The ACFT became the five-event Army Fitness Test in 2025 and the standing power throw is gone. Here is what the current test measures, where soldiers actually fail it, and a five-day week built around the events, run through a per-muscle recovery model.
Intermediate5 days/week8 to 12 weeksNeeds: Trap / Hex Bar, Barbell, Squat Rack, DumbbellsUpdated Jul 2026
Read this first, because a lot of what is online is out of date: the Army Combat Fitness Test is no longer the Army’s test of record. On 1 June 2025 it became the Army Fitness Test, and the standing power throw, the medicine-ball toss that soldiers complained was more technique than power and that disadvantaged shorter people, was cut. Six events became five: the three-repetition maximum deadlift on a 60-pound hex bar, hand-release push-ups for two minutes, the sprint-drag-carry, the plank, and the two-mile run. The URL of this page still says ACFT because that is what people search for. The content is the current test.
Scoring is 0 to 100 per event for a 500-point total. Most soldiers need at least 60 points in every event and 300 overall on sex-normed and age-normed tables. Soldiers in the 21 designated combat specialties are held to a sex-neutral, age-normed table instead, needing 60 per event and 350 overall; that standard took effect on 1 January 2026 for the active component and 1 June 2026 for the reserve component. For a sense of scale, in the youngest combat column, 60 points is around 150 pounds on the deadlift, 15 hand-release push-ups, a 2:28 sprint-drag-carry, a 1:30 plank and a 19:57 two-mile, while 100 points is around 340 pounds, 58 push-ups, 1:29, 3:40 and 13:22.
There is also now a separate test in the mix. Under Army Directive 2026-07 the Combat Field Test arrived in April 2026 for two dozen combat specialties: seven events back to back inside 30 minutes in combat uniform and boots, starting and finishing with a one-mile run, with 30 dead-stop push-ups, a 100-metre sprint, 16 lifts of a 40-pound sandbag to a 65-inch platform, a 50-metre carry of two 40-pound water cans, and a 50-metre high crawl and rush in between. It is pass or fail on one standard for everyone, and it does not replace the AFT. This page trains the AFT. Standards are set by the Army and change often; check the current Army publication before you test, and note that nothing here is affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Army.
One scored hold a week. Write the number down; it should climb by 10 to 15 seconds a fortnight.
Sunday
Rest
Rest. This is where the adaptation actually happens.
What it actually trains
Computed from the program above with the app’s involvement math, not asserted: brighter muscle, more weekly volume.
Hover a highlighted muscle
Most volumeModerateLight
Glutes
14 · in the growth band
Quads
11 · in the growth band
Hamstrings
9 · maintenance
Chest
9 · maintenance
Abs
9 · maintenance
Forearms
5 · maintenance
Upper Back
5 · maintenance
Calves
5 · maintenance
Triceps
5 · maintenance
Lower Back
4 · maintenance
Shoulders
4 · token
Traps
4 · token
Obliques
3 · token
Biceps
1 · token
Involvement-weighted sets per week, the same accounting the Helix app uses. The pale band marks 10–20 weighted sets, the range where extra volume reliably keeps paying back. Timed work (runs, holds) is counted as a few set-equivalents, an approximation.
Untrained by this program
AdductorsTibialis
Audit clean
Every muscle this program loads gets its full recovery window before it is loaded again. That is rarer than it should be.
The reality check
The numbers say this is a hybrid program, because the test is a hybrid test. Weighted by involvement, the week comes out at about 13.5 sets on the glutes, 11 on quads, 9 on hamstrings, 9 on the chest and 9 on the abs, with roughly 5 on grip and 4.5 on calves. Nothing dominates and nothing is missing. That is not clever programming on our part, it is the test specification: whoever chose a heavy hinge, a two-minute press, a loaded shuttle, an isometric hold and a two-mile run essentially wrote the brief for a balanced strength-and-engine athlete. If you want the version of that idea without a scorecard attached, it is the same week we build in the hybrid athlete. One accounting note: the sprint-drag-carry has no catalog entry, so it is entered as a custom block weighted toward quads, glutes, grip and upper back, and the runs count as three set-equivalents each.
Zero recovery flags, and the deadlift placement is why. The audit comes back clean, which for a five-day week with a heavy hinge in it takes deliberate spacing. The deadlift and the sprint-drag-carry both load glutes and quads hard enough to register, and both sit on 72-hour windows. Monday to Friday is 96 hours and Friday back to Monday is 72, so both directions clear. Move the deadlift to Wednesday and the audit lights up immediately: Wednesday to Friday is 48 hours on three 72-hour muscles. The push-up days work the same way, Wednesday and Saturday, 72 hours apart, with Saturday kept light on purpose. Thursday is a rest day mostly so Friday has legs.
