All soldiers can expect to do more push-ups, and women in combat jobs will have to pick up the pace in a two-mile run as much as three minutes faster, under the Army’s new fitness requirements.
“There are a couple of age brackets where your minimum run time, you might have to run about 30 seconds faster in order to pass. There are a couple of areas where you’ve got to do more hand-release push-ups,” Command Sgt. Major Stephanie Carl told Task & Purpose.
The Army released new score cards Friday that lay out the requirements of the new ‘sex-neutral’ standards announced last month. The cards cover mandatory performance for all five events of the new Army Fitness test under two categories: one labeled “M/C” for male and all combat soldier,s and another as “F” for female, which is for non-combat female soldiers.
Under the re-branded Army Fitness Test, AFT, soldiers will have to complete a three-repetition maximum deadlift, hand-release push-ups, the sprint-drag-carry, plank, and a two-mile run. The new test got rid of the standing power throw, more informally referred to as the ‘yeet’ event.
To pass the AFT, combat soldiers will have to earn a score of 350 points in total which averages out to between 60 and 70 points in each event.
“You’re required to get 60 points in each event so if I know that I’m only getting 65 points in one of my events, I’m gonna have to make up that difference somewhere else and do more than 70 in another event in order to balance it,” Carl said.
Under the old scoring card, soldiers across all ages were required to do 10 hand-release push-ups to pass the event with 60 points. Now, all combat soldiers, and all men, 17 to 21 will have to do 15 push-ups. Those between 22 to 31 will have to do 14 push-ups. Non-combat female soldiers in those age ranges will have to do 11.
To get 60 points for the two-mile run, all female soldiers between 17 and 21 previously had to run within 23 minutes and 22 seconds. But under the new fitness test, all combat soldiers will have to run two miles within 19 minutes and 57 seconds — a decrease in time for women of more than three minutes. Non-combat male soldiers will also have to run the event nearly two minutes faster than they were required to previously.
“We’ve raised the bar for combat MOSs, ensuring these soldiers are physically prepared for the intense demands of their roles,” Sgt. Major. Christopher Mullinax said in a statement. “The standardized scoring tables encourage all soldiers to achieve a higher level of overall fitness.”
For non-combat MOSes, soldiers have to score a minimum of 300 points with 60 in each event.
The Army Fitness Test became the Army’s “test of record” June 1 but soldiers in the 21 combat military occupational specialties will not face adverse actions for failing their tests until Jan. 1, 2026. If combat soldiers don’t score a 350 after their second test attempt, they may be forced to reclassify into a new job.
“We do recognize there are some events that soldiers are going to have to work a little bit harder if they weren’t training consistently,” Carl said. “If you were a soldier who was just hitting the minimum on some of these events now, well, your minimum might have gone up and so you’re going to have to work a little bit harder to achieve that minimum.”
To get 60 points for the deadlift, women in combat roles and all male soldiers 17 to 31 will have to lift 150 pounds, 10 pounds more than they did previously. Female soldiers of the same ages will still have to deadlift 120 pounds.
The time required to hold a plank remained the same for all soldiers.
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