Recruits are getting injured at an alarming rate in basic training, costing the government millions of dollars to rehabilitate them or eventually pay them disability compensation.

Researchers found that 44% of the Army's 99,335 trainees in previous years sustained at least one musculoskeletal(bones,
joints, ligaments, tendons & other soft tissue) injury. Half of those injured were from eight states in the South, namely Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Army planners in recent years have become increasingly concerned over new recruits' declining physical fitness. Participation in high school sports has dropped in recent years while childhood obesity rates have reached "epidemic levels," according to research from the National Library of Medicine. Seventeen percent of U.S. children are obese, the research found, a number that has been steadily rising for decades.

Nothing builds confidence more than being mentally & physically prepared to engage in the matter at hand. Knowing what to expect, what to do and how to skillfully execute it will put recruits in a position to successfully pass the ACFT skills test.

Nationally, the South has the highest prevalence of obesity, something researchers have attributed to a slew of factors including restrictions on access to health care, high-quality fitness facilities and healthy food. Large swaths of the South also have relatively low household incomes -- putting easy access to fitness training and healthy foods even further out of reach.

New recruits come straight from civilian life. Most enlistees come into the Army with little background in fitness, showing up without knowing how to do the exercises included in the fitness test. Outreach Forty Five will provide necessary training and test to help prevent injury and familiarize recruits with a fitness regimen.