There’s a fellow at my gym that seems to come in at the same time I do on Sundays. Sundays are deadlift day.
This is my review of Collision Bend Loosen Up Lager:
He tends to arrive at the olympic platforms about 20 mins after I do. Normally I a:on deadlift set #3 which is typically when I load the most weight. He walks over and says, “dude, that’s a serious amount of weight!” Before you think he’s just jerking my chain, he later had a similar exchange with a woman squatting. I agree with him, she had good form, as evident by her only physical asset being her bum. There will be no pics for debate fodder.
Anyways, that day he clued me in to something I was unaware: the Army has a new AFT! That’s Army speak for Army Fitness Test. My 425 pounds that day, straight bar, standard stance is pretty middling in the grand scheme of things but it would’ve blown that section of the test out of the water.
So the question is, can I still pass the AFT? Feel free to measure yourself, but whether or not you can is irrelevant. As usual this is about me:
The test has existed in some form for more than a century. The latest version has five events: dead lifts, pushups, planks, a 2-mile run and the sprint-drag-carry, a shuttle run involving sleds and kettle bells. These exercises represent a well-rounded mix of functional exercises — for both soldiers and civilians, fitness experts said.
…experts said. So for the deadlift:
Average for the current test: Men, 275 pounds; Women, 160 pounds
Minimum for soldiers in combat roles: 150 pounds
That’s very easy for me, I squat that average on a day where I don’t give a damn. Now on to the “hand release pushup”:
Minimum for soldiers in combat roles: 14 pushups
Average for the current test: Men, 41; Women, 23
A little weird, but 14 in two minutes sounds doable. The most I have ever done in 2 minutes is 80 (I was 24) but those were just regular old pushups. I routinely do 30 as part of an inverted pyramid with situps in between boxing rounds 3 and 4 (of 5). I’m confident I can get around 40. Now for the sprint drag carry:
Minimum for soldiers in combat roles: 2:32
Average for the current test: Men, 1:50; Women, 2:27
This doesn’t sound too difficult. The fact that the average is 40 seconds below the minimum may even mean they can lower it, but for now I can probably do this. Now for planks:
Minimum for soldiers in combat roles: 1:20
Average for the current test: Men, 2:31; Women, 2:12
Pffft. Two and a half minutes isn’t easy but pretty normal for the average gym bro trying to get the attention of a gym THOT. What’s next? Shit. Two mile run…
Minimum for soldiers in combat roles: 19:45
Average for the current test: Men, 17:31; Women, 20:25
Okay this might be a problem. The fastest I have ever AF 1.5 mile test is about 11 minutes (again I was 24).: I did Pat’s Run when I was 30 and finished the 4.2 mile course ending in Sun Devil Stadium in about 28 minuts. Is it doable? Probably, I just don’t want to do it. I box for cardio now.
Loosen up? It is after one of the cardinal rules of surviving in Zombieland. If you don’t limber up you may cramp, Zombies don’t get cramps, so stretch beforehand. This one with its cheeky label that might lead to idiots drinking penetrating oil. I am actually okay with this because anyone doing this is too stupid—even to join the Army. Its an amber lager reminiscent of the type of craft beers popular when Boston Lager was popular. I’m pretty sure they still sell that stuff in good quantity but you just don’t hear about it anymore. Its malty and refreshing, perfect for a three day weekend where you might host a barbecue. Collision Bend Loosen Up Lager: 3.5/5.
I use that stuff on my gates outside
The beer looks nice,
Cheers!
That can looks like a NASCAR car.
Play on “Hope in a can”
https://blasterproducts.com/product/pb-blaster-penetrant/
For those of us in the rust belt we use this useless product because their is some fraction of one percent chance we won’t snap a bolt.
I’m surprised the deadlift goal isn’t expressed in relation to body weight.
I used to be able to run a 6:30-ish mile, back only 6-7 years ago when I was in my late 40s, but I was running 5x a week, with two five mile runs into the mix.
Since I’ve gotten back into weightlifting (and too much drinking) my weight has gone up quite a bit. Harder to run those fast miles lugging extra top heavy muscle and ahem stomach weight.
On the subject of Palestine/Israel, I find that even people who aren’t vehemently anti-Israel get squeamish if their actual tactics are described. I am not denouncing how Israel fights the war here, but making a comment on how the American public has this naive notion of how wars should be fought.
They’re starving Palestinians! Well, yea, it’s called a siege. You cut off supplies to your enemies. It’s been how wars are fought for thousands upon thousands of years now.
Even Trump is like they need to let food get in and it’s like…the most naive bunch of bullshit that allowing aid in doesn’t further the Palestinian war effort. Food is obviously pretty critical to fighting. And that’s even ignoring that aid is in its own way fungible. It’s obviously going to support the war effort directly, but resources not spent on food are resources spent in other ways.
