New in 2021: The Army Combat Fitness Test — what you need to know

You have extremely valid points SFC Kelly Fuerhoff! I was 27 when I entered Basic in 1983. I definitely wasn’t in shape for the physical part of training and there were no personal trainers and we ran in black boots! No wonder I broke my pelvic bone in two places! Unfortunately, it wasn’t properly diagnosed until I graduated AIT. I stayed on Active Duty with a P3 profile. That being said, I am a swimmer and swam a mile a day! Weight standards for 27-31 year old females maxed at 131 pounds for 5’2”. Today’s standards are max of 145! That is a definite increase. Also, while working as a behavior therapist at Camp Lejeune MCB, the Navy personnel were definitely overweight! Doctors and Nurses had 15 minutes to ‘swim’ 500 yards to pas the PT test. I understand the difficulties you pointed out and I definitely agree with you! However, as someone who was held to strict weight and fitness levels, I have seen too many SM’s who are overweight, which impairs combat readiness. I agree there should be ‘trained’ fitness professionals to ‘teach’ the components for the new test and the equipment needed should be accessible for SM’s! Not sure what the solution is for these issues. You seem to have been ‘motivated’ enough to get yourself physically ready and I would hope you are sharing your knowledge with those who serve under you. Good Luck in your efforts and there are numerous logistical challenges and issues which need to be addressed! SFC Kelly Fuerhoff

Is there a weight standard for the 27-31 age group? Please refer to AR 600-9.

SFC Kelly Fuerhoff - What kind of new test isn't going to require new trainers and new training technique? The only real weight lifting event it the dead lift and it uses the easier trap bar. I can show you proper technic in about 15 minutes. There has been and still remains a considerable amount of time to train up to these events. The hardest event there is the leg tuck, and I agree that it takes training to get to that point, but none of the rest are rocket science. There are already a number of You Tube training guides that are pretty decent.
This is the first time ANY service has tried a PT test that is Age and Gender neutral, tiered to the demands of the MOS. It does not take a competition lifter to pass this at the "moderate" level. If female soldier want to be accepted as equals, they need to have the same basic standards as the male soldiers ( I understand the reason for different weight and height standards).
Guard and Reserve soldiers have always been responsible for their own PT. I always managed to score above 270 on the 21 year old scale and I was 40 went I came off Active Reserve.
I agree that BMI is a horrible scale, but I did bulk up after I started lifting weights, hovered around 200lbs for the last 5 years in the Guard (I'm 5'9" if you want to look up my allowable weight). Still didn't have an issue taping.
Women weight lifters don't bulk up much (unless they are doing steroids), so I don't see lifting weight to be near the problem for females as it can be for the males
Planet Fitness memberships are 10 bucks a month.

CPT Lawrence Cable blah blah blah

Yes, it did leave out a version or two, at least a test version. In the early 90's, the Army tried to develop a Functional Fitness test, which from my memory was somewhere between the old 5 event test and the ACFT. Same issue, females soldiers had problems with some of the event and the failure rate for male soldiers was higher than the APFT. Instead of looking to see if they could be trained up, they dropped it.

Yours is as good as mine. Let’s hope they figure it out asap