The Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test (PFT) and Combat Fitness Test (CFT) measure muscular endurance, muscular strength, and cardiorespiratory endurance. The PFT includes pull-ups or push-ups, a plank, and a 3-mile run — choose pull-ups if you want the maximum possible score. The CFT includes a movement to contact (MTC), an ammunition lift, and a maneuver under fire (MANUF). You'll want to put in dedicated, structured training to prepare for both.
Per MARADMIN 613/25, Marines in combat arms Primary Military Occupational Specialties (PMOS) follow sex-neutral scoring based on male, age-normed standards, with a minimum required score of 210 out of 300. Non-combat arms Marines continue using existing sex- and age-normed standards. Continue reading to learn more about the training principles that will help you get ready for the PFT and CFT.
Muscular endurance
Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles to move or contract for long periods of time—or to contract as many times as possible in a set period of time. Examples include holding a plank or doing as many push-ups as you can in 2 minutes.
Muscular endurance is often the foundation of muscular fitness. To improve muscular endurance, the National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends you lift 67% or less of your one-rep max (1RM) for at least 12 reps per set, with less than 30 seconds of rest between sets. Training muscular endurance is one of the few times when limiting rest is helpful because it stresses your muscles’ energy systems by limiting the time for your muscles’ energy stores to replenish, forcing them to adapt to that stress.
For the muscular endurance events, basic core stability will be half the battle. Push-ups, pull-ups, and the ammunition lift actually require similar forms of muscular endurance: You need to maintain an active and rigid core to support your torso through the exercise. The difference is the direction you’re supporting your core in relation to gravity—perpendicular to gravity for the push-up, and parallel to gravity for the pull-up and ammunition lift. For all 3 exercises, start with a base core-strengthening program, then progress to vertical core training for the pull-up.
When training to improve your muscular endurance, focus on one muscle group at a time, rather than doing supersets (a group of exercises one right after the other) of muscle groups. Supersets, while efficient time-wise, build in too much rest for each specific muscle group to fully train for muscular endurance.
Muscular strength
Muscular strength is the ability of a muscle to exert a maximal or near maximal force—or how much weight you can push, pull, or lift. Even though the PFT isn’t a true test of muscular strength, incorporating strength-building workouts can help improve your performance during muscular endurance tests.
The maneuver under fire (MANUF) part of the CFT will require muscular strength to complete the fireman’s carry, casualty drag, and ammo can carry. For these events, you’ll need to lift set weights and carry them for short distances. Read HPRC’s article on muscular strength to get more specifics on how to train for this component of muscular fitness.
Those who don’t regularly weight train can expect to see strength gains with training in as little as 2 weeks as motor unit recruitment—your body's ability to activate more muscle fibers at once—improves. As you continue working out, after about 4–6 weeks, you should start to see muscle mass gains (increases in muscle size).
Muscular power
Muscular power is the ability to produce force quickly, such as lifting a weight quickly or jumping for maximum height. Though there’s no direct assessment of muscular power in the PFT or CFT, training it will improve your speed.
Increasing power requires you to have a good base of muscular strength. Ideally, as you’re training year-round for the PFT and CFT, you can dedicate 12 weeks to improving muscular strength before you start more focused training of upper- and lower-body power.
Training to develop power requires you to lift using different intensities—high intensity (75–90% of 1RM) to build strength and low intensity (30–85% of 1RM) while doing the lifts at higher speeds. You can also train power by doing speed training, plyometric exercises, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
Speed
Speed, or covering a distance in a short period of time, also requires a high degree of muscular power to move fast. Speed will be important for the movement to contact (MTC) and MANUF events of the CFT.
Training for speed has considerable overlap with building muscular power, especially when using resistance training. Varying your run-training sessions is also important to improve speed; training with distance runs alone will only improve your 3-mile time.
Cardiorespiratory endurance
Cardiorespiratory endurance (CRE)—the ability of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels to supply oxygen to muscles during sustained physical activity—is the key area of fitness measured in the 3-mile run. Although you’ll be tested on your ability to run 3 miles within the standard, activities like tennis, hiking, swimming, and biking can help improve your CRE. (They can also make training more enjoyable if running isn't your preference.) Adding variety can also make it easier to train if you have hip, knee, or ankle pain because it reduces the forces on those joints. If you have nagging pain or injuries but you don’t have a profile exempting you from the 3-mile run, swimming, biking, and rowing are great ways to keep up your CRE. You should still run a couple of times every 2 weeks, but it doesn’t need to be the focus of your training.
Speed workouts do double duty: they improve both speed and CRE, so don't discount them as cardio training. As you plan your program, track your total mileage across all run sessions to avoid overtraining and reduce your injury risk. To see improvements in CRE, you’ll want to train at least twice a week, and work out at 60–80% of your maximum heart rate (max heart rate = 220 – your age). Keep in mind that if you’re doing speed workouts in your 2–3 CRE training sessions per week, your heart rate will likely go above 80%, and that’s okay.
Fueling for the PFT and CFT
As always, make sure you’re well hydrated in the days leading up to the test. Don’t wait until the day of the event to drink up. Since the whole test should take less than an hour of total activity, you should be okay with water, rather than a sports drink. But, if exercising in extreme heat or producing high amounts of sweat, using a sports drink to replace electrolytes and fluid is recommended.
Plan to have a light, high-carb snack like a bagel and some fruit 1–2 hours before the start of the test so you stay energized through every event. Since the test should be less than an hour of activity, you probably won’t need much between events. But if you feel yourself starting to crash, small snacks or sports drinks with small to moderate amounts of carbs might help improve your performance. For more information on nutrient timing, read Chapter 9 of the Warfighter Nutrition Guide.
Bottom line
Preparing for the PFT and CFT should be a months-long training progression. To make the most of your training, get help from a Force Fitness Instructor or other fitness professional.
