The Army announced new body standards for soldiers on July 7 in response to a War Department order targeting military fitness for the battlefield.
The policy will require all soldiers to undergo a waist-to-height ratio assessment twice per year and maintain a ratio of less than 0.55 or be placed in a remedial program to improve physical fitness.
The new standard marks the latest move by the Pentagon to improve military fitness standards following Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s order for the department to review its standards in March 2025.
Hegseth directed each of the military services to ensure that fitness standards promoted the “strongest and most lethal fighting force on the planet.”…