The U.S. Army handed its soldiers new physical requirements Tuesday, a move in line with War Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s directive to improve fitness standards among the Department of War‘s rank and file.Under the new policy, soldiers will be required to maintain a waist-to-height ratio, calculated by dividing waist circumference by height, of 0.55 or lower. Soldiers who are not compliant with the policy will be referred to the Army Body Composition Program to receive nutrition counseling.
“This is about lethality and health,” said Sgt. Maj. Edgar Monsanto, deputy chief of staff for the Army’s Directorate of Prevention, Resilience, and Readiness. “We are adopting new metrics to ensure our soldiers are healthy and physically fit to fight and win.”
The Army’s updated requirements mark a pivot away from its old fitness requirement, the height-and-weight table. Monsanto called the new, ratio-based technique “more adaptive and agile.”The change also brings the Army in line with other branches. Marines are the slimmest branch with a maximum waist-to-height ratio of 0.52. America’s airmen, Space Force guardians, and sailors must aim for ratios of less than 0.55.Those policies are consistent with a December memorandum from Anthony Tata, undersecretary of war for personnel and readiness, to enforce weight-to-height ratios of less than 0.55 across the military.An Army spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the branch was last to implement the directive because it is “the largest organization out of all of them” and had to conduct its “due diligence.”DEMOCRATS ASK HEGSETH FOR DETAILS ABOUT OFFICER REMOVALSHegseth has long complained about what he sees as lackluster physical standards among America’s fighting force. He lambasted the “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon” at a September meeting of generals and flag officers in Virginia.The Trump administration used the Freedom 250 UFC fights at the White House to tout the Pentagon’s revised physical requirements. Junior enlisted personnel and junior officers were invited to attend if they met the Pentagon’s height and weight standards.
