FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) -- Sit-ups don't make a soldier, the Army has decided. So its 30-year-old fitness requirements are getting a battlefield-inspired makeover.
Soon every soldier will have to run on a balance beam with two 30-pound canisters of ammunition, drag a sled weighted with 180 pounds of sandbags and vault over obstacles while aiming a rifle.
Those were just some of the tests the Army unveiled Tuesday as it moves toward making its physical training look more like combat.
Right now soldiers have to complete sit-ups, push-ups and a two-mile run twice a year within times that vary by age and gender.
Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, the general in charge of the Army's initial military training, said he has been working to change that test for years.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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