Don’t kill civilians! Well, they hide amongst civilians and use them as human shields. And you mention the shit America has done in previous wars, even recent ones and it’s just complete ignorance.
They don’t teach enough about the realities of war and when it does get taught, it’s solely to condemn those actions.
Everything isn’t a fucking genocide, either. That word has very specific meaning. Palestinians are not being targeted for elimination because they are Palestinian. They aren’t victims. They provoked a war and are combatants.If Israel wanted to, they could legitimately wipe Palestine off the map.
This isn’t an exclusively American thing. I don’t know what the next great war will look like, but finding people with the will to fight it is going to be a bitch. At least a first.
Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki welcome Gaza to the club.
The most intelligent and thoughtful argument I get back in return for mentioning those events is that was different with no real explanation as to how.
You could argue Israel isn’t in an all-out war, but most of these people are just arguing that times have changed and that it’s just no longer acceptable to fight wars.
We’re never going to win a war again if the mindset of the populace doesn’t change. There’s nothing wrong with the fighting capabilities of our military given our competition.
I have multiple years of experience in the area of military and civilian interactions on battlefields. In fact, I ran the US Army courses on this subject, have over two years experience in Iraq alone on this subject, and was the ranking officer in the ITO for this subject. I will state that the US did our damn best to minimize unnecessary civilian casualties. (Once you get past the entire starting Iraq 2.0 thing.) But if I had suggested to the Generals adopting less than half of the protective measures that Israel is using in Gaza I would have been told “Thank you for your input (Insert rank here) dbleagle. You may go.” Then I could have retired to my hooch and read books for the rest of my time in Iraq.
Bibi laid out Israel’s response on the first day. He said Israel would wage war until victory. Not “mow the grass” (Israel’s prior policy), not employ an “authorized use of military force” or any other euphemism for war. Israel is waging state on state war in Gaza and is fighting (fought) other Iranian proxies, and Iran, in a parallel effort. This is not a counter-guerilla war in which Israel needs to convince a populace to support a different governing entity. This is a fight against the entire Gazan populace in order to crush a governing philosophy that has vowed the destruction of the state of Israel and killing or driving Jewish survivors out of the Middle East.
It took killing 8-9% of ALL Germans, young and old, male and female, plus occupying every square cm of that country to begin to break the fever of the national socialists. They had only 12 years of running the country, HAMAS and their ilk have had decades. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry (whose numbers are always suspect) as of 21May25 a total of 53,655 of a population of 2.3M have been killed. Or around 2.3%. (PHM includes all deaths in their totals so old age, cancer, taking a bullet in the chest all count the same.)
HAMAS negotiating teams have not budged on their terms for an end to the war since the first sessions in Cairo and Doha: ISR withdraws completely from Gaza, HAMAS retains their arms and organization, not a ceasefire but an end to the war, and they receive their prisoners back. In short form, HAMAS insists on Israel’s surrender. HAMAS believes that if they are stubborn enough, they can get the world to impose on Israel a victory for HAMAS that they can’t achieve on the ground. Bibi might be a bunch of things as a politician, but so far he has displayed a Churchillian tenacity in waging this war. So it looks to me like the war will continue and 200K or more Gazans will die to assuage the HAMAS leadership’s egos.
On the point about the occupation of Germany – I doubt you are even taking the fate of Prussia into consideration.
I most certainly am JI. The Russian enclave of Konigsburg, oops Kalingrad, and moving all of Poland west over most of Prussia are reminders of what awaits the loser of a war. Don’t forget millions of German civilians died in 1945-46 after being expelled from multiple countries.
This is in big part a product of smart bombs a Gulf War I.
You have a whole crop of people that have only historical reference to fighting war.
Think of ranks of soldiers firing single shot weapons compared to WWI. Most talking heads don’t consider just how fucking awful that war was.
From Gulf War I.
I blame our government schools for a lot of this. From not teaching what war is actually like to an emphasis on pearl clutching when the subject comes up. Our schools seem designed to produce weak, lost, undisciplined individuals with no critical thinking skills or curiosity. I say seems, but this is exactly what the goal is. You are to obey and conform even if that means you are weak and functionally useless in society.
The current generation has large numbers who don’t even know what gender they are. That’s a level of confusion that is really unparalleled in human history.
Does the media and military’s own propaganda feed into this bullshit? Yes. But the problem to me starts with how we educate our kids.
“…the American public has this naive notion of how wars should be fought.”
I have gotten some pushback on this before but I still say the reality of it is this: War is the opposite of civilized behavior. It is the absence of law, civility and mercy. It is a fight to the death, not a game. It is undiluted savagery. There are no rules. There is no such thing as combat etiquette. Diplomacy has no place in it.
I am trying to think of the movie that made that point….guys going into WW1 thinking about gentlemen’s rules for war and in no time are doing things they never would have dreamt they could do.