Where people actually fail is the plank and the two-mile. The deadlift is the event that intimidates people and the one that improves fastest, because a three-rep max on a hex bar responds to eight weeks of practising the exact lift. The plank and the run are the ones that quietly sink scores, and both for the same reason: they are trained by accumulating unglamorous time, and nobody wants to. A plank is not a core exercise here, it is a scored hold, and the only way the number climbs is holding it once a week and writing it down. The sprint-drag-carry is the event that hurts most and it is largely a pacing skill, which is why Friday rehearses full rounds rather than pieces.
Know which table you are on, and what the alternates cost. The combat and general standards are genuinely different tests to prepare for: 350 with sex-neutral scoring is a materially higher bar than 300 on sex-normed tables, and the difference lands mostly on the deadlift and push-ups. And if a permanent profile puts you on an alternate aerobic event, the 2.5-mile walk, the 5,000-metre row, the 12-kilometre bike or the 1,000-metre swim, those are scored go or no-go and generate no points, which changes the arithmetic of your total. Plan around your own table rather than around a number you saw online.
How to run it
Test-day order is fixed, so rehearse the fatigue. Deadlift, hand-release push-ups, sprint-drag-carry, plank, two-mile run, in that order. The trap is the middle: the sprint-drag-carry empties you, and the plank comes next while your trunk is still shaking, and the two-mile comes after that. Once a fortnight, run Friday’s shuttle rounds and then hold a plank immediately, so the sensation is familiar rather than alarming.
Spend your effort on your worst event, not your best. Scoring is capped at 100 per event, so points above the cap are wasted, and every event has a steeper slope near the bottom of the table than the top. A soldier at 95 on the deadlift and 62 on the run gains far more from ten weeks of running than from another 40 pounds on the bar. Score a full diagnostic in week one, find the event furthest below your target, and give it the extra session.
Progress each event the way it is scored. The deadlift is a heavy triple: add weight, not reps, and keep working sets at a weight you could do five. Push-ups are a two-minute count: add sets, then reps per set, then cut rest, and never train to failure twice in a week. The plank is one weekly max hold. The run is one interval session and one steady run, and the interval session should be paced from a real target split rather than by feel.
Taper, then diagnose. In the week before a record test, cut the deadlift to two light triples, drop the sprint-drag-carry to a single round, keep one short interval session, and add a rest day. Then repeat the block. Eight weeks is enough to move one event substantially; twelve is enough to move two. If you are chasing a total rather than a pass, note that the deadlift and the two-mile run have the widest point spreads and are therefore where a total is won.
No. The ACFT became the Army Fitness Test on 1 June 2025 and the standing power throw was removed, taking the test from six events to five: the three-rep max deadlift, hand-release push-ups, the sprint-drag-carry, the plank and the two-mile run. Most search traffic still uses the old name, but the current test of record is the AFT.
What are the five AFT events and how is it scored?+
Three-repetition maximum deadlift on a 60-pound hex bar, hand-release push-ups for two minutes, the sprint-drag-carry over five 50-metre shuttles with a 90-pound sled and two 40-pound kettlebells, the plank, and a two-mile run. Each event scores 0 to 100 for a 500-point total, with a 60-point minimum in every event.
What score do I need to pass the AFT?+
Most soldiers need at least 60 points per event and 300 points overall on sex-normed, age-normed tables. Soldiers in the 21 designated combat specialties are scored on a sex-neutral, age-normed table and need 60 per event and 350 overall, effective 1 January 2026 for the active component and 1 June 2026 for the reserve component. Check the current Army scoring scales, because these change.
How is the Combat Field Test different from the AFT?+
The Combat Field Test arrived in April 2026 under Army Directive 2026-07 for two dozen combat specialties and does not replace the AFT. It is seven events run back to back inside 30 minutes in combat uniform and boots, bracketed by one-mile runs, with dead-stop push-ups, a sprint, sandbag lifts, a water-can carry and a high crawl and rush in between. It is pass or fail against a single standard for everyone.
Which AFT event should I train hardest?+
Whichever one is furthest below your target, because each event caps at 100 points and the scoring slope is steepest near the bottom. In practice the deadlift improves fastest with eight weeks of practising the exact lift, while the plank and the two-mile run are the ones people quietly under-train because both require accumulating unglamorous time.