Marines have to do 3 miles in 18 minutes

I think the skinny guys have a bit of an artificial advantage in that test too. When it comes time to load up with field gear it would account for a higher percentage of the skinny runner's weight, and thus slow him down more than it would the more muscular guys.

You puny runners. I can run 12:10 for three miles, rip off the pull-ups and crunches and be done in less than 15 minutes. Pussies, all of you.

I challenged a company of marines a few years ago to a 3 mile race- they were promised a day off if they could beat me (over 50 at the time) after I gave them a 2 min head start. I ran 17 flat, and out of about 125, 3 beat me.

Yes, it says that. Most don't but still pass.

I believe there's a time limit for completing all 3 parts of the test? An hour? I don't think there are added points for completing the whole thing in some record time though.

Pretty laughable that people here are mocking the fitness of Marines.

Big John wrote:

Pretty laughable that people here are mocking the fitness of Marines.

Let's be real here. Under 18 minutes for 3 miles was about as fast as I was when I was 14 years old. I wasn't even very talented.

I'm not saying Marines aren't super-fit, but it shouldn't be that hard to get full points in that part of the test if there are freshman in high school doing it every saturday this fall.

Why are crunches or pushups part of any fitness test? At what point in any real world situation would you have to do extremely rapid crunches for several minutes?

I can see it now: "SNIPER! Everyone get down and do bicycles to confuse him!"

I'm pretty sure the crunches and push-ups are an indicator of strength. . . Most Marines carry 50 lbs or more of equipment out in the field. I don't understand why everyone is unimpressed with the requirements to max out the PT test and saying that HS girls and freshman boys can run 18:00 all the time. How many of those HS girls and freshman boys at meet all the other requirements to max out the test? I'm guessing very few.

I joined the Air Force right after high school and the PT test requirements were pretty soft. You had to do 30 push-ups in 2 min, 35 sit-ups (not crunches) in two minutes and run 2 miles in under 19:00 (I think).

I did 60, 60 and 10:50 but had a guy in my flight do 100, 100, 10:10.

What does it matter what time a Marine runs 3 miles in.

Obama has effectively destroyed one of our greatest fighting units.

We’ll be the laughing stock of the world - little better than the Dutch army.

“If a Marine spots two men in his battalion kissing off-duty at a shopping mall, he should react as if he were seeing a man and woman.

If he turns on the television news to see a fellow Marine dressed as a civilian and marching in a parade with a banner that reads, "Support Gays and Lesbians in the Military!" he should accept it as a free right of expression.”

Prescriptions for those possible scenarios are being played out at Marine bases as the military prepares to allow gays to openly serve, ending a 17-year-old policy commonly known as "don't ask, don't tell."

The latest round of training material asks Marines to consider their reactions to a wide range of scenarios, from seeing a member "hanging around" a gay bar to hearing locker-room jokes from others who refuse to shower in front of gays.

There is nothing wrong with "hanging around" a gay bar, the materials state. The officer who witnesses the loud locker-room banter aimed at gays and lesbians should remind the Marines any discrimination or harassment is inappropriate.

The Marines that stormed ashore on Tarawa and Iwo Jima must be spinning in their graves.

A couple observations:

1. Pushups and Situps are a measure of muscular endurance not muscular strength. However, muscular endurance is indirectly related to muscular strength. So if you can bench 400lbs you will be able to bench 200lbs a greater # of times, but the with the pushup you are lifting your own bodyweight so relative strength becomes an important factor in muscular endurance as well as cardiovascular endurance So, you could say muscular endurance is a combination of relative strength and cardiovascular endurance.

2. The marines test upper body strength with the pullup. The pullup is a true test of relative strength as few females can do 5 pullups and few males can do more than 10 correctly. Once you can reach 20 correct pullups then endurance comes into play.

3. General Fitness vs Specific Fitness. This gets beat to death yet people still lack the common sense and knowledge and tell the different. I get tired of comments like "When on the battlefield are you going to drop and do pushups or run 2 miles". Well, you're not. The goal of a standardized fitness test is to test fitness. That's it. Given a reliable test to measure various physical characteristics we can assume that if you score well you will adequately perform well at the physical tasks that are required of you on the job be it in garrison at the motor pool (hooah! conex inventory!) or downrange. Then there is Specific Fitness. This is why the Marines have their Combat Fitness Test, something the Army is now copying. Sprinting, ducking, and jumping over obstacles in full battle rattle with weapon is a combat specific skill. As are casualty drags, ammo can runs, etc.

Alan

Gotta say I'm impressed by the guy that did 79/69/ and 7:31 for 1.5 AF test.

If I'm being honest I could do 50 pushups in 1 minute, around 60-70 situps(has to be the easiest of all), and probably just under 10 minutes for the 1.5 run(I know I'm slow).

37 years young though. Wonder what kind of score that would get me at my age.

highschooler wrote:

Are you serious? 100 situps takes 4 minutes?

In MIDDLE SCHOOL, for the presidential fitness test, you have one minute to do as many situps as possible...many guys got over 60, almost every guy got over 50. It would take 2 and a half minutes, at most, if you tired out.

Those are middle school situps, not real ones though.

den bosch wrote:

highschooler wrote:

Are you serious? 100 situps takes 4 minutes?

In MIDDLE SCHOOL, for the presidential fitness test, you have one minute to do as many situps as possible...many guys got over 60, almost every guy got over 50. It would take 2 and a half minutes, at most, if you tired out.

Those are middle school situps, not real ones though.

Sometimes the difficulty in these tests is in the form used.

Marine situp form is different than Army situp form.

Marine form: Arms crossed across chest. Come up so that forearms touch thighs.

Army form: Hands behind head. Come up to that base of neck passes base of spine. The only resting position is the up position. No resting on the ground.

Army situps are much more difficult to do correctly.

Alan

Who measures these distances ? I ran on corporate challenge team with ex marines at 2 different jobs, and both made ridiculous claims as to how fast they ran in the marines.Both ran slow as hell in the corporate challenge races

At age 50:

28 pullups good form

800 in 2:11, under 17:00 for three miles (17:30 5K)

310 for deadlift

Plus some other very sport-specific stuff.

Four years later, pretty close to all above, but am doing more endurance-based training at the moment. 160/6'

crap wrote:

what you all are forgetting is that most marines are muscular, which doesnt lend itself to long distance running. I am currently in training for OCS, before I knew I was going to OCS I was busting out squats, deadlifts, and other powerlifts on the regular, getting very strong and improving my sprinting ability, but losing my long-distance ability.

Being able to do 20 pull ups and run 3 miles in 18 minutes requires being skinny or else being in incredibly good physical condition. most of the guys talking about 20 pull ups and 18 minute 3 miles being easy are probably very skinny and cant squat or deadlift 300 pounds, something many marines are able to do even though they cant bust out miles in the 5-6 minute range

A couple of the lighter guys on my college wrestling team could do this easy. I ran a sub 18 5k could do around 30 pullups and could deadlift and squat over 300 and I wasn't even the best. I can't recall any of the heavier weights who could run distance all that well but some of them were pretty good sprinters though.

Damn good for a 50 yo...any age really.

Guess what guys, I know this is going to come as a huge shock to most of you, but distance running ability isn't very important in combat.