Why Fitness Tests Don't Matter

You may have noticed that every American military branch had essentially the same fitness test up until the last few years.

But this is NOT because training for the test is the best way to get selected.

The secret about selection for every branch is that the fitness test is just to get your foot in the door.

Strength is way more important than calisthenics

Water con and fin swims are more important than your slick 500yd swims

And your timed 1.5 or 2-mile runs will more than double in distance

In this article, I’ll reveal the real purpose of fitness tests, share the most overlooked aspects of preparation, and at the end, I’ll provide a hierarchy of needs for how you should prioritize your training.

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The Real Purpose of Fitness Tests

But what is the real purpose of fitness tests? One school of thought says they exist to identify the fittest candidates. And the other says they’re designed to weed out those who are not physically prepared.

While it seems like a trivial difference between the two. The purpose of the fitness test has major implications for how YOU should prepare for selection.

Thought Exercise

Here’s a thought exercise (stick with me here):

If you were to think about BUD/S where you’ll run timed 4-mile runs in soft sand, carry logs and boats, and do multi-mile ocean fin swims, clearly, the most effective way to identify successful candidates would include a 1.5-mile run on concrete, push-ups and sit-ups, and a 500yd combat side stroke in a pool without fins.

I hope you caught the sarcasm.

But on the other hand, if you were to think of the quickest, and most cost-effective way to weed out candidates, through a test which requires virtually no equipment, – you can’t get much better than calisthenics, and a timed run and swim.

The Problem with Military Fitness Tests

I hope you understand now, the fitness test is not that way by coincidence. Special operations fitness tests are designed to quickly and weed out candidates, not make you successful at selection.

Once you understand this, it naturally follows that training to the test is NOT the optimal way to prepare for selection.

Instead, what I do as a coach, is train for what predicts selection success – and while it varies slightly from branch to branch, there are universal principles

Here are the four most overlooked and important aspects of special operations training.

Strength over Calisthenics

All too often, I’m asked how to go from 70 to 90 push-ups. And that’s a great goal if you’re already strong and running fast. But if you are asking this, you’re probably over indexing on a metric of success, your bodyweight push-up and situp count, which in the grand scheme of training do not offer significant returns.

After all, how many guys go to selection and wish they did more push-ups? What you’re more likely to hear is they struggled on rucks and runs or they mentally crumbled under the weight of such high training volume.

So, instead of focusing on calisthenics, go one layer deeper in your training and focus on exercises that will not only improve your calisthenics but also significantly benefit you at selection

Heavy squatting, deadlifting, pressing, and pulling – including weighted calisthenics will do exactly that

Will you be #1 in the class in push-ups or pull-ups? Probably not. But you will be more prepared than if you oriented your training just to maximizing bodyweight calisthenics.

Pararescue candidate doing water confidence drills

The Importance of Water Skills

A very similar scenario exists with swimming and water confidence. For those of you training to be an Air Force PJ or Navy SEAL, there is no set of skills more overlooked than water confidence. I’ve created a 2,000+ word master guide on how to go from zero to expert, which you can check out here.

The point is, that proficiency in freestyle or the combat side stroke does not mean you’re confident in the water. To be successful, you need to master treading, underwaters, and acclimate your feet to long fin swims

This is not just my assessment from the many athletes I’ve coached, this comes directly from the RAND Corporation’s research on how to optimize the training and selection process for Air Force Special Warfare Candidates. They found that while entrance tests did correlate with attrition rates – there were significant gaps. When they included a Basic Water Skill Test of (a timed tread, buddy breathing and underwaters), they were able to better predict who would and would not be selected )

The Basic Water Skills Test at Air Force A&S (Pararescue Training)

And I want to be clear that this was not a purely academic study. One of the many recommendations Air Force Special Warfare applied was creating the 8-week prep course which now exists following Air Force BMT and trains candidates with a special focus on water confidence along with strength and endurance.

The Air Force even developed a new fitness test, not for civilians, but for operators who are currently serving called the Operator Fitness Test (OFT).

Air Force Special Warfare Operator Fitness Test

Rucking: An Underrated Skill

In the Army, multiple studies have been conducted on similar topics and found that rucking is far and away the greatest predictor of SFAS success, more than even APFT scores

Here’s the data from Special Forces Assessment and Selection:

the top 25% of ruckers had a 67% selection rate.
the top 25% of APFT scores had a 48% selection rate.

Clearly, rucking is underrated given it’s not on the test, but what’s the best way to improve it?

Well thankfully, a NATO technical report analyzed 8 studies on exactly this and determined the top predictors of fast ruck times were

fat mass (more is bad)
lean mass (more is better)
height (taller is better)
VO2 max

The only one of these that is tested on the APFT would be VO2 Max in the form of a timed run.

