The Comprehensive Guide to Exceeding the Army Fitness Test (AFT): Events, Standards & Training That Actually Works

The 5 Current AFT Events Explained

Every AFT event is built around a specific fitness component the Army has identified as essential to combat performance. Understanding what each one tests changes how you train for it.

1. Trap Bar Deadlift AFT Event: 3-Repetition Maximum (MDL)

Using a 60-pound hex bar plus plates, you load up and pull the heaviest weight you can for three continuous, controlled reps. This is a pure test of lower-body, grip, and core strength — the foundation everything else on the test is built on. Weak posterior chain strength shows up everywhere else on the AFT, from the drag phase of the SDC to your ability to stay upright during the run.

Performance tip: Don't just max out once a month and call it training. Build a real trap bar deadlift program with progressive overload, work your hip hinge pattern with variations like the sumo deadlift and forward lunge, and train your grip separately — it's usually the first thing to fail on a heavy triple.

2. Hand-Release Push-Up AFT Event: Arm Extension (HRP)

Max reps in two minutes, with a full hand-release and arm extension to a T-position between every rep. That release breaks the rhythm most people rely on with a standard push-up, which is exactly the point — it removes momentum and tests real muscular endurance in the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

Performance tip: Train the full range of motion, not just the lockout. Incline bench work, supine chest press, and controlled negatives build the strength; pacing drills (sets of 10-15 with short rest, repeated) build the endurance you actually need at minute two.

3. Sprint-Drag-Carry (SDC)

Five 50-meter shuttles — sprint, sled drag, lateral shuffle, kettlebell carry, sprint — for a total of 250 meters, done as fast as possible. This event tests anaerobic power, muscular endurance, and your ability to keep producing force after you're already gassed. It's widely considered the event most people underestimate until they're gasping halfway through the drag phase.

Performance tip: Real sprint drag carry training has to include the sled — you can't fake this event's demands with generic cardio. Straight-leg deadlifts and bent-over rows build the pulling strength, but you also need repeated-effort conditioning — intervals that mimic the metabolic demand of going hard for four minutes with no real recovery between phases.

4. AFT Plank Standard (PLK)

Hold a proper forearm plank — straight line from head to heels — for as long as you can. Simple to explain, brutal to execute well past the two- or three-minute mark. This is a core endurance test, and a weak or poorly trained core will fail here long before your shoulders do.

Performance tip: Train the plank specifically, not just as a warm-up finisher. Add loaded carries, leg tucks, and side bridges to build the deep core stability that keeps your hips from sagging when fatigue sets in.

5. 2 Mile Run AFT Standard (2MR)

A straightforward two-mile run for time on flat, improved terrain. This is your aerobic base, plain and simple, and it's also the event most affected by how well you recover between the other four.

Performance tip: Don't over-rely on running at one pace. Build a real mix of tempo runs, interval work, and long aerobic runs, and don't neglect strength work for your legs — running economy improves when your posterior chain is strong, not just when your mileage goes up.

AFT Scoring Standards You Actually Need to Know

Skip the noise and remember three numbers that define every AFT scoring standard conversation:

• 300 — the minimum total score for the AFT general standard (sex- and age-normed), which applies to combat-enabling and general-population MOSs.
• 350 — the minimum total AFT combat MOS standard, using sex-neutral, age-normed scoring, which applies to the 21 designated combat MOSs, including Infantry (11B), Combat Engineer (12B), Field Artillery/Fire Support (13F), Special Forces (18-series), and Armor/Cavalry (19-series) specialties.
• 60 — the minimum score required on each individual event, regardless of which total standard applies to you. You cannot average your way to a passing 350 AFT score by crushing the deadlift and bombing the run.

We're keeping this section high-level on purpose — official per-event point tables shift, and the only source you should ever score yourself against is the current AFT scoring scale published by the Army. What doesn't change is the strategic reality: if you're in a combat MOS, hitting the sex-neutral AFT standard of 350 with a 60-point floor on every event demands more balanced fitness than most Soldiers currently train for. A Soldier who's strong on the deadlift but weak on the run, or fast on the SDC but can't hold a plank, will find the 60-point floor unforgiving.

Where Things Actually Stand Right Now

If you're in a combat MOS reading this and you haven't recorded a 350, understand where the process stands today: the voluntary reclassification and branch-transfer windows are closed, and the involuntary process — boards, reclassification, and branch reassignment for officers and enlisted alike — is already running. There's no more "I'll get to it next cycle." The window to get ahead of this on your own terms was 2025. The window to fix your score before your next record test is right now.

