The ACFT is finally here

https://www.military.com/military-fitness/army-fitness/army-combat-fitness-test-acft-score-chart

Honestly the test isn't difficult at all to pass and requires pretty much zero actual prep work for a normal physically capable person. To max this thing you need to be a gym rat, but you can pass it even if you never touched a weight in your life. My good friend is a 35 year old 115lb skinny female who has the metabolism of a 5 year old and eats like one. She hasn't done exercise in the past 10 years and even she was able to pass this thing with room to spare. Even the deadlift didn't give her trouble due to it being 140lbs minimum and a hex bar which is basically cheating. Most middle school kids can deadlift 140lbs with a hex bar.

They canned the leg tuck thing that was causing all the females to fail so this shouldn't be a problem for anybody anymore.

 

They've slowly been dishing out equipment to units around the force for this thing.

It's "out" but it doesn't count for anything. You have to take a couple diagnostic ones over the course of the next fiscal year but it doesn't count for record until October of next year or something like that. Or it may be in 2022, we stopped paying attention. MEDAC also won their fight against big Army for the disabled Soldiers so they can't MAKE you do events that you are physically incapable of doing anymore in order to justify kicking you out. The policy now is you have to do a minimum of 3 events and those 3 events are based on what you are physically capable of doing, not "You will perform the sprint drag carry even if you are unable to run the 2 mile event because we said so or else" nonsense of yesteryear.

So basically it's as I predicted months ago. Army lost, they removed the leg tuck requirement, they changed which MOS's are put in the "heavy" category, they lowered the scores for alternate events to more reasonable time limits, and disabled Soldiers cannot be forced to perform exercises that their doctors say they are unable to perform.

Besides the ridiculous equipment requirement I'm alright with this. My biggest gripe with this thing was the fact that big Army was openly and blatantly using it as a way to justify kicking out females and disabled Soldiers. Now that common sense (and legal) and slapped them in the face and they are no longer allowed to use this ACFT to hurt people who did nothing wrong I'm fine with it.

It's really hard to fail and it's really hard to max, that's a fine balance in my book. If you want to be billy badass and spend the time and energy required to try to max this thing then so be it. If you want to just show up and do 1 rep of 140lbs on a hexbar deadlift and walk away and still pass then so be it as well. Because at the end of the day, very few jobs in the Army require you to have to pick up heavy stuff anyway.

Be prepared for countless new reports of Soldier back injuries though, even with a hex bar. Never underestimate the stupidity of combat arms. Mark my words, as we speak there are countless combat arms units out there telling their Soldiers "You WILL deadlift at least 250lbs or be at remedial PT" or some other nonsense. You're going to see PVT Joe out there struggling to deadlift with no idea how to do it with proper form and tear himself up because SGT was yelling at him. Same scenario that led to the Army's "PRT" training program years ago. Stupid NCO's with zero physical fitness instruction qualifications believing that the best way to make people run better was to just run them to death every morning. Or getting the one idiot "I was on the long distance run team in college" LT taking everybody on 6, 7, or 8 mile runs every morning. That led to a MASSIVE uptick in lower extremity injuries over the course of a few years ranging from shin splints to stress fractures to knee problems. So the Army was forced to come up with an official physical training "progression" program called "PRT" designed by actual physical fitness instructors that basically said "Making people who can't run well run 7 miles 4 days a week is stupid you ****ing idiots that's why everybody is in the hospital with broken legs".

So by this time next year I 100% guarantee I will be writing a report stating that we've seen a xx% increase in back injuries in FY21 compared to FY20 and prior. Mainly because I spent the first years of my career as a ground pounder in combat arms and I know first hand just how stupid combat arms is when it comes to exercise regiments and standards. I guarantee you today Monday Oct 5 2020 there is a PFC out there struggling to deadlift X amount of weight and there is an E-5 or E-6 standing behind him saying "Shut up and pick it up, stop being a *****".

We are so sure this is coming that us OSHA guys and MEDAC had a meeting about it a few months ago lol.

 

So I actually took this thing myself for the first time yesterday with my guys as a diagnostic and it really is easy. I'm someone with a 2x surgically repaired right leg that requires continuous nervous system shots in the back to keep functioning as well as a left knee that requires treatment as just recently uncovered by an MRI today (yay) and I passed it without a problem. Another buddy of mine took it with us and he is on the backend of a broken leg recovery and even he was able to hobble along with us fast enough to pass it.

Them moving us to the "easy" category was a smart move and makes this much more reasonable. Those in my line of work are all banged up after about year 5 or so and there is "something" wrong with virtually all of us who are over the age of 30. A few of the events required a bit of teeth gritting but they are all passable even by the folks with lower extremity injuries. Now those with shoulder problems will have a hard time I imagine.

As critical of this new test as I am I will give credit where credit is due even though I still believe it's way too complex and ridiculous to have as a PT test standard. It's hard to fail and hard to max which is exactly how it should be. The mantra of "We wanted to make a new PT test that you couldn't just roll out of bed and pass" isn't really true. As demonstrated by us yesterday you really can just roll out of bed and pass this thing as someone who doesn't wake up every morning to workout, however, IF you want to do "well" on this thing then yes you will have to hit the gym pretty regularly. For those who require high PT test scores for promotion points and whatnot it will be a good way to get them to workout more and be competitive. For those who just have to pass a PT test to stay in the Army then it's easy enough to where it's not unfair nor is it making you workout vigorously for a job that doesn't require that level of physical fitness.

