US Army can't find enough physically fit recruits, especially in the South

American taxpayers have spent $Trillions for the DoD to have incredible lift and support aircraft, ships, and trucks. Why then waste money on physical fitness? The DoD doesn't need athletic types for 85% of their associates.

Noticer of idiots wrote:

If you slobs are too fat and lazy to physically take care of yourself, it is no surprise that you'd be an undisciplined red state mound of blubber draining on the thriving economies of blue states. You lard butts can't even hack an Army fitness test! Stop complaining, toughen up and be a real man, sugar lump. You are the exact opposite of a runner. And nowhere did I say exterminate them. Just stop being a little whiny baby and take some responsibility for your horrible condition.

Hey...we have psychological issues here! Sorry we're not perfect like you genetically gifted runners! You people are really mean at times and think you're so wonderful because you're thin, slim and trim. Well...I say thank your genetics! ?

Runningart2004 wrote:

Higher percentage of obesity in the South...

There are also studies linking intelligence to fitness. Intelligent people tend to go to college after HS, not the military. Again, just generalizations.

If any of you smart fit folks want to join up I’m sure your local recruiter would love to talk to you!

Alan

This is all so Racist!

Runningart2004 wrote:

Higher percentage of obesity in the South...

There are also studies linking intelligence to fitness. Intelligent people tend to go to college after HS, not the military. Again, just generalizations.

If any of you smart fit folks want to join up I’m sure your local recruiter would love to talk to you!

Alan

C'mon Alan!....how about all those "intelligent" people in Congress who aren't so fit? ?

Special Forces may be dropped off 5K to 10K from target. Once Special Forces or USMC Scout Snipers (not officially considered Special Forces) fire rounds, said servicemen (rarely women) must run like mad men to rally point, 1K to 2K. Top military personnel must be able to run.

That report is typical for the people seeing ordinary U.S. Govt work. Except for the United States Marines who have the most extreme physical standards on Earth.

What are the physical fitness requirements for the army?

Isn’t it something like a 12 minute 1.5 mile? Lol

former USMC Rifleman wrote:

Special Forces may be dropped off 5K to 10K from target. Once Special Forces or USMC Scout Snipers (not officially considered Special Forces) fire rounds, said servicemen (rarely women) must run like mad men to rally point, 1K to 2K. Top military personnel must be able to run.

Let's stay focused. This thread is about the Army and regular military branches, not the USMC.

I guess that's what you get when you don't promote education and when you don't plan communities, cities, and regions in a way that encourages walking. I understand that Americans all prefer their own big house. If you go to Europe, the women are in ok shape. They walk everywhere.

zoomzoomboom wrote:

I guess that's what you get when you don't promote education and when you don't plan communities, cities, and regions in a way that encourages walking. I understand that Americans all prefer their own big house. If you go to Europe, the women are in ok shape. They walk everywhere.

But people in the Old World don't wipe after #2 and raise chickens, lambs, and pigs in the house.

I guess this shouldn’t be that big of a surprise considering the health of the general population.

The structure of our cities, food choices and habits, and general culture are not conducive to good health. Our cities are built around cars and usually not safe for biking and walking. I am lucky in the sense that everything I need I can bike and walk to, but most neighborhoods in his city are not like that.

Eating out, unless you are in some upscale neighborhood with a fancy farm-to-table restaurant, is generally an unhealthy experience. Fast food garbage is still going strong.

Our grocery stores focus on pre-packaged or frozen garbage, and eating fresh, healthy food can be very expensive. Many people in remote rural areas were healthy food is very far away or in food deserts in cities where getting to a decent grocery store is near impossible without a reliable car.

And add in cultural elements, like heavy consumption of unhealthy foods, our addiction to screens rather than getting out in the world, and a general culture of not being active. It’s take more extra effort than people are willing to put forth to be healthy, and a lot of people don’t have much time between working, raising families, and other life demands.

But you know what? I live in a city with poor health statistics but have stayed completely healthy by modifying my eating habits, and incorporating more walking, biking and generally moving around into my daily routine. You have to craft your lifestyle around health, not make it a once a day practice. Most people don’t understand this, and it shows.

former USMC Rifleman wrote:

Special Forces may be dropped off 5K to 10K from target. Once Special Forces or USMC Scout Snipers (not officially considered Special Forces) fire rounds, said servicemen (rarely women) must run like mad men to rally point, 1K to 2K. Top military personnel must be able to run.

Hi Alan! Why are you posting as "former USMC Rifleman"? I guess you like to joke around. Have fun ;-)

+1 ?

vivalarepublica wrote:

But you know what? I live in a city with poor health statistics but have stayed completely healthy by modifying my eating habits, and incorporating more walking, biking and generally moving around into my daily routine. You have to craft your lifestyle around health, not make it a once a day practice. Most people don’t understand this, and it shows.

I think this is true but as a parent that failed bigly getting my kids off their azzes, I'm really not sure how to get people to live healthier lifestyles.

My own kids are in their low 30's now, but when they were home we tried a lot of methods to reduce screen time. To wit: We took them hiking, biking and camping a lot. We banned TV from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon. No computers, devices (Gameboy/Xbox at that time) or TV could be in bedroom. Computer (a single pc) was in family room with screen facing everyone else in room. For 2 years we got rid of cable TV entirely. Mandated that they had to be in at least one sport/activity during the school year.

Nonetheless, both children, now on their own, hardly ever exercise and stay at home watching videos/tv for much of their spare time. The boy still plays video games and he is terribly overweight. For reference my wife and I both run (every day then, now every other day due to age related injury/health) and are normal range BMI. We did a lot of those things because I grew up with no television and I *thought* restricting things might work for them as it did for me. I was wrong.

I do think that one place for improvment would be school PhysEd. They hardly ever played a game or excercised. It was more often about cooperative games, health class, etc. Nothing that made them actually move. I suppose that may have been a blessing to their teachers as no one takes a shower after gym in school anymore though.

Old World? NOT wrote:

zoomzoomboom wrote:

I guess that's what you get when you don't promote education and when you don't plan communities, cities, and regions in a way that encourages walking. I understand that Americans all prefer their own big house. If you go to Europe, the women are in ok shape. They walk everywhere.

But people in the Old World don't wipe after #2 and raise chickens, lambs, and pigs in the house.

Wipe? What are you, a kind of subhuman? In the 1. World we use bidets.

The newer generation of police recruits aren't in particularly good shape either,

astonished indigenous european wrote:

Old World? NOT wrote:

But people in the Old World don't wipe after #2 and raise chickens, lambs, and pigs in the house.

Wipe? What are you, a kind of subhuman? In the 1. World we use bidets.

I was going to mention this. Without exception, every place I've ever stayed in Europe has a bidet. It's far cleaner to use one than to wipe. Having been converted, I have a bidet here in New England that I use, so I guess you can say I don't wipe either.

John Utah wrote:

The government isn't the solution for many problems. It's usually the problem. Either people want to be fat losers or not. People make those decisions for themselves. Unfortunately we are making the decision to become fat and soft. Not good.

One of the purposes of our government, as stated in the Preamble of the Constitution is to "promote the general Welfare" of the people of the United States. So, if we the people are all getting fat and unhealthy, and especially if it is affecting our military's ability to defend us, then surely I think the government can have some role in fixing the problem.

I don't have the answer to the problem, but I won't say that the government should have absolutely no role in trying to fix the problem.