Fitness Standards ?

[J4CKO]

What should an individual be able to do to claim to be "fit" ?

Is there a standard ? Police/Army that kind of thing ?

Swim/run/cycle a certain distance in a set time

Height/Weight ?

Number of Pressups, Pull Ups etc ?

Bench, Squat etc as a percentage of body weight.

What else is included, or should be ?

Would be good to know how we measure up, and then endeavour to improve, or at least not drop outside of a standard.

[J4CKO]

Found this,

https://usarmybasic.com/army-physical-fitness/apft...

Seems like a good start, would be good to say could still join the army, might be worth seeing what we score ?

[AndStilliRise]

Running:
5k Sub 19min - Very fit
5k Sub 21min - fit
10k Sub 40min - Very fit
10 Sub 43min - fit

Cycling:
+21mph +60m - very fit
20mph +60m - fit

[RTB]

There was an article on the artofmanliness website that laid out the basic levels of strength/fitness the average chap should have. I can't find the link but it went something like:

Run 2 miles without stopping
Sprint 400 yards
Swim 800 yards
Do 10 pull ups
Do 100 sit ups
Do 50 press ups
Be able to carry own body weight for X number of yards
A few other things I can't remember....

I'll have a look for it when I get home but it wasn't anything particularly superhuman. More functional levels of strength/fitness.

I bet the percentage of men who are able to do all of these things now is probably in single percentage figures.

[Ki3r]

J4CKO said:

What should an individual be able to do to claim to be "fit" ?

Is there a standard ? Police/Army that kind of thing ?

Swim/run/cycle a certain distance in a set time

Height/Weight ?

Number of Pressups, Pull Ups etc ?

Bench, Squat etc as a percentage of body weight.

What else is included, or should be ?

Would be good to know how we measure up, and then endeavour to improve, or at least not drop outside of a standard.

Police fitness test is level 5.4 on the bleep test (higher in Scotland). Yes it is pathetic, and more worrying people fail! Some departments have higher levels.

[anonymous-user]

Army bleep test pass is 10.2 for 18-29 year old males

[DuraAce]

Don't forget the army use 20m shuttles, whereas plod only use 15m!

[Cfnteabag]

British Army for under 30 male is 44 press ups, 50 sit ups followed by 800m warm up and 2400m in 10 and a half mins

[Animal]

Some of Gym Jones' Standards are as follows:
Pull-up x 15
2,000m row in 7 mins or less
400m run in 1 min or less
5,000m run in 22 mins
10,000m run in 50 mins
Deadlift twice bodyweight
Back squat bodyweight for 20 reps
Bench press bodyweight for 10 reps

[ajcj]

Animal said:

Some of Gym Jones' Standards are as follows:
Pull-up x 15
2,000m row in 7 mins or less
400m run in 1 min or less
5,000m run in 22 mins
10,000m run in 50 mins
Deadlift twice bodyweight
Back squat bodyweight for 20 reps
Bench press bodyweight for 10 reps

Wow. Those are not easily achievable goals. Any one of them requires a lot of training. Being able to do all of them would make you very very fit indeed - I would think well inside the top 1% of the population.

[J4CKO]

ajcj said:

Animal said:

Some of Gym Jones' Standards are as follows:
Pull-up x 15
2,000m row in 7 mins or less
400m run in 1 min or less
5,000m run in 22 mins
10,000m run in 50 mins
Deadlift twice bodyweight
Back squat bodyweight for 20 reps
Bench press bodyweight for 10 reps

Wow. Those are not easily achievable goals. Any one of them requires a lot of training. Being able to do all of them would make you very very fit indeed - I would think well inside the top 1% of the population.

Yeah, that is pretty hardcore, and relies on not having any spare poundage !

I guess all are achievable though if prepared to put the effort in, they are tough, way beyond what most can achieve but they are possible, suppose it wouldnt be a goal if it was "get out of chair without help" or "walk to car" I cant do any of them but they dont seem quite as pie int he sky as they used to, I can do ten reps at 80 kilos on the bench, I am 92 kilos now so lose a bit more weight and do some practice, that isnt far away, I can row 2000 meters in 8 mins, with practice I am sure I can take a minute out of that, only tried three times thus far. The running though....

Anyone on here reckon they can do all those ?


Do you have to drink Kool Aid when you are finished ?

[Animal]

J4CKO said:

Yeah, that is pretty hardcore, and relies on not having any spare poundage !

I guess all are achievable though if prepared to put the effort in, they are tough, way beyond what most can achieve but they are possible, suppose it wouldnt be a goal if it was "get out of chair without help" or "walk to car" I cant do any of them but they dont seem quite as pie int he sky as they used to, I can do ten reps at 80 kilos on the bench, I am 92 kilos now so lose a bit more weight and do some practice, that isnt far away, I can row 2000 meters in 8 mins, with practice I am sure I can take a minute out of that, only tried three times thus far. The running though....

Anyone on here reckon they can do all those ?


Do you have to drink Kool Aid when you are finished ?

LOL - there's a fine line between salvation and drinking poison in the jungle!

