Ok, technically it has only been suspended until further notice, but that just isn’t as fun of a title. Plus, who doesn’t love Ben Stiller in the classic Disney movie Heavyweights as Tony Perkis! If you enjoy Stiller as White Goodman from Dodgeball, this was his inspiration for that character. Seeing as we’re all in quarantine it’s worth the $3.99 rental on Amazon.

The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) isn’t cancelled…yet, but let’s wait and see how this all plays out. 2% of me believes they could scrap it for good. I have nothing to substantiate that claim, but the government has wasted far more money previously so I wouldn’t be shocked. The Army leadership decided last week that soldiers would not be able to prepare properly for this test at this time. I mean, had they been preparing properly already? With all the recent non-essential business closings and social distancing regulations, gyms are closing all across the country leaving many soldiers without any equipment to train with. However, I do imagine there are some soldiers right now that are celebrating in quarantine that they will not be taking the ACFT in October 2020. The happiest ones I’m sure are the ones who haven’t even started to prepare for it. Or the ones sitting with a sleeve of Oreos in their lap.

Now, let’s just say, hypothetically, the Army spent over $60,000,000.00+ on equipment for the ACFT. And, let’s say soldiers would happily sign out some of the equipment to train with at home. Why not let soldiers do that? Just a thought and an awesome opportunity!

“Put the Oreos down, you can still train during quarantine!”

This journey started many moons ago in October 2018 when the ARMY started to test run the ACFT with some battalions for a year. They trained the soldiers for it, tested the soldiers, gathered data, adjusted the scoring system and worked out all the kinks as best they could along the way. Then it was time for all battalions to begin training for it starting Oct 2019. It was going to give everyone a minimum of one year of preparation before the official ACFT in Oct 2020. The time since Oct 2019 and before has been filled with quite a few ups and downs along the way. Bitching and complaining seemed to be the new norm for some soldiers on Facebook and YouTube comment sections. It was fairly entertaining. There has been a lack of equipment to train with for other soldiers, and inadequate coaching available to help those that needed/wanted it. Plus who could forget all of the failures? It’s been rough and it might be getting rougher.

“As things start to improve and we see things slowly become available, then we are going to have to figure out the timeline based off of how long service members have not had access to the gym and what’s it going to look like for them to retrain and get back to previous fitness levels,” said Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa.

The Olympics have been moved until 2021. USA Weightlifting’s National Championships have been moved from May to December. Collegiate sports were shut down for the entire Spring season. All professional sports are on hold for the foreseeable future (NBA/NHL/MLB). Who knows what will happen with the NFL in the Fall.

“Wake up campers. It’s a glorious morning! Today is evaluation day. The key word here is ‘value’. Do you have any? Not yet, but by the end of the summer this camp is going to be full of skinny winners!”

It makes sense to suspend the testing, it truly does. But I am surprised they didn’t just pick a new date far enough out that the odds of COVID-19 still being a massive issue are small. That would’ve been the easiest thing to do in my mind. Plus it would let everyone start to game plan now for it while everyone is just sitting around watching the Tiger King. But I guess they didn’t want to worry about it until they got through season 3 of Ozark too. Wild times in Missouri!

Looking at a calendar, the earliest I foresee the ACFT truly becoming a service-wide requirement is April 2021. Here is my thought process on it. That’s 6-months from the original date. I might be totally off base, but I think I logic’d the shit out of this. October 1, 2020, was the initial date set, but with the postponement, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, I couldn’t imagine it starting in 2020. With the peak not coming for another few weeks, there is no shot it can happen this year now that they already postponed it. LTC Ochoa says they will be assessing the situation as it transpires and figure it out when they know how long soldiers have been without access to gyms.

The problem there is, with bases in many states with different guidelines, there is a high probability that some soldiers will be able to get back to training sooner than others. So it will be the soldiers in the worst-off states that will be setting the new date. Sadly this is ravaging my home state of NY right now, and they might be locked down until June. With the stay-at-home guidelines across the country, we are looking at a minimum of 4 weeks of gyms being completely closed, which most likely will push out until 8 weeks or more. Granted there are a few states that haven’t closed non-essential business at the time of me writing this, but I assume all states will eventually follow suit. That’s why the easiest solution would be to just say we are postponing it 6 months and will revisit this situation Dec 1 to ensure we are still on track for April. And again revisit it on Jan 1.

Over on ESPN 8 “The Ocho”, things are getting weird.

