PT Testing During Pregnancy & Postpartum

While you’re pregnant you may not take a PFRA, whatever the length of the pregnancy, but you’re encouraged to keep up a physical fitness routine¶4.1.4. A pregnancy exemption doesn’t put you in the Adaptive Fitness Program¶5.5.1. After the pregnancy ends:

Deliver in January 2027 and your PFRA is due in February 2028. Because the count runs in calendar months from the delivery month, even the first day of your due month is more than a year after you delivered. Para. 4.1.4 changes when the PFRA is due, not what’s in it, so it’s the standard four-component PFRA.

Can you test sooner? The AFMAN sets when the post-pregnancy PFRA is due; it doesn’t say whether you may volunteer to take it earlier. Ask your UFPM, who schedules PFRAs in myFitness¶2.28.5¶7.1.

The paperwork side (AF Form 469, UFPM processing) works like other exemptions; see the exemptions and profiles guide.

AFPC publishes its own plan for training through pregnancy and back afterwards: the Pregnancy & Postpartum Performance Training Guide (June 2025), linked from the AFPC Fitness Program page. It isn’t medical guidance, and it asks you to get your provider’s clearance before starting or continuing the program. Its postpartum home program runs 18 weeks:

Before you run, the guide’s return-to-run screen asks that you can walk for 30 minutes without symptoms such as pain, leaking or pelvic heaviness, then pass an impact readiness screen of single-leg balance, hops and squats, jogging on the spot and bounding. Running starts only once your provider clears you (AFPC Pregnancy & Postpartum Performance Training Guide, June 2025).

The same guide lists typical recovery times after birth: uterus 6 to 8 weeks, cardiovascular fitness 6 to 12 weeks, joints 3 months or more, pelvic floor at least 6 months, and diastasis recti anywhere from 8 weeks to more than 12 months. A cesarean birth typically takes 6 to 12 weeks or more. Your own timeline is your provider’s call.

Body composition is scored the same way as for anyone else: the waist-to-height ratio is worth up to 20 points and has no minimum¶3.7.1. A ratio above 0.55 only leads to a Tier 2 Body Fat Assessment if the PFRA doesn’t meet standards¶3.1.1, and you may take the waist measurement 1 to 5 duty days before the other components¶3.15.4.1. The WHtR guide shows the points for your height.

Recovery of the abdominal wall varies a lot (diastasis recti alone can take more than a year, per the AFPC guide), so give it time and raise it with your provider if it isn’t closing. If you’re breastfeeding, the guide notes that making milk uses 330 to 400 calories a day: cutting food to shrink your waist works against both recovery and supply. For free one-to-one support, Military OneSource health and wellness coaching can help you build a plan.

Talk to your provider and UFPM before your due month, not after. A medical limitation belongs on an AF Form 469, and a component exemption puts you on PFRA Hold until it expires¶4.1.2. The PFRA Hold checker shows what a profile means for your test.

If you test and score Unsatisfactory, you’re due again in 3 months¶3.10.3 and enrolled in the Fitness Reconditioning Program¶5.6.1. To plan the months in between, use the due-date calculator.