A University of Arkansas Army ROTC cadet drags a sled on Jan. 24, 2024, at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. (Arkansas Army National Guard photo by Cadet Alexander Chrisco)
Many National Guard troops and other reservists complete their annual fitness tests at local parks and high schools due to a lack of suitable government facilities. These California National Guard troops, pictured in 2019, completed their test at a San Francisco high school.
Soldiers train at the Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Academy at Fort Jackson, S.C., Aug. 08, 2025.
An Army Command Assessment Program candidate throws a weighted ball during a fitness test in 2023 at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
After years of pilot tests, the Army replaced the Army Physical Fitness Test in 2022 with a new exam that includes deadlifts and other complex movements. An even newer test was introduced in 2025.

When it comes to the military’s physical fitness standards, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hasn’t minced words.

The Pentagon chief responded tersely after a viral backlash to a photo of a group of overweight Texas National Guard troops headed to Chicago.

"Standards are back," the Pentagon chief posted. He sent the troops home from their Chicago mission.

Hegseth has made fitness a major focus since taking over the Defense Department, pushing initiatives such as gender-neutral standards for combat jobs and a new annual "combat field test."

But the department has long struggled to provide fitness resources to National Guard troops and other reservists akin to those available to active duty members of the military.

Whereas active duty troops must now work out during their workday, according to a Sept. 30 Hegseth memo, members of the National Guard and other reserve troops must instead “take personal responsibility to maintain an appropriate physical fitness regimen.”

However, part-time military members lack access to fitness resources even though they're held to the same standards as their active duty peers. In many cases, these troops are balancing two or even three jobs. And, unlike full-time force members, they don’t receive disability benefits if they are injured while training off-duty.

Alex Morrow, who hosts a military fitness podcast called "MOPs & MOEs," told USA TODAY that while the onus is ultimately on the individual service member to remain fit, he wants to see “better pathways to providing resources” for troops like those from Texas.

Army's approach evolving, but geography is a barrier

The Army, which has the largest share of part-time troops among the military branches, is wrestling with the challenges of ensuring its reservists are fit to fight. And the stakes are high: reserve troops regularly deploy alongside their active duty peers, and the National Guard can be called up stateside by their governor or the president.

The service implemented a more intense fitness test in recent years, which includes deadlifts, a weighted sled drag and kettlebell carry and calisthenic exercises, such as planks, push-ups and a two-mile run.

The men and women of the National Guard and Army Reserve largely met the minimum passing standard on an earlier version of the new test, according to internal data published by Military.com, with just slightly lower pass rates than the active Army. However, their average scores were significantly lower: Army Reserve men averaged 452 points out of 600, whereas their average active duty counterparts scored 498.

Part of the discrepancy may stem from a recent surge in resources supporting active duty troops’ eating and exercise habits.

The Army’s Holistic Health & Fitness program, known as H2F among service members, provides soldiers with local access to an integrated team that includes a strength coach and trainers, athletic trainers, physical therapists, dieticians and nutritionists, occupational therapists and a “cognitive enhancement specialist.”

Army officials have trumpeted the success of the H2F program, which currently has 71 teams in place across the active duty force, in creating fitter soldiers.

The service plans to expand H2F to cover the entire Army, including the part-time soldiers of the National Guard and Army Reserve.

Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Rice, who manages the Army Reserve’s H2F rollout, acknowledged the challenge of providing part-time troops with fitness resources in Oct. 15 remarks at the Association of the U.S. Army conference.

The Guard and Army Reserve will receive six pilot teams in fiscal 2026, according to Rice. The National Guard will try the concept in Alaska, Indiana, Wyoming and Kentucky.

But figuring out what works and what doesn’t will be a challenging task.

Most reserve commands only see their soldiers for two or three days per month, and a significant portion of part-time troops live far away from their units and commute hundreds of miles for their days in uniform. Even if their small military facilities, colloquially known as armories, had physically centralized fitness resources and equipment, many would be unable to take advantage of them.

“You can’t copy/paste an active duty (H2F) team onto a reserve formation and expect to have (a) similar impact,” said podcast host Morrow, an Army vet who continues his service part-time in the Army Reserve.

Questions of culture, fairness

Military leaders have debated the benefits of offering options such as virtual personal trainers and issuing wearable fitness trackers to support reservists in their fitness efforts. Some states have even hired their own dieticians.

But Morrow argued that the military faces a massive challenge in motivating part-time troops to truly embrace physical wellness and fitness, citing psychological research.

“In environments where you can’t force people to do something on a daily basis, where you’ve got 28 days per month where you have no supervision of them, it’s entirely up to how much they care" about fitness, he said. For the full-time force, it’s a matter of scheduling, but for the Guard and reserve components, it’s a matter of “identity shifting,” he contended.

“Handing a wearable (fitness tracker) to a person does not change anything,” Morrow said. “For people who aren’t motivated, it’s just going to be another chore.”

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Francis McGinn, who heads the National Guard Association of the U.S., told USA TODAY that fitness can also pose a challenge to reservists who juggle multiple careers and family obligations.

“You go to work all day, you come home, you may have drill (weekend), then you’re going to coach the kids. Somewhere in that time, you’ve got to figure out a way to work out,” he said.

McGinn believes that there are “fairness issues” that arise from the gap in resources between part-time troops and the active duty force.

An active duty military member who suffers a serious injury while training off-base over the weekend receives free healthcare and can receive a military medical retirement and a Veterans Affairs disability pension if the injury is severe enough.

But a National Guard or reserve member who suffers the same injury while training to meet the same fitness requirement will receive no such coverage unless their injury happens during their drill weekend or while on temporary active duty orders.

Ultimately, though, the standard is the standard, and even part-time military members must meet it, McGinn said.

Disclosure: USA TODAY reporter Davis Winkie is a member of NGAUS.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hegseth wants a fitter military, but significant barriers hold back part-time troops

Reporting by Davis Winkie, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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