carry can be performed on properly maintained grass or artificial turf with a standard 90-pound nylon sled, or it can be performed on wood, packed dirt, vinyl, or smooth concrete with a 180-pound nylon sled. You can’t perform the SDC on unimproved dirt, gravel, rubberized floors, ice, or snow.
When the field is sorted out, units can only administer the ACFT with specific equipment. In addition to a measuring pointer, cones for marking lanes and distance, stopwatches, and an outdoor timing clock, these are the major equipment components for the ACFT, which I cover in greater detail in
