Entering any component of the military services is a massive undertaking that necessitates extensive training and top performance. Before you can join any of them, you must first complete a series of military physical fitness exams that will test your strength and stamina.
There is a particularly difficult category of assessments for special operations forces and is as exclusive as it gets, among these exams.
What’s the bottom line? Over the course of multiple events, test your stamina, quickness, agility, and strength. The following five tests consistently rank at the top of lists of army fitness and strength exams from throughout the world:
UK Special Air Services
According to Men’s Health UK, only roughly 15% of persons who participate in the SAS’s physical fitness examinations are able to accomplish the eight exercises below. The SAS was founded in 1941 and is one of the world’s oldest special forces units.
- More than 45 push-ups
- More than 45 sit-ups.
- 1.5-mile run in under 9:30 minutes
- Jump from a 10m tower into water
- 25m water swim in full uniform holding weapon
- 200m swim in uniform with 5-minute water tread
- Underwater object retrieval and dive test
- 8-mile hill run in less than 60 minutes
India’s Para Special Forces
The training curriculum for India’s Para Special Forces takes over three years, and only roughly one out of every ten applicants completes it. This is the result of their last physical fitness test.
- 5,000m run in under 20 mins
- 14 strict chin-ups.
- 40 push-ups in under 1 min
- 80 sit-ups in under 2 mins
- 17 x 5-meter shuttle run.
US Delta Force
The physical fitness test that candidates must pass before entering the United States Army’s special operations force is no laughing matter. Here’s the first test, according to Men’s Health UK.
- 40m inverted crawl in under 25 secs
- 37 sit-ups in 1 min
- 32 push-ups in 1 min
- A run, dodge, jump course in under 24 secs
- 2-mile run in under 16:30 mins
- 100m swim (fully dressed, including jumpsuit)