Many soldiers think that the 2 mile run at the end of the ACFT is hard because of the events before it. In reality, there is no reason why you can't max, or be close to maxing, the 2 mile run on the ACFT...other than your laziness or lack of self discipline. The following is how you can improve your ACFT run time.
Build Your Aerobic conditioning. This is done while running at a low effort level. What pace this is will vary depending on the time of year (extreme colds and extreme heats) and surface (trails, roads, tracks). The important thing is that you do this type of training for about 45 minutes 2-3x per week. Build up to that time, don't just start running for 45 minutes out of the blue.
Build your Anaerobic fitness. Do high-intensity runs. Things like short sprints, 400 meter hard efforts, 800 meter hard efforts, and similar work. It doesn't have to be exact, and you can switch it up. Just make sure you are doing high intensity run work 1-2x per week.
For those who don't know what they are doing with their programming, Sign Up Now for our ACFT Mastery program. Your ACFT score will increase by 20+ points over 8 weeks if you follow this program, and it'll cost you less per month than your Zyn addiction.
Lose Weight: If your body fat percentage is over 15%, I have news for you: You have PLENTY of fat you can afford to lose. Lose the fat. It's not making you a better athlete. Build more muscles, carry less fat.
Step consuming Tobacco, Alcohol, & Energy Drinks: "But it's Army culture" "I need it" and other such nonsense. Tobacco and Alcohol have 0 positive affects on your physical fitness (but plenty of negative affects - including the money wasted on it), and while caffeine can help enhance performance for fitness events, most energy drinks are loaded with artificial nonsense. Drink a cup of black coffee if you need the caffeine.
If you actually put in the effort, and you actually act like a disciplined human being, you will drastically improve your run times over the course of 4-8 weeks. If you are a really slow runner, it will take a while to build up your running, but it's very possible. All the people around you who complain about the run and say that they are too big and strong and it's a dumb test are lazy, incompetent, and don't know proper fitness training for endurance athletes (which soldiers are).
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