Angela Papple Johnston - ACFT For Dummies

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

IN THIS CHAPTER

Navigating Army regs around the ACFT

Zeroing in on the ACFT’s six events

Discovering alternatives for profiles

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.

Your best bet? Start training early and often for the ACFT. Make it your primary focus for gym time and build in recovery periods so you get the most from your workouts. Fill in the blank workout calendar in Appendix Aso you can carve out time to zero in on the training that will help you improve in your weakest events. And remember: Train as you fight. Don’t forget to work in the actual event exercises so you know what to expect (and even how well you’ll do) on test day.

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.

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 .

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 3for 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 Chapter 3:

Hex bars

Bumper plates

Sled with pull strap

10-pound medicine ball

40-pound kettlebells

Metric measuring tape

Climbing bars or a climbing pod

Each unit should have the right equipment for modified ACFTs, too, which I cover in the “ Biking, Rowing, or Swimming Your Way through the Alternate Events” section of this chapter. The stationary bike must feature adjustable handlebars and an adjustable seat, as well as an accurate odometer. The rower must be stationary and feature a seat, handles, and rail that can accommodate soldiers of different sizes. It has to have an accurate odometer that measures time, distance, and resistance level.

No matter who you are or where you are in your military career, you’re held to the same ACFT standards as every other soldier in your military occupational specialty. The ACFT has gender- and age-neutral scoring requirements, which means females and males must achieve the same minimum scores on the test (although the test does have three physical demand categories that apply to different MOSs, which I cover in Chapter 4). Whether you’re an enlisted soldier, a warrant officer, or a commissioned officer, you have to meet the same standards as your peers across the board, based on your job.

Some of the ACFT events are more difficult for some people to master than others are. Regardless of your personal opinion on whether the ACFT is biased against one gender or certain age groups, the fact remains that the Army isn’t going to change its stance on grading any time soon — and it’s extremely unlikely to go back to pre-ACFT standards that varied based on age and gender. That may mean that you need to work harder than your battle buddy does to score well on a certain event.