As if beating people up in the octagon isn’t enough of a challenge, Tom Aspinall has taken on the British Army’s Role Fitness Test (RFT) to see where he stacks up within the military. Comprised of a series of physical exercises designed to replicate the demands of various roles within the army, the RFT tests both the cardiovascular system and physical strength to determine the true capabilities of a soldier.
Completing six different exercises as part of a YouTube video, the 32-year-old managed to pass each test with flying colours – unsurprising when considering he unified the heavyweight division in UFC (by proxy of Jon Jones’ retirement from the sport last month).
Starting the RFT with a repeated lift and carry, Aspinall had to complete 39 total reps of a 30-metre length as quickly as possible. Alternating between weighted and unweighted reps, Aspinall completed 20 of the lengths with a 20kg sandbag on his shoulder, and 19 without.
With a cut-off time of 14 minutes for the 1.17km exercise, Aspinall managed a final time of 8:45. Aspinall thinks he could have managed a quicker time, however, after speeding up fairly dramatically in the second half of the exercise. ‘I don’t think I was fully warm when we got going, so the second half felt a bit easier than the first one,’ Aspinall said. ‘I reckon I can get sub-eight [minutes].’
Next up came the bleep test. While the first exercise tests a person’s ability to move weight over distance, even when tired, the bleep test simply challenged Aspinall’s aerobic capacity without any additional weight. He only needed to reach level 10.1 of the bleep test to achieve a top mark, too, which he completed directly after the repeated lift and carry test.
Exercise three posed Aspinall’s most-difficult test of the day. Carrying 20kg weights in each arm with a 17kg plate strapped to his back, the UFC fighter needed to cover 240m in under four minutes to achieve a top score. And though he jogged across the line, it certainly wasn’t easy. ‘I reckon that might be the toughest one. That’s the toughest one,’ he repeated after just managing to break the three-minute barrier with a time of 2:59.
Heading indoors to the weights section of the gym, more straightforward exercises tested Aspinall’s strength. He completed 10 reps of a 70kg trap bar deadlift to register top marks, before doing 45 push-ups in a minute. To finish, Aspinall managed to drive his 110kg-plus frame up eight times on the pull-up bar, managing a full range of motion with each rep.
‘That’s me done on the British Army fitness test. Good session, really enjoyed it. Something different for me,’ Aspinall signed off with.
Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
