June 17, 2023 3:37pm EDT
Military making changes to 'outdated' fitness assessment for troops: report
The Army determined it could not afford more accurate body scanners
By Peter Aitken | Fox News
The U.S. Army is considering a new tape test that will help officers measure a soldier’s body fat, according to a new report.
"We want well-balanced soldiers," Army Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston told Task and Fitness in March. "We didn’t want people to game it so you’d be really strong in one area, but you wouldn’t be well-rounded in fitness overall."
The previous tape test, which the Army uses to determine body fat content, measured soldiers around their necks, waists and hips. Critics have long called the method outdated and inadequate for gauging fitness, according to military.com.
The new test will only measure around the waist as part of an overall simplification and overhaul in the Army Combat Fitness Test. The previous method, Army Regulation 600-9, gave soldiers standards for their weight based on height, gender and age.
Grinston said one of his primary tasks upon taking his position was to look at how to change the test. The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine and Army Center for Initial Military Training conducted a study on 2,690 troops and found the tape test failed to accurately measure compliance with body fat standards roughly 35% of the time, Task and Purpose reported. The test also disproportionately affected female soldiers.
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https://www.foxnews.com/us/military-making-changes-outdated-fitness-assessment-for-troops-report
