A Brief History Of Army Physical Fitness Training

Soldiers in the U.S. Army must be physically fit, as their fitness is literally a matter of life or death. Therefore, it is not surprising that the army has a physical fitness training program like no other. The Physical Fitness Division oversees all army physical fitness training concepts and programs.

History Of The U.S. Army Physical Fitness Training School

The school was created in 1982, under the Reagan administration, in conjunction with a new Year of Fitness initiative. The mission and purpose of the school is to develop physical fitness doctrine and training for soldiers with the primary purpose of preparing them to meet the physical demands of war. One of the goals in achieving this mission was to standardize fitness standards, training and programs across the entire army. Physical fitness training was just one component of the school.

Leadership Training

The schools philosophy is to start from the top down, with the armys leaders. They created a Master Fitness Trainer course so that every unit could have a qualified physical fitness trainer to help the rest of the unit get into shape. The four-week, 137-hour course taught leaders how to assess the fitness of both individual soldiers and the entire unit, how to understand basic anatomical and exercise physiology principles and how to train other leaders to be master fitness trainers.

More Rigorous Standards

With this focus on army physical fitness training, more strenuous training standards were adopted. Within seven years of the schools creation, systems were developed that had a significant impact on the physical performance of soldiers in training and on the battlefield. The army adopted new physical fitness policies as a result.

In 1990, army leadership declared mission accomplished, and there was talk of closing the Army Physical Fitness Training School. Fortunately, they reconsidered, and decided that the school was integral to the fitness of the army. The school was placed under the leadership of the Infantry Center with a small group of fitness professionals tasked with training and educating the entire army.

Move To Fort Benning

The school was relocated to Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1992 and the Master Fitness Training Course was discontinued shortly thereafter. In 1995, new physical fitness test standards were developed, and more focus was placed on readiness for combat tasks. An Army Weight Control Program was added to the curriculum of the school in 2003.

The School Today

Army physical fitness training today falls under the directorate of Basic Combat Training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Today, the school is known as the Physical Fitness Division, and its mission continues to include army physical fitness training for the entire U.S. Army.

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