I don't think they're that impossible, although I'm currently a long way off in some areas:

Pull-up - 6 or so
2,000m row - struggling to get below 8:30
400m run - about 5 seconds adrift
5,000m run - far too slow
10,000m run - even worse
Deadlift - 130kg-ish (pulled 100kg for 13 reps on Monday)
Back squat - bodyweight (c.80kg) 20 reps with more to come
Bench press - bodyweight 8/9 reps

You'd certainly be very fit if you could hit every standard in, say, the space of a week or so.

Their GM is a guy called Rob MacDonald aka Bobby Maximus and he's incredibly fit: his Instagram posts of some of the things he does are just other-worldly!

[anonymous-user]

J4CKO said:

Yeah, that is pretty hardcore, and relies on not having any spare poundage !

I guess all are achievable though if prepared to put the effort in, they are tough, way beyond what most can achieve but they are possible, suppose it wouldnt be a goal if it was "get out of chair without help" or "walk to car" I cant do any of them but they dont seem quite as pie int he sky as they used to, I can do ten reps at 80 kilos on the bench, I am 92 kilos now so lose a bit more weight and do some practice, that isnt far away, I can row 2000 meters in 8 mins, with practice I am sure I can take a minute out of that, only tried three times thus far. The running though....

Anyone on here reckon they can do all those ?


Do you have to drink Kool Aid when you are finished ?

Everyone who hasn't rowed underestimates the 'fun' of the ergo

8:00m 2000m is an easy 2:00/500, dropping that to sub 1:45m/500 to get sub 7:00 is much harder than it seems.

One thing you will notice is that in most gyms the concept 2 ergos are nearly always free.....Plus once you start rowing sub 7:00 2000m then if it's more of a leisure gym, you will get funny looks due to the unusual noise of an erg being used properly

Enjoy

[iguana]

That US army one, no probs at all, seems pretty slack standards for old giffers like me at the basic pass rate.

The gym Jones one wow holy cow, no chance, that is hardcore indeed, the art of manliness one yip no probs there.

[Animal]

wsurfa said:

One thing you will notice is that in most gyms the concept 2 ergos are nearly always free.....Plus once you start rowing sub 7:00 2000m then if it's more of a leisure gym, you will get funny looks due to the unusual noise of an erg being used properly

Enjoy

It's the Ski Ergs that I love!

[gregs656]

J4CKO said:

I can row 2000 meters in 8 mins, with practice I am sure I can take a minute out of that, only tried three times thus far. The running though....

I can row 2k is about 8.10 and when ever I do it I am always struck at how difficult it must be to take a significant chuck off that time. My short legs don't help though!

[chris_c201]

Think I'd get close on majority of these;

Pull-up x 15 - probably weakest of the lot, assuming proper wide grip dead hang pull ups I'd be less than 10
2,000m row in 7 mins or less - not used rower much of late but used to do this fairly regularly
400m run in 1 min or less - would be there or thereabouts
5,000m run in 22 mins - was doing this regular until chronic lower back cramps started in January, PB of just over 20m
10,000m run in 50 mins - as above, PB of 42:57
Deadlift twice bodyweight - best lift for me, pulled 240kg @ 96kg bw this week, 5th time dead lifting in last year after broken thumb last January led to run 1100 miles in 2016, hoping to finally pull 600lbs soon
Back squat bodyweight for 20 reps - could definitely do this
Bench press bodyweight for 10 reps - bench starting to come back up now I'm training regularly again, think I'd currently get 8 or so body weight reps

I've always liked the idea of multi discipline type fitness measures....got to think the number of people that are truly cardio fit and strong is reasonably low. Cross fit probably increasing the numbers although I'm personally not always a fan of the execution...

Challenges like this help motivate me, if I can shake the back cramps might try all of the challenges in 7 day period and report back!

[gareth h]

gregs656 said:

J4CKO said:

I can row 2000 meters in 8 mins, with practice I am sure I can take a minute out of that, only tried three times thus far. The running though....

I can row 2k is about 8.10 and when ever I do it I am always struck at how difficult it must be to take a significant chuck off that time. My short legs don't help though!

What he said, 8 minutes is easy pace, 1.45 / 500 to achieve 7 minutes is a whole different ball game, let us know how you get on.

[J4CKO]

gareth h said:

gregs656 said:

J4CKO said:

I can row 2000 meters in 8 mins, with practice I am sure I can take a minute out of that, only tried three times thus far. The running though....

I can row 2k is about 8.10 and when ever I do it I am always struck at how difficult it must be to take a significant chuck off that time. My short legs don't help though!

What he said, 8 minutes is easy pace, 1.45 / 500 to achieve 7 minutes is a whole different ball game, let us know how you get on.

I kind of meant if I focus on it, over a year or so I think I could get there, not the next go or anywhere near it, i.e. its possible, not outside the bounds of possibility, I could see how I could get there.

[mondeoman]

Pull-up x 15 - errr, strict is 1, kipping, maybe 5
2,000m row in 7 mins or less - best of 7:35
400m run in 1 min or less - no idea, never tested
5,000m run in 22 mins - currently getting 24
10,000m run in 50 mins - best of 55
Deadlift twice bodyweight - 130%
Back squat bodyweight for 20 reps - maybe 15?
Bench press bodyweight for 10 reps - 50% bodyweight last time I did that.


Am I fit or fail?