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Comment by ASTP001 | Hacker News Reader

These measures may be good indicators, until people optimize for them specifically. It reminds me of algorithm questions in tech interviews. They may have been effective at finding the right candidate before it became common knowledge to study algorithms. Measures like walking speed, grip strength, or pushup speed may only be good health indicators, until people begin to optimize for those measures specifically.

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Really optimize for them? Doing pushups or increasing grip strengths are not things that you can improve in isolation. To get to even 20 pushups, you can't be obsese, you need enough strength in your shoulders, the core has to be strong. Similarly, grip strength, if you've just let yourself go, there is no chance you have any strength left in your forearms.

That's pretty hilarious, because I've known plenty of guys who were obese, yet could do 20 pushups. Being fat and strong are not mutually exclusive.

> To get to even 20 pushups, you can't be obsese

That's ridiculous - I know tons of 'obese' people who can do a hundred pushups in one go.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

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What sort of form are these people maintaining? with proper form, and slow and controlled motion I would be very surprised if more than 1 in 1000-10,000 people could do hundred pushups in one set.

I went through the http://www.hundredpushups.com/ program when I was at peak fitness (on multiple sports teams) and it tooks everything out of me over 10 weeks to hit the hundred push up in one set milestone.

Fifty push-ups in one go with excellent form is the base level of fitness in the British Army (probably similar in most other armies). A hundred in one go is a reasonable for many people to reach. Many very fit people count as obese, especially those with the muscles to do push-ups. The Serjeant Major of the British Army said in a TV interview that he was 'obese'.

The percentile graph of max number of pushups is not a linear function. Its entirely possible for a large section of population to reach 50, the same way its possible for a large section of the population to hit the 20 second 100 m, but for almost no one to hit the 10 second 100 m.

Am sure, 100 in one go means you are at the pinnacle of fitness.

This doesn't pass the smell test without more evidence. a) how do you know 'tons of obese people' b) how many of them have you actually seen do one real push ups let alone 100.

> a) how do you know 'tons of obese people'

Not the parent, but that's really easy. Much easier to know a ton of obese people than a ton of anorexic people.

For instance, I'm on the low end of obese (by American standards). If you take myself and about 5-6 of the people I see at Friday Night Magic, that's one ton right there.

That was an incredibly clever comeback.

Technically, a ton of obese people is about ten or fewer such people.

May be you can make a video and post it on youtube. People would definitely watch it. It's extremely difficult to do a hundred pushups in one go - even for athletic non-obese people.

I dont have a scale, but last I checked, by the standard accounting I am obese (BMI 31) and I can do 20 handstand push ups.

100 push ups is just practice. I used to do 1000 free weight squats every morning. I do exercise a fair amount, but if you don't have any physical problems and are healthy, 100 push ups is like walking up a hill.

I don't know if I've ever known someone who can do that many at once, let alone "tons," let alone all of them being obese??

Really 100 pushups in one go, being obese, lol! Since you know a ton of these people, why don't you post a video, btw when I say obese ( its not some muscled dude like the rock, who qualifies as obsese when you consider an outdated measure like BMI), I mean a real fat guy, who has above 39% body fat!

Your claim is ludicrous. What is "tons"? I will have to see an obese person do 100 push ups before I believe you. Doing 20 push ups is _hard_. Doing 100 push ups non-stop is athlete level performance.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Goodhart's Law? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

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