1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade Executes The Revised ACFT
Story by. Sgt. Brayton Daniel, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs
FORT HOOD, Texas – Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade, Troopers recently executed the newly revised Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) at Fort Hood, Texas on April 5.
The key changes include implementing the ACFT as a general physical fitness test with age and gender performance scoring scales.
“We have different genders, different ages, and people of all walks of life who enlist or commission into the United States Army,” said Cpt. Christopher Buys, Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander. “This gives all of them a chance to demonstrate their physical fitness capabilities.”
The Army announced that the leg-tuck exercise is removed from the test, while implementing the plank as the required core strength assessment. The 2.5 mile walk is also added as an alternate aerobic event.
“When you look at what the purpose of physical fitness is, it’s to increase Soldier’s survivability,” said Buys. “It’s to make them more lethal on the battlefield.”
By implementing this revised approach, the ACFT will provide an accurate assessment of a Soldier’s physical fitness level and sustain the Army’s efforts to maintain a physically fit force.
“When they originally designed the ACFT they incorporated muscle groups in it that Soldiers are going to use in a combat environment,” said Buys.
“Soldiers have started to focus more on a culture of fitness,” said Buys. “The realization that just doing push-ups, sit ups, and running a couple of miles didn’t get Soldiers to the physical fitness level that they needed to be at.”
The latest revisions to the ACFT maintain the Army’s strong commitment to a culture of physical fitness while ensuring fairness in the transition to a new fitness test of record.
“Overall the standard is the standard,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Flores, Special Troops Battalion commander. “It’s been determined by people outside of this level, and we’re ready to get behind it and make it our own.”