For a "minimum level of fitness" required for Army service this test is a decent bottom line in my book. If a bunch of legitimate cripples can show up randomly and pass this thing as well as a 115lb female who hasn't worked out in over a decade then so can anybody else. The only issue I see is that I am somebody who has the rank and authority to just waltz in there and do the "minimum" and walk out if I so desire. For those without such luxury I really feel like some terrible injuries are on the way because most other folks aren't "allowed" to just do the bare minimum to pass something. Their leadership will be hammering them to go heavier and faster and they will hurt themselves in the process. Time will tell.

 

Yeah it really is easier but it takes longer to conduct and has more events than the APFT. Originally it wasn't easier but the Army got themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place by trying to make it gender neutral and in doing so they had to cater to the lowest common denominator. It's no offense to females but if you make a physical fitness test that females are expected to pass then the standards do have to be fairly low unless you want to run into bias JAG lawsuits which is what happened.

Lets face it, men are biologically stronger than women, that's just the way it is. Even me with my damaged legs can casually walk up and deadlift 200+ pounds using a hex bar, which is what I did. I did this ACFT in my duty uniform not even changing into PT's. My 115lb female colleague cannot deadlift 200lbs, she can do 140 but not 200. In order for her to be able to deadlift 200lbs she would have to hit the gym regularly and work up to that. That isn't "fair" to her because me being a guy I am born stronger than she is by default so it's not "fair" that I literally can just roll out of bed and pick up heavy things and never do PT and pass while she would be forced to wake up every morning and hit the gym for months of years in order to do that. So the Army had two choices, either have separate standards for men and women to where we both have to wake up and hit the gym to pass the test or keep it neutral and cater to people like her. They chose the latter.

That's why you noticed they lowered the standards for pretty much every event because each event requires physical "strength". The average man who doesn't even workout is still physically stronger than the average female who works out on a daily basis, that's just biology. By keeping the standards high it was primarily forcing all female Soldiers to hit the gym and only forcing a handful of male Soldiers to hit the gym if required. And even regarding hitting the gym the males will hit their target goals much faster than females will, again just biology. I used to be a power lifter and a trainer in my younger years before my body fell apart. I could take an average male who has never touched a weight in his life and have him deadlifting 200lbs with a hex bar in less than a month easily. Hell the average male would be deadlifting 250+lbs with a hex bar in about a month with normal progression. For me to get my 115lb female buddy to deadlift 200-250+lbs it would take months if not years. So if the test standards were higher then in order to pass the females would have to start some pretty rigorous training months or years in advance of their test date, meanwhile the males could still just waltz up and pass and those who required "training" could begin training about 3 weeks prior to the test and still be good to go. That's not fair to the females.

I personally think the test should be gender specific after having taken the thing. If the goal of the Army was to make a test that, quote "You can't just roll out of bed and pass" then you simply CANNOT make it gender neutral based on the real world biological differences between males and females. Again this isn't a knock on women this is just reality. I watched a video of a female WWE wrestler going for her personal best deadlift. It was 300lbs and she struggled but she got it. This is a professional athlete....a woman who's entire lifestyle is dedicated to fitness as a professional wrestler....meanwhile I am a guy who wanted to just to see if I still "had it" from my old powerlifting days and went downstairs to my home gym and tried to deadlift 300lbs again. I did 5 reps...I'm not a professional athlete with a lifestyle dedicated to physical fitness...I'm a guy who eats pizza and drinks booze and has surgically repaired legs that are still damaged. Granted yes I was a power lifter many years ago and that does count for something but still....that's the point.

We need to stop this forced "equality" nonsense. Men and women are NOT equal physically, period. That's not a knock on women that's reality. Yes we are equal as human beings but there are flat out massive biological differences between us and everybody knows that yet the new theme in modern society is that we are supposed to pretend like that isn't factually true. So in turn you get dumb tests like this to where the complete opposite of intention happens to make it "fair". So now instead of making Soldiers strengthen up to be able to deadlift 200lbs or something they had to just lower everything so that the females could also pass so now you only have to do 140lbs which is something that the average 8th grade boy could literally do.

The test should be males get your ass in the gym and strengthen up and be able to deadlift 200-250lbs minimum with a hexbar, that will require some gym time for most folks. Females get your ass in the gym and be able to deadlift 140-180lbs or something which will require gym time for most. But nope, since we want to pretend like a physical fitness test should have the same standards for men and women we have to cater to the physically weaker women in a show of "equality" so now EVERYBODY just has to be able to lift 140lbs. I can literally deadlift 140lbs with one hand, I've done it before as part of a workout routine (well 135lbs but still).

Whatever, doesn't bother me none lol. The Army just showed that I have absolutely zero to worry about regarding their new ACFT and I can literally pass the thing with ease in my damn boots with zero prep work and a hangover lol. So I can still continue my morning "PT" routine consisting of casually cruising by Soldiers running and rucking around in the mornings in my truck with a coffee in my hand and go sit at my desk in my office being glad that I'm not a ground pounder anymore who has to wake up at 6am and ruck march 10 miles in the rain lol.

Hey, the Army just showed me that I don't have to conduct PT in the mornings in order to pass their new PT test so I'll casually wake up around 8am or so and waltz into my office with a coffee like I've always done. When this thing was first announced I honestly thought I would have to dust off my old knee sleeves and get to work in my home gym again in preparation for it. Thanks for showing me that I don't have to do that Army lol.