The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Deadlifts

The US Army officially announced this week that it will be replacing the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) with a NEW fitness test. The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). One that is designed to “prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat.” It’s going to take some time to work the kinks out, but it is set to be Army wide by October 2020. At that time ALL soldiers will be required to take and pass the test. At the current moment the new test is set to be age and gender neutral. Which is a first. But may change over the course of these next two years.

This test has come out of a 6 year effort to establish a better assessment of combat readiness. As we all know at this point, the APFT is a bit of a stretch to gauge “combat readiness”. This isn’t going to happen over night and is going to take time to establish standards. But they are giving themselves 2 years to figure it all out. Which is good. No point in rushing it. Anything is better than the APFT, right?

October 2020…the day fitness changes in the Army forever, well maybe.

Starting in October 2018, 60 battalions across the Army will spend the year taking the ACFT. Over this time they will be providing data that will help to develop the standards for each of the tests. It is rumored that a soldiers Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) could play a part in how high or low standards are for a specific MOS. A Special Forces soldier should have a higher standard and I assume will.

By October 2019, total Army implementation is to be expected at around a total cost of $30 million. At that time the Army secretary and chief of staff have up to a year to determine when it will replace the current APFT. October 2020 seems pretty set in stone at this point. I doubt that date will change. The Army is expecting to use a similar 100-point scale for each event, like the APFT. With a potential high score of 600. There is also talk of having a minimum standard for each event and a minimum standard for the whole test. 60% is what is currently used to “PASS” the APFT, so I imagine they will stay close to that. Expect 360-points to be the pass standard to remain a soldier in the Army. I have heard soldiers say that even if you get the minimum for all 6 events you still won’t pass. Which sounds like the total combined score will need to be over 360-points. But that is a rumor running through Ft. Bragg, nothing solid on that.

The six events of the Army Combat Fitness Test:

• Strength Deadlift: This is a three-repetition max deadlift to test muscular strength. The proposed weight range at the moment is 120-420 lbs. They will be using a Hex Bar (Trap Bar) for this test vs a straight barbell for safety purposes.
• Standing Power Throw: Soldiers throw a 10-pound medball over their head backward. It measures upper and lower body muscular power, balance and whole body flexibility.
• Hand-Raised (Released) Push-ups: Soldiers now are forced to rest their chest to the ground and lift their hands up each rep. It measures upper-body muscular endurance.
• Sprint, Drag and Carry: This event is five different tasks all rolled into one. They start with a 50-meter sprint, a 90lb backward 50m sled drag; a 50m movement; a 50m carry of two 40-pound kettle bells; and a final 50m sprint. It measures muscular strength, power, speed and reaction time.
• Leg Tuck: A soldier will hang perpendicular from a pull-up bar and brings their knees up to the elbows and back down again for one repetition. It measures muscular strength, endurance and grip.
• Two-Mile Run: The ACFT retains the two-mile run from the APFT, which measures aerobic and muscular endurance.

The test involves roughly 37 minutes of work and 13 minutes of rest. Soldiers get a 2 min rest after the first four events and a 5 min break before the 2-mile run. It’s been projected that 15 lanes worth of equipment will be outfitted to each battalion by 2019. According to Maj. Gen. Malcom Frost, “To outfit the entire United States Army with 15 lanes per battalion (1,205 Army wide) … you are talking approximately $30 million.“ He added, “$30 million over the lifespan of this equipment, which is 10 years…that’s less than $3 per soldier.” I don’t see the equipment lasting 10 years, but we’ll see. Who won this contract to supply all this equipment? They are going to be making some serious scratch marking the price of everything waaaay up.

Total estimated equipment cost $30,000,000…thats a lot of medballs!

Leaders believe that the ACFT is the start of a new era of fitness in the Army. That’s a pretty bold claim. While some Soldiers disagree with replacing the APFT, fitness has come a long way from 40 years ago. And as part of its cultural change, the Army is building a Holistic Health and Fitness System to produce healthier and fitter Soldiers. Not to be skeptical but that’s a hard sell. This new test is one piece of the system, that goes along with the improvement of fitness centers on bases, and healthier options at chow halls. Which I am all for. But a test won’t change the culture. Sorry it won’t.

A Strength Coaches Editorial:

As someone who has coached Tactical Athletes since 2009 I feel this is a start. I don’t however think this will improve the fitness level of Army soldiers as predicted. Maybe it will but I’m not sold quite yet. It is a test and training for only 6 tasks doesn’t make someone fit. But I get it. They got to test something so lets test a variety of things that can simulate operational tasks. Put it this way, it could be way worse, so we might as well see how it plays out.

But while we’re on the topic of fitness, what is the Army’s definition of “Fitness” anyways? It used to be crushing an APFT. Does that make one fit? Based on that definition, it’s not real world applicable though. I have met soldiers that do very well on the APFT but can’t do anything resembling anything athletic. This could become a problem as well with the ACFT, but I guess we have to wait and see. I hope people don’t start deadlifting 3 days a week and launching medballs overhead daily. Running 3 days a week is one thing; deadlifting 3 days a week calls for an intervention and a backiotomy.

Please don’t deadlift 3 times/week whatever you do!

Now I’ve read quite a bit of people pushing back in comment sections. Saying its unrealistic, it’ll take too long to administer, injuries will go up, too many people will fail, it costs too much, what is the point, has a fit person ever failed the APFT, has an unfit person ever passed the APFT and so on. I don’t disagree with the points being brought up. But I’m all for giving it a shot before getting super-critical. I know I’m being a tad critical, but I’m not super-critical, yet. Push back is always to be expected when something changes and this test is no different. Soldiers are nervous they may not do well and get booted (pun intended) from the Army, but based on what I read training will change. It appears they are going all in and are going to be training soldiers “better”. I’ll wait to see what that all entails. Again, please don’t deadlift 3 times per week. I beg you.

