The Army retired the ACFT name and locked in the Army Fitness Test (AFT) as the test of record. If you are still training off an old ACFT card, you are training for a test that does not exist anymore. The events changed, the scoring changed, and for a lot of you the passing line just moved.
This is the straight version of the army fitness test standards 2026: the five AFT events, what it takes to pass, and how to actually train for each one so test day is a formality, not a coin flip.
Army Fitness Test standards 2026: the overview
The AFT became the Army's official fitness test of record on June 1, 2025. The big structural change from the old ACFT standards: the Standing Power Throw is gone. Research tied it to a high injury rate and weak correlation with combat readiness, so it got cut. You now have five events, each scored on a 60 to 100 point scale for a 500-point max.
Two standards apply depending on your job:
- General standard (combat-enabling MOS): scored by sex and age. You clear a total-point threshold to pass, with a minimum score in every event.
- Combat standard (21 combat MOS): one sex-neutral, age-normed standard with a higher total-point threshold to pass, plus a minimum score in every event. This applies to infantry, armor, artillery, cavalry, combat engineers, Special Forces and the rest of the 21 combat-focused specialties. Same bar for everyone in those jobs, regardless of sex.
The combat standard took effect January 1, 2026 for the active component and hits June 1, 2026 for Reserve and National Guard. Here is the part people forget: miss the minimum in any single event and you fail the whole test, no matter how big your total is. A monster total with one event below the floor is still a failure.
The five AFT events, with the equipment you will see on the lane:
- 3-Rep Max Deadlift (MDL): heaviest weight you can pull for 3 reps on a 60-lb hex bar.
- Hand-Release Push-Up (HRP): max reps in 2 minutes, hands fully off the deck at the bottom of every rep.
- Sprint-Drag-Carry (SDC): five 50-meter shuttles, timed, with a 90-lb sled and two 40-lb kettlebells.
- Plank (PLK): hold a proper plank as long as you can. This is the core event now.
- 2-Mile Run (2MR): two miles on a flat course, for time.
Know your exact numbers. AFT scoring minimums shift by cycle, age, and sex — and they get re-tabled. Pull your current standard straight from the source: the official Army Fitness Test standards at army.mil/aft.
How to train each AFT event
3-Rep Max Deadlift
This rewards raw strength, and strength is built in the 3 to 6 rep range with real load. Deadlift or trap-bar deadlift twice a week, work up to heavy triples, and leave a rep in the tank on your work sets so your form does not fall apart. Do not max out every session. Add weight slowly over weeks. Accessory work: Romanian deadlifts, back extensions, and heavy carries to armor up your posterior chain.
Hand-Release Push-Up
Two minutes of push-ups is a muscular endurance game, not a strength game. Grease the groove: hit sets of submaximal push-ups several times through the day, well short of failure, and let the volume stack up. Practice the actual hand-release rep so the reset does not wreck your rhythm on test day. Pair it with rows and band pull-aparts so your shoulders can take the volume.
Sprint-Drag-Carry
The SDC smokes people who only run steady miles. It is anaerobic, grip-heavy, and it hurts. Train it with intervals: 50-meter sprints, sled pushes or drags, and heavy farmer carries with kettlebells or dumbbells. Do full rehearsals of the event when you can get the gear so you know the pacing and where you gas out. Build grip endurance separately with hangs and carries.
Plank
The plank replaced sit-ups and leg tucks, and holding it is a skill. Train it by accumulating time, not by going to failure every day. Do a few sets just short of your limit, keep a straight line from head to heels, squeeze glutes and quads, and breathe. Add hollow holds and dead bugs for deep-core strength that transfers straight to the hold.
2-Mile Run
Do not just run hard every day. That is how you get injured and plateau. Easy runs build your engine, so keep most of your weekly mileage conversational. Then add one interval day (400s and 800s at faster than goal pace) and one tempo run to raise your threshold. Progress your mileage gradually and the two-mile takes care of itself.
Train hard, gear up right
None of this works if your kit fights you. Deadlift triples, sled drags, and a two-minute push-up set will find every seam, every clingy fabric, and every shirt that rides up mid-rep. We built our training tees for exactly this kind of work: moisture-wicking, athletic cut, and tough enough to survive the SDC lane and a heavy pull without turning into a wet rag. Train in gear that disappears so you can focus on the reps.
A sample AFT training week
Monday - Strength: Heavy deadlift triples, plus squats and Romanian deadlifts.
Tuesday - Run intervals: Warm up, then 6 to 8 x 400m faster than goal pace, easy jog recovery.
Wednesday - Push/core: Hand-release push-up volume, rows, band pull-aparts, plank and hollow-hold sets.
Thursday - SDC + conditioning: Sprints, sled drags, heavy carries; a full SDC rehearsal if you have the gear.
Friday - Easy run: Conversational-pace miles to build the engine, plus mobility.
Saturday - Full or partial mock AFT: Run the events, score yourself, find your weak link.
Sunday - Rest: Sleep, food, recovery. This is where the work actually sticks.
The AFT is not a mystery. Five events, a clear number to hit, and months to prepare. The soldiers who fail are almost never the ones who trained the wrong way. They are the ones who did not train at all, or who avoided their weakest event until test day exposed it. Find your weak link, attack it, and score yourself against the real chart until passing is boring.
Put in the reps. Confirm your numbers. Get after it.
- Class 5 Performance
