Pentagon codifies fitness standards across branches
BLUF – The Pentagon has codified new military fitness requirements that call for two annual fitness assessments for active-duty troops, male-based standards for designated combat-arms specialties, twice-yearly body-composition testing using a waist-to-height ratio below 0.55, and at least 12 months of testing exemption following childbirth, miscarriage or stillbirth. For Navy Medicine, the policy creates important roles for clinicians in postpartum exemptions and remedial programs while the new longitudinal tracking requirements could provide valuable data on fitness, body composition and readiness across the force.