Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rick Shelton on January 31, 2013 at 11:20am

M. Denny: You're top 20% of what age bracket? If so then I would have been (at your current age bracket) in the top 2%, which I know is absolutely not true. I retired from the military at the age of 45 and passed all the required PT tests although towards the end it wasn't real pretty. I wasn't even close to the top 20% of even just my unit in my age bracket.

Before this last deployment, at the ripe old age of 52 I benched well over my weight 3 sets, 8 to 10 reps/set. I did several variations of crunches and ab excercises but I don't run anymore (knees) but I did the eliptical for 30 minutes at an average RPM of 145. I may, just may have made the 20% cutoff at that.

Permalink Reply by Adrian Miranda on January 31, 2013 at 5:18pm

one significant difference between other branches and the MC is that there are only a couple of age breaks and they ar not all that generous.  Another idfference that i've  noticed is that usually Marines try to stay as close to the 100 points mark as possible, 18 minute 3mile run and 20 pullups, with this the maximum limit is usually not a factor.  The age allowance does not change the 18 min or 20 pullup cirteria for maximum points.  I have seen several people in other branches that focus on their maximum allowable time which fluxuates with age quite a bit along with the weight requirements, another thing that does not change in the MC.  You pretty much have to maintain the physique and perfomrance of an 18 year old for 3+ yeras, or decide to get off the bus.

 

Of course there are those in the gun club that are less than stellar perfomers but they usually are on the fast track to seperation if not corrected quickly.

Permalink Reply by Shane on January 31, 2013 at 6:00pm

When your PFT score is tied to your promotion it happens that way.  It's also tied to your career in a round about way, whenever you go to a new school the first thing you do is run a PFT; fail the inventory PFT and you're out of the school, with an adverse fitness report.

Permalink Reply by Rick Shelton on February 4, 2013 at 4:03pm

True you don't see too many chubby Marines (none that I have seen anyway but they may exist somewhere).

Permalink Reply by LShieldes on January 30, 2013 at 8:11am

I've got no problem with it.

Permalink Reply by Paul_of_TX on January 30, 2013 at 7:08pm

The next step in the liberal play book is to claim that now that women are allowed we don't have enough women. A few years down the road there will no longer be a question as to if women should be there. Then it will be time to complain that there are not enough women. The solution will be to lower the standards so that we can get more women. Women make up about 50% of the population so we need to lower the standards and try and get 50% of our combat troops to be female.

Look at all the problems in fire departments across the country. Not enough women, lower the standards. Not enough blacks, remove reading requirements. This is not new. To look at this and think that the same actions will result in different results than all the previous times is pure stupidity. THE REQUIREMENTS WILL BE LOWERED AT SOME POINT. Some official will get in front of a camera and say that this is not true but time will prove me right.

-I'm freakin Nostradamus over here

Permalink Reply by Nick H on January 31, 2013 at 10:07am

Not enough white guys in basketball. Invent hockey.

Permalink Reply by Paul_of_TX on January 31, 2013 at 10:24am

Funny, but hockey has been around longer than basketball.

Permalink Reply by Native Son on January 31, 2013 at 9:40am

On the whole fitness standards business.  A bit of history, gentlemen.  Back when the US armed forces went all volunteer (back in the dim and distant 1970s) intellectual and physical standards were "relaxed" in order to attract recruits.  The results were predictable.  Recriuts whose physical condition was abysmal...but the bodies met the recruitment quotas. And that was for the Men.  There was even a fitness program developed at West Point, designed to get total couch potatoes into some sort of physical fitness in roughly twelve weeks.  It wouldn't buff you up, but it came about because there were unfit incoming cadets. 

An aside.  During that time, the PFT standard to complete basic training was a one mile run in 12 minutes. 

Permalink Reply by Nick H on January 31, 2013 at 1:53pm

Can't get the reply to work again

To Paul, I know ice hockey's older than basketball. No need to tell a Canadian. We invented both of those.

Permalink Reply by Liam S. on January 31, 2013 at 1:59pm

Well, Naismith was living and working in Mass at the time, but I suppose, technically you are right since he invented it before he became a US citizen. :P

Permalink Reply by Native Son on February 2, 2013 at 11:38am

Oh well, it will, as ever depend upon whether physical standards are maintained and just how "combat" is defined.  Recent (late January 2013) comment by the Commandant of the Marine Corps showed the only reservations he had concerned infantry units, and that was based on the extremely limited sample of women applying for the appropriate officers' training school to date and institutional concerns within the highly tradition-bound Marine Corps. 

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