Due to the nature of this situation, I imagine they would prefer to get it on the 2020 calendar year. But that would be Dec 1/Jan 1 timeframe which just doesn’t seem doable with the current state of affairs. We all know the Army basically shuts down after Veteran’s Day so training would be spotty at best leading up to it. Hence why I believe they wanted the test on the record before Veteran’s Day. It makes complete sense when you look at it that way. And honestly, with all the holidays in November and December, October was the right call. But with what is going on in the world April 2021 seems to make the most sense now, and honestly, October 2021 might be where it ends up.

February could be considered, but soldiers coming back in tip-top shape after the holidays/going on leave, and doing virtually nothing but eating and drinking for two months could be a disaster. And the only way to really ensure that doesn’t happen is to take 8+ weeks to get them there once work is back to normal. Which would mean they could take all of February and all of March for some focused training leading into April, so that is how I got to April 1.

I know it is all speculation, but logically this is where I see it going. I know I won’t win anything but 1 year from now will be the first official ACFT of record. As I’ve been reading up on this and writing this post, I’m actually starting to think they might just make it a full year. 30% of me thinks that they may in fact just wait until October 2021 because, as we all know, if failing the ACFT was a business, then “Business is a Booming” right about now. Extending it a year would give the Army more time to prepare the weak and unfit soldiers to perform adequately enough to pass. It’d give them more time to get all of the equipment orders filled for everyone and hopefully be enough time to hire more coaches and get more Army trainers up to speed.

“Can we just go back to Push-Ups, Sit-Ups and a 2-Mile? These Leg Tucks are impossible.”

I guess that was the one plus of the old APFT, no equipment was required, so a situation like this global pandemic wouldn’t stop training for it. But once you transfer over to a test that costs $60,000,000.00+ to out-fit each battalion with enough equipment to test it you are now in quite a pickle. But no one could have seen this COVID-19 pandemic coming and basically shutting the world down for months.

It’s tough to associate positive things to the pandemic, but it has given all of you soldiers that were struggling with the test more time. And that’s a big positive if you use your time wisely. Yes, you might be without some equipment for a little while, but if you were honestly training hard leading into all of this you will be fine. The amount of time and effort you’ve been putting in is not wasted. Don’t let that thought creep in. Yes, you will lose some strength, it happens in times like this when you can no longer load yourself with external resistance. There is a reason they call it resistance training. You need resistance to train with. The good thing though is it will not take you nearly as long to get back the strength that you will lose.

This is an opportunity no matter how you look at it. It’s an opportunity to focus up your training, work on what you can work on now, control what you can control and make the most of the situation you are in. 2 of the events don’t require any equipment. There is no excuse now that you all can’t go out and smash the 2-Mile and the Hand Release Push-Ups. No one and I mean no one should fail either of those events. If you need help with the Run, READ THIS!

“Anyone who brings candy into this camp is not your friend. He is a destroyer.”

Even the other 4 tests are trainable during this time. I know it’s not the same, but there are things that you can pick up off the ground to help with the Deadlift event, like your ruck, paint cans, a log, a VW, find something and pick it up. You can install a pull-up bar at your house. Like I’ve always said, every house needs two things, a plunger if you eat at the DFAC and a pull-up bar. Granted there are other things a house needs too, but my 68-year-old parents have two homemade pull-up bars in their house. What’s your excuse?

Will bodyweight workouts help you pass the ACFT? Maybe not. But will bodyweight workouts help keep you in great shape to be ready to attack a barbell when you can finally get back to training? 100% yes. If there was a time to form a habit around exercise it is now. Get your family involved, challenge a buddy or a neighbor. Don’t just sit around and eat your feelings while binging through the Netflix catalog. Get 50 No Equipment Required Workouts below.

 

This is quite the crazy time we are living in right now. I’m lucky that I have a garage gym to train in, so my routine hasn’t been disrupted. But I added in a bodyweight work out every day to my training to help maybe motivate my athletes and soldiers I train to get after it too. Even my sister got in on it too, and she hates this stuff. But guess what, it’s an opportunity. I even started doing 100 KB Swings per day to help another athlete of mine.

“My Grandma runs faster than you and she’s only got one leg!!!”

I still have a number of my soldiers that I work with that are without gyms right now and don’t have the equipment to train with. And the biggest thing I can tell them it is all about perspective. Understand it’s not an ideal scenario for anyone, and though some of us might be more alone than usual, we are not alone, millions and millions of people are in this together.

The only things that you can control are your attitude, how much effort you put forth and how you respond to adversity. If you only take one thing away from all of this remember, it could be way worse. A loved one could be stuck in a hospital bed fighting for their life and the only contact you are allowed to have is over a cellphone.