What Is The Army Physical Fitness School?

In the early 1980's under the direction of the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Honorable John O. Marsh, The Army Physical Fitness School was created. The school was designed to enhance physical fitness training within the Army by producing knowledgeable physical fitness trainers that were tasked to create a program designed to standardize the way physical fitness training was conducted throughout Army units. Over the course of the next several decades; the Army Physical Fitness School would face several challenges and be forced to overcome major changes within the organization, from being defunded, changing geographical locations, and changing major commands several times, the program would persevere and be recognized as a force multiplier
The goal of this new school was to develop physical fitness doctrine and training for Soldiers emphasizing the necessity on conditioning their bodies for battle. The school's initial location was at Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN, and staffed with a combination of 55 Soldiers and civilians who were tasked with the significant task of researching the fitness needs of the Army and producing physical fitness doctrine.
After one short year, the course established itself as the Master Fitness Trainer Course.
The course consisted of 4 weeks of training designed for non-commissioned officers to gain a knowledge base that allowed them to return to their units and train leaders to assist commanders in developing individual unit's physical training programs. The course trained leaders to assess and analyze unit specific tasks and develop fitness programs that functionally resembled those tasks. Also, the trainers were then able to train other leaders within the unit to conduct productive and challenging physical training as well as to provide the physical training leader with knowledge and understanding of the physiology and anatomy of the human body, its various systems, and how it functioned while performing
Army senior leadership conducted an extensive review of this decision and ultimately made the argument that the school was necessary for total Army readiness. Then in 1991 the decision was made to maintain a small amount of fitness professionals to provide training and education to the Army in the area of physical fitness.
The Unites States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) negotiated relentlessly with the Department of the Army to keep the school operational. Ultimately in
1992 the decision was made to realign the school under the United States Army Infantry Center in Fort Benning, GA, With the mission of physical fitness, doctrine development, relevant, research, standardization of fitness requirements within the Army, fitness policy development, and training assistance to the Army. In addition to these changes, the staff downsized to 15 the master fitness trainer course was eliminated, and the additional skill identifier would no longer be awarded. In 1995, as a result of extensive research, the school revised and implemented major changes to Army physical fitness standards. Then, in 2000 the schools conducted research and development of the Army Physical Readiness Training (APRT). Subsequently, the