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Comment by coolbreezetft22 | Hacker News Reader

I used to love doing these fitness tests as they are very straight forward with no equipment, quick to do, and progress is easily measured.

If I remember correctly the Marines had a 3-mile run instead of 2 and the top target time was 18 min which I would always aim for

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Correct. It's still 3 miles @ 18:00 for max score until you get over 40 years old. We recently replaced crunches with planking though.

Interesting - what prompted that change and what is the max score/time for plank?

"In the past decade, every branch of the U.S. military has begun to phase out sit-ups and crunches from their required testing and training regimens, or else they have made them optional, alongside more orthopedically sound maneuvers such as the plank. Spokespeople for the Army and the Marines confirmed to me that these decisions in their branches were made in part to avoid the high rates of lower-back injury found among troops training for speed sit-up and crunch tests."

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/05/sit-ups-c...

>these decisions in their branches were made in part to avoid the high rates of lower-back injury found among troops training for speed sit-up and crunch tests."

And yet if you are in the USAF, the GP's will prescribe 500mg-1g of nicotinic acid and ibuprofen for lower back problems, to be taken when working out in the gym.

The nicotinic acid on an empty stomach spikes your growth hormone well above peaks seen during puberty, and believe it or not, can have you mobile and working doing hard exercise and lifting within 30mins, in fact you dont need the ibuprofen, just the nicotinic acid when the flush strikes.

The only downside with doing nicotinic acid long term is it will increase the chance of osteomalacia, aka putty bones, where you can push your finger into your bones and leave an indent in the bone, like pushing your finger into fresh putty around a window. Its not nice and it will deform your bones unless you take appropriate action namely changes to your diet to increase you vit k and omega 3 intake.

The pain killing effect of nicotinic acid comes from the release of calcium which binds to the body's own catecholamines because calcium binding to the catecholamines amplifies their effect. Its probably also explains those video's of people lifting weights when their bones snap and break, you dont feel osteomalacia until its too late.

Nicotinic acid can also harm the liver so appropriate dietary changes need to be made to compensate for taking it, even though it can be prescribed as a statin, and was the first drug used in the US for chemo purposes, decades ago.

nicotinic acid is niacin (a form of vitamin b3), a popular supplement

How do you know all this? Are you a doctor?

No, I read studies.

speaking of ibuprofen:

An awful lot of military live on legal painkillers. They have to, since they can't just quit & rest when they get sore. The medics hand out Tylenol and Advil like candy.

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not: I also heard of kidney stones among vets. This is nothing like a scientific study; just anecdotal.

My dream. Over my entire Army career, I went between failing and barely passing the sit-up test. I did just fine on the run and push-ups and was always doing a ton of additional sit-up exercises, but it was always a major stressor whether I'd pass that damn test on any given morning.

I knew a short stocky SNCO who just struggled with crunches, no matter how much effort he put into them. I found crunches easy because I have long arms and a short torso, so the distance I had to travel to do a technically-correct crunch was minimal. But I've always struggled with pull-ups....because those same long arms make the pull-up distance feel like I'm free climbing the Dawn Wall.

I also think doing sit-ups in the Army on stupidly-hard surfaces (parking lots, etc...) before I switched to the Corps is one of the main sources of my lower back pain.

Planks huh? That’s interesting. Too easy to cheat on crunches I guess. Is the CFT still a thing? I remember when it was introduced in ‘06? or so.

Pretty sure crunches are now considered to be bad for your back, and a less than ideal core workout. Planks are a very good core workout.

I'll drop those tomorrow and do only planks, didn't know I could hurt my back. Thanks!

Planks are isometric though. All the flutter kicks, hello dolly's and such that you do in smoke sessions seem like a more active core workout

For sure, planks are just one piece of the puzzle.

Does anyone know the benchmark for planks?

PDF Link: https://www.fitness.marines.mil/Portals/211/Docs/PFT_CFT/PFT...

Minimum score is 1 minute 10 seconds, max is 3:45, gender/age neutral.

I wouldn't even be able to do 3 miles in 28 minutes.

It's certainly "a measurement", but needs to be taken in context. The first time I decided to see how far/fast I could run, I had been doing martial arts and crossfit for two years. I had never really run more than a mile before. Ended up running about 16 miles in 3 hours. The next two weeks I couldn't walk and my knees were permanently injured. So, sure, you can pass a fitness test, but that doesn't mean you can (or should) sustain it.

Protip:

Don’t go for 16 miles on your first run.

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