get up to the bar if you can’t reach it, and if you’re too tall to hang from the bar with straight arms, you must bend your knees, because your feet aren’t allowed to touch the ground.
On the command “Go,” flex at the elbows, waist, hips, and knees to bring your lower body up. Touch your knees or thighs to your elbows, and then return to the start position under control. If you keep your elbows bent, the rep doesn’t count; the same goes if you swing your trunk or legs to get your knees up. You can, however, adjust your grip. Just make sure you don’t touch the ground while you do it, or your grader will terminate the event.
PREGNANCY VERSUS THE LEG TUCK
Critics of the ACFT — and there are plenty — say the Leg Tuck is invariably biased against female soldiers, who may not perform as well as their male counterparts on this event. One reason is that when a woman has a baby, she’s on profile for six months. After her profile expires, her command can require her to take a record ACFT. However, for most people (males too), knocking out at least one leg tuck requires training. And what about females who have undergone C-sections? That’s a major surgery, and it can lead to people having major trouble regaining abdominal strength and reactivating their core muscles. Because full recovery, and returning to your prior fitness level, can take anywhere from six months to a year, talking to your doctor about your profile after you have your child and return to work is important.
Two-Mile Run
The Two-Mile Run, or 2MR, measures your aerobic endurance, just like it did on the APFT. The same theory is in play here: If you have higher aerobic endurance, you can recover more quickly from one task so you’re ready for the next one — and you can run when you need to. In practice, performing well on the 2MR shows the Army that you’ll do just fine during dismounted operations, rucking, and infiltration and extraction. Just in case you weren’t sure what muscles you need to wake up to perform well on the 2MR, Figure 2-10 highlights them for you.
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 2-10: Muscles used in the Two-Mile Run.
Your unit chooses where you complete your Two-Mile Run. It can be on an indoor or outdoor track or on an improved surface (like a road or sidewalk). Don’t worry; you’re not going to be cruising down the dirt part of Perimeter Road in your favorite running shoes. The Army forbids the run from happening on unimproved terrain, which can be unsafe and potentially hurt your time.
The ACFT has a pre-programmed 10-minute rest between the LTK and the 2MR, which starts when the last soldier in your group finishes the LTK.
The Recovery Drill
When everyone’s finished taking the ACFT, there’s one more step: the Recovery Drill. Army regs say that the Recovery Drill can be conducted in formation or individually — but that’s at the OIC’s and NCOIC’s discretion.
The Recovery Drill includes these stretches and movements, which are all part of H2F:
Overhead Arm Pull
Rear Lunge
Extend and Flex
Thigh Stretch
Single Leg Over
Groin Stretch
Calf Stretch
Hamstring Stretch
Biking, Rowing, or Swimming Your Way through the Alternate Events
If you’re on a permanent profile, the ACFT’s new events don’t have to spell an end to your illustrious career. You may be eligible for the modified ACFT — called the ACFT MOD — if you have clearance from your medical provider. Soldiers are required to participate in all the events they’re not profiled against, but at minimum, a permanently profiled soldier has to pass the following, regardless of his or her job’s physical demand category:
MDL: You have to lift a minimum of 140 pounds, which nets you a score of 60 points. Head to the earlier section “3 Repetition Maximum Deadlift” for details on this event.
SDC: Every permanently profiled soldier has to complete the SDC in under three minutes (that’s the 60-point score again). You can read about the SDC in the earlier section “Sprint-Drag-Carry.”
An aerobic event: Depending on your profile, you may be required to participate in a 5,000-meter row, 12,000-meter bike, or a 1,000-meter swim with a minimum time of 25 minutes for each. I cover these events in the following sections.
You still take the ACFT MOD with your unit, but you’re the last in line for each event, and you take only the events your profile allows. You begin your alternate events 10 minutes after you complete your last standard event (unless you’re taking the swim event, in which case you leave right away for the pool). Unlike the other ACFT events, the test supervisor reads instructions before each of these events.
The ACFT MOD may change over time, too. The Army is serious when it says that the rules governing this test are “living documents.”
