Army Times’ Joe Gould unleashed a revelation recently, reporting that soldiers want pullups added to the service’s PT test. Right now only Marines must get their chins over the bar. According to Gould:
Soldiers across the Army say there’s a simple way to better measure an individual’s strength and prepare them for combat — add pullups to the PT test.
“They’re difficult to do, and it’s the kind of thing that can save your life — to be able to pull your own body weight,” said Sgt. Maj. Alfred Todd, a medical official with the California Army National Guard.
Sgt. First Class Daniel Lopez-Bonaglia, a Fort Hood soldier with 4th Sustainment Brigade, said pullups provide a better snapshot of overall fitness compared with the pushup.
“You can fake a pushup, but not a pullup, because your chin has to go to that bar,” said Lopez-Bonaglia, who deployed twice to Iraq. “If you’re overweight, there’s no way you’d be able to do a pullup.”
These soldiers are not alone in their views. Army Times recently asked readers to weigh in on what PT changes they wanted to see. The request received thousands of responses and many endorsed the idea of making pullups a part of the Army Physical Fitness Test.