I hope it’s becoming clear now that a candidate in any branch who trains solely to the test will be gravely underprepared.

Staying Healthy During Special Operations Training

But there’s one other aspect of training that is highly underrated and results in major setbacks if you don’t take it seriously, and that is being healthy.

Attrition rates for special operations careers are upwards of 70% in every branch. So if you show up broken, your odds of getting selected will be very low, if not zero.

But staying healthy, at least in your training, is pretty simple. There are exercises I like such as cable external rotations, tib raises, and also shoulder mobility work.

But, I don’t always include those either. The reason why is that I’m programming a balanced regimented program, which if you’re doing one with good technique, is going to result in a much lower risk of injury

How this ties into fitness tests is that training for the test will result in imbalances which can result in injury.

How To Train for Special Operations

Pushing and Pulling Volume

First is a relatively even balance between pushing and pulling volume. What this does is ensure proper shoulder health and balance between the front and back of the body.

So, if we do 7 sets of horizontal pushing like bench press and push-ups, I’ll want to balance that out with about 7 or more sets of horizontal pulling movements like barbell or seated cable rows.

Where calisthenics guys go wrong is doing hundreds of push-ups per day, which are not being counteracted by any horizontal pulling.

Where calisthenics guys go wrong is doing hundreds of push-ups per day, which are not being counteracted by any horizontal pulling.

The visual representation of this training is poor posture called kyphosis where someone has rounded, rolled forward shoulders, and this poor posture often leads to shoulder impingement and other issues.

David Goggins (Navy SEAL) running an ultra marathon

Exercise Variation

The second principle is exercise variation

You need consistency in your training to progressive overload on movements like squats, lunges, pushes, and pulls. There is a risk associated with doing the same exercises at high volumes.

And to be clear, I’m not talking about risk from doing 20 or 30 reps of back squats per week. What I’m talking about is the hundreds of push-ups and pull-ups candidates do, which, without any exercise variation, can lead to overuse injury.

Here’s how you can apply exercise variation to your routine:

If you were doing 100 pull-ups per day or every other day. Instead, do 20 reps of weighted pull-ups, 1 unweighted set of pull-ups for max reps, and then barbell rows or seated cable rows. And you can repeat this a few times per week.

The benefit of this approach is you spread your training volume across your entire back vs hammering your body with one movement, and it also allows you to pull a different lever in your training. Instead of just adding more reps, you can focus on increasing weight as well.

But if you still want to do daily pull-ups, at least switch up your grip position or try other variations like ring pull-ups. Just be aware that, more often than not, your elbows will be the first to give out on pull-ups – and your shoulders or wrists on push-ups.

Intelligently Increase Volume

The third strategy is to increase your volume intelligently.

The way I like to approach training volume is that, as a beginner, it will go up over time and then begin to stabilize, both from a running and weight-lifting perspective

The reason why is that even though volume is necessary for improvement, you will reach diminishing returns. Instead, we can keep our weight-lifting volume relatively static and focus on increasing the weight. For running, we can keep our total time training similar while focusing on increasing our pace in each session.

This shifts the focus from arbitrary metrics like total reps and sets or miles to improving the leading indicators of selection performance like speed and strength.

If you follow these three principles, you’re far more likely to stay injury-free. And I also have a free program to bulletproof yourself for selection, which you can find here.

Hierarchy of Training Needs for Special Operations

Now, let’s talk about the hierarchy of training needs for special operations.

At your base, you have your fundamental fitness – this is where you build your initial confidence by sustaining a few months of running, weight lifting, and swimming to meet the basic fitness requirements.

One notch higher is nutrition and recovery. While this should be a focal point through all aspects of your training journey, it becomes especially paramount as you seek to advance from building your fundamental fitness to more advanced endurance and stamina

In building your advanced endurance, your runs go from 60-minutes to upwards of 90-minutes, and all of a sudden you’re now hitting competitive run and strength numbers. But it’s no surprise, because not only have you leveled up your training, but you’ve also dialed in your nutrition and recovery in the previous phase

Next, is developing specific physical skills. These are the skills that are critical to your success, but which up to this point you’ve been improving through general training – like running and weight lifting. Now, it’s time to up the frequency and intensity of your rucking – with advanced techniques like the ones in my rucking master guide, and pivot your training to your timed 4 and 5-mile runs

At the top of the pyramid is mental toughness and resilience (self-actualization). This is the self-actualization stage, where after many months, or even a year or more of hard training, you look at your training log and realize the future self you wanted to be all along, is the person you have become. And it’s not by coincidence or surprise. It’s only through doing the hard work, consistently, that you achieve your performance goals and more importantly the confidence in your ability to overcome any obstacle that comes your way.