Navy announces single physical fitness assessment cycle in 2023

I spent three years as the PFT coordinator for one of my commands. Given the consistency that I saw in most people's scores, I would say that doing the test twice a year didn't really gain us anything that we wouldn't have had if we did it once a year. The people who failed or were close to failing went into my remedial fitness program, along with the people who were near or over the limit for body fat, and did weigh-ins and mock PFAs monthly to monitor their progress. People who made enough progress got to stop coming to my remedial PT sessions, but still did the monthly assessments to make sure that they didn't backslide. Fortunately for me, I usually also had a few people who were already high-scorers, who wanted my coaching so they could get better. My favorite part of the job was when the people I was coaching exceeded my results. I was in my 40s at the time, so any of the youngsters who were really committed to improving were almost always capable of doing so.

"For the third consecutive year, sailors will participate in one physical fitness assessment cycle in 2023.

Historically, two cycles are conducted each calendar year, but that changed in March 2020 when the Navy called off all physical fitness assessments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tests didn’t resume until July 2021 as part of a single PFA cycle.

The PFA for next year will run from Feb. 1 to Nov. 30.

Due to the single cycle, the Navy is not granting any exemptions to sailors who’ve previously earned overall performance levels of excellent or above. That was the case last year, as well.

Navy gears up for single physical fitness assessment cycle, and scored planks, in 2022

“There will be no excellent or above incentive exemption for CY23,” a naval administrative message said. “… Commanders, commanding officers, and officers-in-charge are encouraged to use incentive programs for the physical readiness program (special liberty, award certificates, etc.).”

Postpartum sailors must wait 12 months to take the PFA after giving birth, and could remain exempt from the fitness test until 2024.

“Sailors with pregnancy (postpartum) status which expires during the official PFA cycle are exempt from participation in the PFA cycle,” the NAVADMIN said."...
@SSG Carlos Madden.