The Army is going back to basics in its approach to fitness tests in a desperate bid to find more troops to facedown Vladimir Putin‘s forces.

A ‘woke’ fitness assessment introduced in 2019 – which was mocked for not giving soldiers a pass or fail grade – is being overhauled because standards have dropped.

The gender-free Soldier Conditioning Review (SCR) will be remodelled after the Commander of the Field Army was shocked by so many bad results.

In a welcome throwback to ‘pre-woke’ army training, troops who score badly will be forced to undertake remedial fitness training every day.

The impetus for a return to harder training has been generated by the war in Ukraine and the wider threat to NATO posed by Russia.

The UK must be able to provide tens of thousands of troops for NATO operations and exercises anywhere around the world.

A memo seen by the Mail also indicated that exercises run before soldiers attempt arduous courses such as SAS Selection and P Company, have also returned alarming results.

Troops have to get through a Risk Reduction Exercises (RRE) before having a crack at getting into the most elite units.

The war in Ukraine and the wider threat to NATO posed by Russia are factors behind the return to tougher training (file photo)

In a damning indictment of woke culture, which led troops neither passing nor failing basic fitness tests, numbers of troops surviving these RREs has fallen dramatically.

The SCR includes a 1.5 mile run, pull ups, deadlifts, medicine ball throws, shuttle sprints and jumps. The SCR is gym-based and intended to allow troops to gauge their own fitness levels.

An Army orders document seen by the Mail said: ‘Commander Field Army has instituted changes to the Soldier Conditioning Review following his finding that soldiers are not as fit as they should be, including that some of our soldiers are overweight and that we have lost some of our ability to carry weight over distance.

‘These observations, combined with the failure rates for Risk Reduction Exercises across the Army have resulted in clear direction that the SCR will change and that we must start to take physical fitness and robustness more seriously.

‘Once the standards are confirmed, a failure to reach them will result in individuals attending remedial PT daily until they have reached the minimum standards required. The minimum standards are just that, the baseline.’

Physical fitness and resilience must return to being a core part of being a soldier. Ready to war-fight whenever and wherever necessary.’

The move comes after the Mail recently revealed how desperate defence chiefs have turned to expensive celebrity weight drugs in a bid to get more troops fit to fight.

Figures revealed more than 500 prescriptions for Semaglutide, the active ingredient in on-trend products such as Ozempic and Wegovy.

The drugs were signed off by commanders at the same time as essential training exercises were being scaled back and equipment purchases cancelled to save money.

The medications, when prescribed in service, were likely to be for conditions such as diabetes, which is directly linked to obesity in adults.

Changes are to be made to the Soldier Conditioning Review (SCR), which includes a 1.5 mile run, pull ups, deadlifts, medicine ball throws, shuttle sprints and jumps

The 81 troops who have received Semaglutide, which was made fashionable in the UK by the likes of television personality Jeremy Clarkson and James Cordon, could only have developed diabetes as adults and since they enlisted in the Armed Forces.

That is because the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are exempt from the Equality Act and therefore can ban people with diabetes and other conditions from joining.

Recent research has also revealed how more than 13,000 troops are medically ‘non-deployable’.

An Army spokesman said: ‘Physical fitness and resilience have always been, and will remain, a core part of being a soldier. We routinely test and adjust our approach to physical conditioning to ensure personnel remain fit to fight, whilst avoiding injury.

‘The Soldier Conditioning Review is just one way we assess and improve the conditioning of personnel as part of a comprehensive approach to fitness and resilience.’