Uncle Sam wants you! But first, you have to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). This battery of tests covers ten subjects, and you have to earn a passing score before you can join any branch of the military. ©Bumble Dee / ShutterstockThe catch is that you can only take the ASVAB if your high school offers it or a military recruiter arranges an appointment at a Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) or another testing location.

The Sprint-Drag-Carry event on the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) measures four big fitness components: agility, anaerobic endurance, muscular strength, and muscular endurance. In combat, you use these skills to build a hasty fighting position, pull a casualty out of a vehicle and carry him or her to safety, react to fire, and carry ammo from Point A to Point B.

The Leg Tuck—maybe the most infamous event on the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT)—is how the Army measures your muscular strength and endurance. Muscles used in the Leg TuckThe LTK requires you to use your grip, shoulders, arm and chest muscles, abs, and even your front leg muscles. It’s notoriously tough because it requires you to hang from a pull-up bar with an alternating grip, curl your body (like a shrimp) so that your knees or thighs touch your elbows, and return under control to the straight-arm hang—all while your body is perpendicular to the bar.

If you walked into a gym right now, you’d most likely see rows of machines dedicated to training just one muscle at a time. Those are great for bodybuilders but not necessarily for the average soldier. Because most military occupational specialties (MOSs) have at least minimal physical demands, and because those demands require real-world movement, many of the machines at the gym are great supplements to your training.

The Two-Mile Run, or 2MR, event on the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) measures your aerobic endurance, just like it did on the APFT. The same theory is in play here: If you have higher aerobic endurance, you can recover more quickly from one task so you’re ready for the next one—and you can run when you need to.

The six events in the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) all count toward your score. If you fail one event, you fail the whole ACFT. (No pressure, though.) You have to complete all six events, in order, on the same day, and the test can’t take more than 90 minutes. That includes the Preparation Drill and the following: 3 Repetition Maximum Deadlift, or MDL Standing Power Throw, or SPT Hand Release Push-Up—Arm Extension, or HRP Sprint-Drag-Carry, or SDC Leg Tuck, or LTK Two-Mile Run, or 2MR If you fail one of the events, you can’t stop taking the ACFT.