Posted on Apr 23, 2015
PV2 Soldier
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Just a question to the community... How would you feel if the Army added pull ups to the APFT? Why or why not?
Posted in these groups: P542 APFTLogo no word s Fitness
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Responses: 13
SFC(P) Owner/Operator
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Why? We aren't enforcing the standards we have now. The three event APFT is constantly failed across the board, active and reserve, but we do very little about it. So what benefit is adding another event?
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PV2 Soldier
PV2 (Join to see)
9 y
I was talking bout adding one and taking one away but it's my opinion
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SFC(P) Owner/Operator
SFC(P) (Join to see)
9 y
Ah. I didn't get that from the post. My original answer still stands though. I don't see the benefit. Core endurance and strength is much more important in the scheme of things than back and bicep strength.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
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The USMC uses pull-ups for our PFT.

For males, Min 3, max 20. For females it had traditionally been the dead-arm hang with a timer. They are transitioning to a pull-up however, with Min 3, max 8.

You'll note that the Normalized Deviation for upper body strength between Males & Females when using this Test is HUGE.

This is not about STANDARDS. This is about FITNESS. The test measures FITNESS. A Female doing 8 Pull-ups is at the same "theoretical" fitness level as a Male doing 20 Pull-ups, for upper body strength.

That said, the deviation is massive. Trying to institute this in the Army would be insane.

The Push Up, has a much "narrower" deviation as a test between genders.

When you are trying to measure Fitness, you want to keep these tests as simple as possible, as universal as possible, and remove as many arguments as possible.
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PV2 Soldier
PV2 (Join to see)
9 y
I came from the Marine Corps so my mind set being in the Army is still questioning if we did it over there why couldn't we do it here?.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
9 y
PV2 (Join to see) Scale. What works for 220k doesn't necessarily work for 1.1M, including National Guard & Reserves.
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SSG Squad Leader
SSG (Join to see)
9 y
That is the big problem for pull up for me is that deviation. also logistics and same standards in grading from one unit to another. You can see that in the army with the push up one grader will grade very differently from another.
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CW5 Jim Steddum
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It is related to the strength required to do what we might actually need to do in combat... climb an obstacle and the like.
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PV2 Soldier
PV2 (Join to see)
9 y
My question is why haven't they implimented the pull up into the APFT yet sir?
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CW5 Jim Steddum
CW5 Jim Steddum
9 y
I guess the answer rests with who "they" are? I know that TRADOC is re-looking the APFT again. LTG Mangum spoke recently at the Warrant Officer Career College an spoke on this very topic. Then, the student that heard him speak, used that as a guide for a Project to discover what right might look like. Pull-ups were a big part of that.
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