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Why is the Army using physical fitness testing standards based on information from the '80s and '90s? Why is the Army using a body fat assessment that has no scientific justification on telling if a Soldier is actually overweight?
The unreliable tape test is used to determine people's careers when everyone knows a fat neck will save the fattest and laziest soldier. The top brass is talking about a future Army that has the ability to adapt to any challenge that may come up but they can't do that with a simple and basic-task physical training. Why can't the Army walk the walk with any easy task such as updating the current PT standards to actual demands of the battlefield?
The physical readiness training is a joke that trains Soldiers for the lowest standards and fails to prepare Soldiers to move their wounded battle buddy from the X to safety. The push-ups will not prepare someone to carry a litter 100 yards or an even longer distance to a landing zone a helicopter can actually land in.
Sit-ups are out of date and unnecessarily increasing the strain on the medical services that are already strained. If a Soldier has to run two miles on the battlefield, something went terribly wrong and the leadership made a decision that probably got everyone killed. So why does leadership insist on doing five-mile runs three times a week? How is this increasing Soldier battle readiness?
The leadership is out of touch on the basic task of physical training due to either being out of touch with the current physical demands of Soldiers for the battlefield and/or they don't care to adjust the standards. Hopefully the latter is not the truth, and the leadership only needs some educating to get caught up with current practices that are being used for preparing the world's top athletes on the playing field and how they can be used to prepare the top Soldiers the brass needs for the battlefield.
The best place to begin the overhaul is trimming the fat. The tape measure around the stomach and neck makes no sense. The fatter a person is the better off they are because their neck gets fat making them seem skinnier than their actual body fat percentage is. Body Mass Index can be used to assess who needs to be measured for body fat percentage but can't be used to chapter a Soldier out because BMI doesn't make a distinction between muscle and fat.
The Army needs to make a smart investment in a method that will actually measure body fat percentage such as skin fold calipers that measure actual fat or to buy a handheld device or a weight scale that measures fat percentage with bioelectrical resistance. Both options actually measure body fat and would provide the Army with a cheaper option than a "bod pod" or underwater measuring. They will have a larger upfront cost but the tradeoff of knowing that people who deserve to get chaptered will get chaptered even if they got blessed with a genetically fat neck is worth it. These options are also better than going on appearance alone since the guys who win strong-man competitions do not have six-pack abs and tend to have a larger appearance around the stomach.
The current Army Physical Fitness Test is out of date and doesn't have any crossover value to the battlefield. Since the implementation of the current APFT testing practice the knowledge of exercise physiology and how to actually test the human strength, abilities and endurance has changed. The majority of fitness experts avoid using sit-ups period because of excessive strain on the lower back and now use functional exercises that have crossover value to what the abdominal muscles actually perform which includes very little with bending over. The push-up doesn't provide an accurate measure of how well a Soldier will perform when they need to carry their battle buddy off the battlefield or how well they will perform a ruck march. The two-mile doesn't stress the relevant energy system in a manner that is realistic to today's battlefield environment. The two-mile run stresses the aerobic energy system when anaerobic is used just as much if not more with the quick movements over short distances that the Army trains the Soldiers for.
The APFT needs an overhaul that looks at the functional task and makes sure Soldiers can actually do basic movements and tasks that are used when under fire and can still have the energy to move injured battle buddies. The current tests should be thrown out and replaced with functional tests that actually have a cross over to the battlefield. Some of the basic tasks that have to be analyzed in a Soldier's capabilities are to move efficiently and quickly while under fire, and the ability to carry an injured Soldier to safety both under fire and afterward to the landing zone. This can be accomplished by using sprints, carrying a litter and carrying a casualty on the Soldier's back in the actual assessment. The modified APFT would begin with the 100-meter sprint to assess a Soldier's ability to quickly move on the battlefield. This event would even be done in three- to five-second rushes. The next event would be to test an individual's ability to carry a litter. This can be tested by having to carry two 60-pound containers at least 100 yards. The next event would be to pick up and carry a 200-pound mannequin 100 yards. The last event to test a Soldier's stamina and mental fortitude would be the 800 meter sprint.
Spc. Joshua Woodward
Photo Credit: Courtesy photo
The reason for the 100-meter sprint first is that will mimic the quick movements over short distances that are required in firefights. The addition of the three- to five-second rush would add an element of upper body strength required to function in movements on the battlefield. The 60-pound carry will make sure that a Soldier can carry litter or any heavy objects for distance that is required. The third event is to make sure that the Soldier has the minimum lower body and core strength required to deep squat an average weight male and the stamina to carry them 100 yards to safety. After this, the last event is one of the hardest from an exercise physiology stand point, the 800-meter sprint. That distance is difficult because it isn't long enough to allow the aerobic system to fully take over the energy demands and then it's not short enough that the anaerobic system can produce enough energy to meet the energy output that is required for the distance. This final task will ensure that soldiers have reached a peak fitness and truly have a strong mentality level by doing this event after carrying a lot of weight over a long distance. This will push everyone to the limit.
These tests will truly test a Soldier's strength and endurance capabilities. This fitness test offers an actual assessment of Soldier's capabilities on the battlefield without the confounding factors that the current APFT does, such as body weight and height differences, and puts everyone on the neutral terms that can be reasonably expected. This test should not have a different grading bracket for males or females. Regardless of gender, if you can't do this you don't deserve a place in the new Army.
PRT fails to properly train Soldiers to perform on the battlefield and starts each Soldier's morning off with demotivating them as they drive into work because they know PRT is a failure and is wasting their time and a better use of their time includes letting them sleep until 0900 formation.
The least the brass can do is to implement a physical fitness test that Soldiers can actually know is realistic to today's combat situations.
Editor's note: Spc. Joshua Woodward is a medic at Fort Hood, Texas, and a certified athletic trainer. He has a master's degree in kinesiology.