The long and short of it is the Army needed to change their PT test. It sucked. It did, we all know it, and no one wanted to say it. It’s like seeing an ugly baby, you know it’s ugly, mom and dad know it’s ugly, but no one mentions it. The APFT was outdated and wasn’t a test of anything important. It was a test that showed someone’s discipline to practice some push-ups, sit-ups and run every so often. I don’t think the ACFT is perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I’m all about them giving it the old college try. And I hope this changes how they run PT for the Army. The horror stories I hear about what some units do on a daily basis now is absurd and ridiculous.

I have a few questions though…

The big questions I have are, what is the Army’s definition of “Combat Readiness”? Does it look the same for an 18C and a 42A? Does someone maxing a PT test ensure they are combat ready? Is it going to have different standards for MOS’s? Are they going to change how they train soldiers during PT hours? Who is going to be running the training for the soldiers? Are they going to hire strength and conditioning coaches? How are they planning on warming-up the soldiers for this test? Is that standardized? Are we saying #YOLO and jumping into Deadlifts cold at 530AM? I’m sure people beyond my pay grade have all these answers. And it won’t be Army wide until 2019 and official until 2020 so I guess I have to just wait to get my answers. I do think it’s a start and I hope it works out and improves the fitness level of the Army. Until then I have skeptical hippo eyes.

Below you’ll find the tests categorized as: “Okay I can live with it”, “If we really have to”and“Holy shit I hope they teach people how to do it and get them nice and warmed-up before we start blowing intervertebral discs out of peoples spines”. The 3rd category name is long, but I couldn’t think of anything shorter that would get my point across. Also, for all you out there that may get offended this is my personal opinion and it doesn’t mean shit anyways so relax.

Okay, I Can Live With It:

Hand-Raised (Release) Push-Ups. All I’ll say is, it’s about time. Commence Operation No More Shitty Looking Push-Ups…Fingers Crossed! The amount of shitty push-ups I’ve seen in my day working with soldiers is uncountable. If anyone should be able to do them great I would’ve thought it was a soldier, but I was wrong. This new standard should end the wet noodle back push-ups and the move your head up and down in a weird rapid bobbing for apples fashion. That’s a big positive.

Leg Tuck. Anything to get rid of the sit-up. Put in cartwheels before you ever bring back sit-ups. Granted there still is some spinal flexion with the leg tuck but it’s not the same when hanging from a bar. And hanging from a bar is great! Or how about this, Pull-Ups, you’re buying the bars anyways!?! Grip strength is going to get tested which is a huge win. And ones ability to maintain a tight braced core to prevent swinging on the bar is another plus. I haven’t seen the standards in regards to how you actually do it, but one article said it was like a pull-up. I’ve seen two videos, one where they kept them flexed the whole time and the other they had to straighten them each rep. I can neither confirm nor deny what is the standard, I’d assume you have to straighten them each rep. If you can’t trust the Internet who can you trust?

If We Really Have To:

Two-Mile Run. It’s simple. It’s easy to train for. No skill required. Sorry track coaches, but come on, running 2 miles is not a skill. It’s also equipment free! The running portion will never be perfect; some will say it’s too short others will say it’s too long. You need a run in there so keep what you’ve been doing. No need to change everything. I could argue for a test of speed or a shuttle run of some nature, but my opinion doesn’t matter so 2-miler it is! Whatever you do don’t buy 18000+ Assault Bikes for each lane.

Sprint, Drag and Carry. It’s meant to simulate real world situations for the soldiers. Though it’s not perfect it’s a solid idea and should work out ok. But lets be honest this is nothing close to what they actually have to do. Plus it’s so damn equipment intensive I see it becoming a nightmare. Sprinting is a great test. Dragging weight is a cool way to mix it up. And carrying weight is awesome. I would say add a 100 lb sand bag and make them pick that up over their shoulder and run with that 50m as the final test though. Tax payers are buying all this equipment anyways, whats another couple million?

Holy Shit I Hope They Teach People How To Do It And Get Them Nice And Warmed-Up Before We Start Blowing Intervertebral Discs Out Of Peoples Spines:

Standing Power Throw. Now I’m not a big fan, but I get what they want to test and it’s simple and easy to replicate so I’m…insert shrugging shoulders emoji. The main issue I see is the only way to train for it is to do the task, so that could lead to problems. Also I see people launching these balls all over the place. They say everything is going to be in a lane, but how wide are these lanes going to be? I watched a video on YouTube and the kid launched it 5 ft out of his lane. Granted no one was over there, but he was also the only one going. They also claim this will test flexibility too, I don’t know how, but whatever it sounds cool in the literature. Also please warm them up for this, everyones back will thank you.

Strength Deadlift. And the worst named test of the bunch goes to…the Strength Deadlift. I hate the name so much, like so much. Just call it a 3-Rep Max HexBar (TrapBar) Deadlift. What do people think a Deadlift tests? Cardio? I’m not saying they shouldn’t test for strength but who is doing the coaching on technique and form? Watching the video below is the big part of what I am nervous about.

I digress… Do they ever do Deadlifts in their training program? How long do they have to warm-up? Is there a standard warm-up? The last thing you should do with Novice “athletes” is test a 3RM, well except test a 1RM. I’m skeptical with everyone’s varying levels of weight training experience and the lack of quality coaching. Plus with the push for numbers reps will get sloppy and it appears they are doing it on grass. If it’s on a green at Augusta National ok, but on a random field with uneven ground, someone is going to get hurt. I love the smell of herniated discs in the morning.