How to Pass the AFT (and Why That Shouldn't Be Your Only Goal)

If you're only asking how to pass the AFT, you're aiming too low. The honest answer to "how to pass the AFT" is: train balanced, hit 60+ on every event, and don't neglect your weakest lift or your slowest event. But Soldiers who train only to clear the floor tend to live right at the floor — one bad night of sleep, one deployment cycle, one minor injury away from failing a record test. The Soldiers who consistently exceed the standard train with margin built in, so a bad day still clears the bar.

How to Train to Exceed the AFT — Not Just Pass It

Passing the AFT and being genuinely combat-ready are two different outcomes, and most Soldiers train for the wrong one. Real Army Fitness Test preparation that builds durability and performance — rather than a score you scraped together the week before record day — needs these elements in place.

Build real strength with progressive overload

The trap bar deadlift is your foundation event, and foundation events respond to structured strength programming — not random heavy days. You need a program that progressively loads your pull over weeks, tracks your numbers, and builds the posterior chain strength that also carries over to the SDC drag phase and your running mechanics.

Train work capacity, not just single-event max efforts

The AFT tests five things back-to-back on the same day. Training only one event at a time in isolation doesn't prepare you for the accumulated fatigue of testing all five. You need conditioning work that stacks strength, sprint, and endurance demands the way the actual test does.

Train the Sprint-Drag-Carry specifically

Generic cardio doesn't replicate the SDC. You need dedicated sprint-drag carry training — sled work, kettlebell carries, and shuttle-style intervals — built into your week, not bolted on as an afterthought.

Build durability, not just a peak score

A Soldier who can hit 350 once during a controlled test but breaks down under a rucksack, in the field, or during a deployment cycle hasn't actually gotten more combat-ready — they've gotten better at a test. Durability training means joint resilience, mobility work, and a program built to reduce the injury risk the Army specifically cited as a reason for redesigning this test in the first place.

Train your weakest event on purpose

The 60-point floor punishes imbalance. If you're strong in the gym but slow on the run, or fast but weak on the deadlift, your program needs to be built around your actual gaps — not just what you enjoy training.

The MTNTOUGH Solution: The Standard, 9-Week AFT Training Program

MTNTOUGH built The Standard: 9-Week Army Fitness Test Training Program specifically around the current AFT — not a repurposed ACFT plan, and not a generic strength template with an Army logo slapped on it. It's built with a retired Army Ranger who helped us build and test programming backward from the five events, designed for Soldiers who want to walk into record day over-prepared, not just prepared.

As a 9-week AFT training program, The Standard is long enough to build real strength adaptation on the trap bar deadlift, real conditioning capacity for the sprint-drag-carry, and real aerobic progression on the run — without being so long that Soldiers lose momentum or motivation halfway through.

What makes it different

• Trap bar deadlift emphasis. The program treats the MDL as the foundation it is, with progressive overload built in to drive real strength gains over the full 9 weeks — not a single max-effort test at the end.
• Dedicated Sprint-Drag-Carry conditioning. Specific sled, carry, and shuttle interval work designed to build the exact anaerobic capacity the SDC demands, instead of generic cardio.
• Structured run programming. A real progression for the 2-Mile Run that builds aerobic base without sacrificing the strength work happening the same week.
• Durability built in. Programming designed to reduce injury risk and build joint resilience, so you're not peaking for one test day and breaking down the week after.
• Phased, 9-week structure. Progressive phases that build strength, then work capacity, then peak performance — timed so you're ready when record day comes, not just tired from training hard with no direction.

This is programming built for Soldiers holding the line on the AFT combat standard of 350 and the AFT general standard of 300 alike — whether you're in a combat MOS working to get your score where it needs to be right now, or you simply refuse to settle for the minimum. Check out The Standard here and see the full 9-week breakdown.

Conclusion: Train for the Standard, Not the Minimum

The AFT is here, it's already being enforced, and for the 21 combat MOSs, the 350 sex-neutral standard is now tied directly to your career — not next year, this year. Minimum-effort prep might get you through one test day if you're lucky. It won't make you the Soldier who's actually ready when it counts — on a ruck, in the field, or in a fight.

You already know the standard. The only question is whether your training actually gets you there. Start The Standard: 9-Week Army Fitness Test Training Program and train like the score is the floor, not the ceiling.