由于新兵體重超重和體能不達標等原因，美軍今年的新兵訓練計劃取消了仰臥起坐等傳統項目，引入了類似瑜伽或普拉提的訓練方式，同時，讓新兵膽寒的長跑項目也被縮減。據悉，這一新的訓練計劃已經策劃了十年之久，今年將在全部五個新兵訓練點實施，目的是減少訓練給士兵帶來的身體損傷，同時使士兵更好地為適應戰場做準備。該計劃更重要的一個目標則是解決美國軍隊目前面臨的一個重大問題：士兵體重超標以及體能不合格。由美軍退休將領組成的調查小組今年呈遞的報告顯示，在1995年至2008年期間美國青年未能入伍的原因調查中，體重超標占將近70%。有美軍軍官稱，垃圾食品、視頻游戲的流行以及高中體育鍛煉課程的減少都是導致這一現象的原因。

"Army Strong" may be the recruiting slogan, but these days the US Army seems less focused on new recruits' strength than on their excess weight.

In fact, the Army has just rejiggered its basic physical training program, making allowances for recruits who are fat and out of shape when they show up for basic training.

That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.

This is the Army’s new physical-training program, which has been rolled out this year at its five basic training posts that handle 145,000 recruits a year. Nearly a decade in the making, its official goal is to reduce injuries and better prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat.

But as much as anything, the program was created to help address one of the most pressing issues facing the military today: overweight and unfit recruits.

"What we were finding was that the soldiers we're getting in today's Army are not in as good shape as they used to be," said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees basic training for the Army, told the Times.

The Army has long rejected potential recruits who are overweight. But the number of potential recruits deemed too fat to fight has been growing in recent years, the result of America's obesity epidemic, says the Times.

Between 1995 and 2008, the proportion of potential recruits who failed their physicals each year because they were overweight rose nearly 70 percent, according to a recent report issued by a blue-ribbon panel of retired generals and admirals.

The report found that 27 percent of young adults between the ages of 17 and 24 were too fat for military service, according to Scripps News.

Even those the Army deems slim enough to serve tend to be weaker and to have less stamina than recruits of previous generations - the result of years spent indulging in junk food and video games, according to Army officials who spoke with the Times.

"Kids are just not able to do push-ups," Curt Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accessions, told the Army Times last year. "And they can't do pull-ups. And they can't run."

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(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）