radical_negative_one comments on Insufficiently Awesome - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Cayenne 19 April 2011 07:28PM

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Comment author: radical_negative_one 20 April 2011 01:58:34PM 3 points [-]

For physical ability, how about what the military considers barely acceptable? I'm fairly sure those records will be easy to find.

You're in luck! Really, you can just type "army pft" into google to remember the goals. The Army test requires no equipment, the Navy test asks you to swim, and the Marine test requires a pull-up bar. When i decided to get into shape, i figured i should try to reach those standards. Although, be warned that when you look up such things the articles will assume that you're a person who is thinking about enlisting in the US military.

For myself, i added Police and Fire Department tests to the list. My local PD test is similar to the Army PFT but uses a 1-rep benchpress (of my own body's weight) instead of push-ups. The local Firefighter test is a bit more complicated and would require me to sign up for the test in order to use the equipment and facilities their test is based on, so it's less clear how to measure my preparedness for that.