Many of you are looking at the small amount of space and a small budget compared to a list of equipment you think you need to prepare for the ACFT and get a better ACFT score.
You don’t need a hex bar, just a barbell, and you don’t have to get the standard hex bar used for the new ACFT Standards 2024 if you want a hex bar; any hex bar will work.
You also don’t need a sled. If you want a sled, get one, but you need one to prepare for the ACFT. I will give you my recommendations for a small space and minimal equipment to prepare for the test.
Resistance bands.
The first one I will talk about is probably different from what you’re thinking of, and it will be resistance bands.
Everyone should own a set of resistance bands. You can put them anywhere. You can travel with them. They don’t take up space, and they’re super beneficial for all types of training, no matter your fitness level.
What I recommend is having at least three. You want a light one like this red one, a medium, and a heavy one.
Now, you can get extra light and extra heavy. So, three to five resistance bands, having various resistance in all of them, will be the best for your training.
You can use resistance bands for accessory work, and they can also assist with some exercises, like up on the pull-up bar, for example.
You can also add them to resistance training to give more of a challenge to add more resistance more tension to your lift.
You can add them to barbell work, you can add them to kettlebells, dumb bells to give you a little bit more oomph.
And as I said, you can bring these anywhere. Resistance bands work the whole body, that’s, the lower body & upper body.
They will last forever if you find a good set and get a good quality set. I’ve had mine for about six years. I’ve used them almost every day for my training.
I’ve used them when doing a lot of one-on-one training every day during the week, all day, for years, and I haven’t had any issues with them.
Kettlebells.
I’m going to talk about kettlebells. Now, ideally, I’d recommend having a set of three. Have a lighter one, a medium, and a heavy one.
The heavy one might be the 40-pound kettlebell you bought to train for the acft sprint drag carry. If you have bought kettlebells and you’re using that to prepare for your sprint drag carry event, fantastic. But don’t let that be the only thing you do with these kettlebells.
Kettlebells are the most versatile pieces of equipment that you could own and train with at home. They will help with strength, power, conditioning & mobility work.
You can do your complete training with a set of kettlebells, honestly. If you get a good program, these will help build your strength like no other piece of equipment in the gym, hands down.
If you have any questions about kettlebell training, let me know. I’ll recommend what weights to start with if you still need to set a set.
Three kettlebells will get you results for that; that’s my recommendation, but if you can get more, get more.
Barbell & Bumper Plates
Here are my reasons why. You can work a deadlift, sumo, Romanian, standard conventional, and all the deadlift variations with the barbell.
The squat rack is optional if you have a barbell. And one of the reasons why I love the barbell is because of the landline barbell exercises. You don’t need an attachment. All you need is some corners.
You can even put two heavy bumper plates together on the ground and place the barbell between them or any corner. I’m using the squat rack because of my gym setup.
But suppose you have a garage or a room where you can put the barbell into a corner with a towel, or you can put metal brackets.
In that case, there’s even just recently seen a video where you can cut open a tennis ball, put it at the end of the bar, and place it in the corner.
Now you have hundreds of exercises, power, strength, conditioning, and core stability exercises with this.
So you turn into your overhead press. Next, you could do your front squat, anti-rotation here, Landmine deadlift, single-arm, etc.
The barbell is better than the hex bar because of everything you can do. A hex bar is a fantastic tool, but it limits you on what your training is, and you want more bang for your buck.
Pull Up Bar
And the last piece of ACFT equipment is the pull-up bar. Again, you don’t have to have a squat rack. You can get the ones that go in the doorframe that attach.
You can attach them to a sturdy beam in the garage or the basement or build one outside if you like for pretty inexpensive.
My biggest thing is don’t jump up on them. Then you’ll get them off the frame, and they won’t be safe anymore.
So if you use them correctly, they are safe and very effective back strength, working on your pull-ups.
And if you’re tackling those leg tucks, you can use it obviously for that as well in a lot of poor grip strength.
Born and raised in Bozeman, Montana, he graduated from George State University with an MBA in Actuarial Science. His hobbies include beach volleyball, hiking, fishing, and lifting weights
George is also a certified nutritionist with a passion for health and fitness.
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