Prepare for the ACFT with These Three Essential At-home Training Tools
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You will get high quality training to help you prepare for the ACFT using these simple pieces of equipment, even if you don’t have access to a full training facility.
Due to the impacts of COVID-19, many Soldiers have not been able to access their PT facilities consistently as they prepare for the new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), implemented in October 2020. Members of the National Guard and Reserve already are limited in time together to train as a unit and require effective and efficient training options they can access on a regular basis.
While it may seem reasonable to prepare for the ACFT by continuously performing the six events, successful preparation also requires assessing strengths and opportunities for improvement in your physical qualities, capabilities, and skills required to optimally perform essential tasks required for service. So regardless of whether you have access to a fully-loaded training facility or a small training space where you live, here are some strategies and workouts you can perform to enhance mobility, strength, power, and mindset using three essential modalities:
Bodyweight
Kettlebells
Medicine Balls
Bodyweight
Managing your body weight is the starting point for optimizing force production for strength, explosiveness for speed and power, mobility for uninhibited locomotion, and postural alignment for endurance bouts. Several of the ACFT events test your ability to move and stabilize your bodyweight only, including the hand release push-up - arm extension, leg tuck or plank, and the two-mile run.
Starting each training session with some mobility exercises not only physically and mentally prepares you for the upcoming work, it also allows you to take quick inventory of how you are feeling and moving. The World's Greatest Stretch is a solid choice to include at the start of any workout.
Foundational bodyweight exercises to build muscular strength and endurance:
Push-up
Pull-up
Bear crawl
Hanging leg raise
Split squat
BW (Air) squat
Squat jump
Burpee
Shuttle run
Kettlebells
A well designed and casted set of kettlebells will provide a uniquely effective “handheld gym” which you can use to train multiple qualities in a relatively short period of time. Practicing and loading movements like the deadlift and loaded carries using kettlebells will build overall work capacity and also develop grip strength, critical to overall performance.
Foundational kettlebell exercises to develop core and lower-body focused mobility, strength, and power:
Goblet squat
Sumo squat
Suitcase deadlift
Split squat
Lunge
Single leg RDL
KB Swing
Foundational kettlebell exercises to develop core and upper-body focused mobility, strength, and power:
Floor press
Overhead press
Turkish get up
Bent over row
Farmer's carry
Need a kettlebell? Check out the ACFT-approved Grey Man Gear kettlebells.
Medicine Ball
Not only should you practice for one of the ACFT events with a medicine ball - the standing power throw - you can build strength, power, and core stability for the other events with these exercises:
Squat press/thruster
Slam
Rotational throw
Rotational chop/lift
Overhead throw
Here are medicine ball exercises to help you prepare for ACFT events:
Overhead throw
Rotational throw
Squat-Press
Need a medicine ball? Check out the ACFT-approved Grey Man Gear D-ball Medicine Balls.
No matter the equipment you have, a Volt’s training programs can adapt the exercises in your program to the equipment available to you.
Looking to get a detailed training plan based on your goals for the ACFT?
Volt and BeaverFit have teamed up to provide you with a free 30-day ACFT training program–register today!
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