Physical fitness is not only important for athletes, soldiers, or people who go to the gym. A Physical Fitness Test (PFT) provides a practical way to understand your strength, endurance, mobility, and overall physical condition. Regular fitness testing can help people identify their strengths, recognize areas that need improvement, and set realistic fitness goals. Whether…
Learn how to improve your PFT score with practical tips for pull-ups, push-ups, plank, and the 3-mile run. Build a smarter Marine fitness plan. Once you know your current PFT score, the next question is simple: How can you improve it? The answer is not necessarily to train harder across every event. A better approach…
Female Marines take the same core PFT and CFT events as male Marines, but some event-scoring standards can differ depending on the applicable Marine Corps scoring table. For most Marines under the standard PFT scoring system, sex-specific scoring tables are used for certain events. However, the Marine Corps introduced an important change beginning January 1,…
Every U.S. military branch has its own physical fitness requirements, but the tests are not interchangeable. The Marine Corps PFT, Marine Corps CFT, Army ACFT, Navy PRT, and Air Force fitness assessment use different events, scoring systems, and testing philosophies. Some tests emphasize running and muscular endurance. Others place more emphasis on strength, power, agility,…
If you’re preparing for the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT) or Combat Fitness Test (CFT), one of the first questions you may have is: What is the minimum score I need to pass? The answer depends on which test you are taking and, for the PFT, whether you are in a combat-arms Primary Military…
Most Marines can describe the PFT’s three events in a sentence each — pull-ups, plank, run. The CFT gets described far more vaguely, usually as some version of “the hard one with the ammo cans.” That vagueness is part of why so many Marines walk into it underprepared. Here’s each event broken down individually —…
If you learned the Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT) before 2023, you may remember the abdominal crunch as the core event. That is no longer the case. The plank is now the only authorized core event on the Marine Corps PFT. The change was introduced in stages: the Marine Corps first added the plank…
If you’re new to the Marine Corps, you may hear PFT and CFT mentioned together and wonder whether they are simply two versions of the same fitness test. The Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT) and Combat Fitness Test (CFT) are separate annual assessments designed to measure different aspects of physical performance. The PFT focuses…
A 1st Class PFT score is 235 to 300 points under the standard Marine Corps classification system. Your total score comes from three events: your strength event, plank, and cardio event. But 1st Class is only one part of the scoring system. Your individual event scores also matter, because falling below the required minimum on…
The USMC PFT can look complicated when you first see the scoring chart. There are different events, age groups, scoring levels, and requirements to understand. The good news is that the test follows a simple structure. Once you understand how each event is scored, it becomes much easier to check your performance and calculate your…