The U.S. Navy has decided to relax its measurement-based body composition rules for sailors who can perform on PT tests, even if their physical dimensions are outside the service's limits.
Navy servicemembers have to complete an annual physical fitness exam, including pushups, planking, running, and a body composition test. The latter is a set of body fat limits, which can be met in a variety of ways. Sailors can meet the standard by staying under a maximum weight-to-height ratio; or, failing that, measuring less than 40 inches around at the abdomen; or, as a final alternative, staying below a maximum body fat index. Up until last month, if the sailor failed all three of these tests, they could be required to enter the Fitness Enhancement Program (FEP) - a set of exercise sessions held weekly until the sailor passes their next physical fitness assessment.
The Navy has now rolled that requirement back, at least for sailors who can exceed the standards of the full Physical Readiness Test (pushups, forearm plank, and run). If they score "excellent-low" on the PRT or better, they can skip the Fitness Enhancement Program - if they complete nutrition counseling to improve their diets.
"The purpose of this exemption is to recognize that some sailors who do not meet the [Body Composition Assessment] standard are still able to maintain operational readiness," Navy HR chief Vice Admiral Richard J. Cheeseman, Jr. wrote in an all-hands memo.
The change is the latest in a long series of personnel policy adjustments that make it easier to join and stay in the Navy. The service has had challenges with recruitment over the last several years, like all of the armed services, driven by competition from a strong civilian job market and a new system for automated medical disqualification. To boost intake, the Navy created a pre-boot-camp physical training program; a test score remediation program; reduced its minimum entry test scores to the lowest levels allowable by law; and raised its maximum recruitment age to 41, the highest allowable by law. On the retention side, the Navy suspended its longstanding "up-or-out" policy, which required enlisted sailors to attain promotions on schedule or leave the service.
