Army recruits and cadets will be given a new fitness assessment test that will help determine if they can meet the physical demands and requirements of certain military jobs.
The Occupational Physical Assessment Test (OPAT) will be given to roughly 80,000 recruits and several thousand cadets every year, according to a release on the Army's website.
Everyone entering the Army, from enlisted soldiers to officers and even reserve members, will have to go through the test before their training begins.
Specialty jobs in the Army will be graded at three levels that correspond to how physically demanding they are: heavy (black), significant (gray), and moderate (gold).
"OPAT is not designed to turn away or weed out people from the Army," U.S. Army Recruiting Command spokesman Brian Sutton told Military.com. "It is designed to put the right people in the right jobs and to ensure we keep our recruits safe while doing so."
The four elements of the test are the standing long jump, the seated power throw (using a 4.4-pound medicine ball), the strength deadlift, and the interval aerobic run.
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