The way you win a war is to kill the enemy. Lay waste to everything they have. You burn their house and shoot their dog and family if needed. Doing otherwise is called ‘losing the war’.
See every action we have been in since WW2.
Don’t be too harsh on us Suthen. We did beat Grenada and Panama, and got a tie in Korea.
“They’re starving Palestinians!”
Except they’re not. Plenty of food gets in. The pics I see of Palis, they look plenty well fed. If there’s a problem, I’m betting it’s where Hamas controls the food.
Hamas just follows the philosophy of Stalin with respect to food, and humor.
I understand the notion of wanting to test soldiers for functional strength. But they’ve just gotten ridiculous. The latest iteration seems to be an improvement of the last attempt to fix what wasn’t broken.
It’s some officer at the Pentagon who is way into crossfit and who doesn’t actually know what wins wars wanting to leave their mark on the military.
My dad couldn’t have passed any Army fitness test during his service in WWII. He received his draft notice while he was in a hospital. But he served, paymaster corps in North Africa and Europe (and given he had arthritic knees and the usual Army wisdom it is a miracle they didn’t send into some Arctic realm).
So for the deadlift:
Average for the current test: Men, 275 pounds;
And that’s with a trap bar for a triple. That’s… sad. I’m in my late 40s, have a disc herniation that I train around, and I’ve done more than that.
Its malty and refreshing, perfect for a three day weekend where you might host a barbecue. Collision Bend Loosen Up Lager: 3.5/5.
Sounds tasty.
I don’t know how they are training for the deadlift currently, but I remember everyone from the officers down to the lower enlisted being obsessed with high reps with little rest in between when we actually did use the gym to train. Which wasn’t often (as combat arms). I was laughed at because I dared to suggest it was better to lift heavier sets to build muscle. That’s not what they do at West Point!
The Army doesn’t really know how to train its soldiers physically. There’s a lot of bro science and just shitty government science mixed together.
Same with the nutrition angle. It was near impossible to use the DFAC and get enough protein in your diet to even build muscle.
The only guys who were ripped were the ones who worked out obsessively on their own. The PT the Army did combined with the diet they fed you produces shit.
Like, why the fuck are we feeding our soldiers in the field yakisoba and a piece or two of white bread? Oh, right. Because it was easy and cheap for the cooks to make it. Not because of its actual nutritional value.
MRE’s are loaded with junk and almost no protein.
Wait…so that 275 is for total of 3 lifts? I’m currently at around Bar + 70kg (euro gym) – but I haven’t made it to the gym for a couple weeks and probably won’t be able to make it in till after next week. Just a lot of walking these days. My standard is whatever I can lift for 3 sets of 10 consistently. Course my fitness assessment is in a couple weeks, so I’ll probably hold off on getting back into my deadlifts till I’m done with that.
Current navy assessment is Push ups, plank and cardio (I’ll do alternate cardio on the bike).
so that 275 is for total of 3 lifts?
Yes, one set of three reps with the hex bar. Maximum of two attempts to meet the standard.
Because it’s all calorie based along with still dominant low fat, high carb thinking.
I am morbidly obese, 57 years old, have been sedentary almost all my life, and only started lifting fairly casually this January and I am up to 275 lb. deadlifts straight bar, conventional, set of 8 reps. Is that really the average for males in the service?
Old man strength is a thing. It’s probably important to remember that the average soldier is still kind of a kid.
Combine that with a shitty training regimen, and I’m not surprised at all.
Is that really the average for males in the service?
That’s what the linked article says.
I will grant that they’re going to have a variety of people joining the military, so not everyone going in is going to be an athlete and might be new to deadlifting. But even so, I still think that is sad.
I guess that kind of makes sense, and honestly the obesity probably gave me a head start on leg strength. I’m sure the kids would destroy me on the bench (that sounded kind of dirty)
The beer does sound good.
For how much everyone bitches about IPAs, I just figure I live in a very rare good beer scene. There’s at least two other lager based local fests as well. We do have our IPA fests, but really, we just like beer.
Followup from dead thread: Sunderland won 2-1 with winning goal in 96th minute.
Useful video about viscosity and GM’s 6.2L debacle.
Do Thin Oils Destroy Engines? Lessons From GM’s Massive Recall
The end of philanthropy?
Many billionaires have started foundations as a way to channel their philanthropic efforts, but a recent decision from the U.S. House of Representatives may upend that practice. Just this week, a budget reconciliation package was approved, which stipulated a tax of 10% on foundations with more than $5 billion in assets.
“The reason this is insidious is that it’s going to really hit the big liberal foundations like Gates, Ford, and Soros,” Kathleen McCarthy, director for the center on philanthropy at CUNY, tells Fortune. “Whereas the conservative foundations are much smaller and they will pay a much lower rate.”
Thousands of liberal foundations led by billionaires including Gates, Scott, George Soros, and Mark Zuckerberg could be hit hard by these tax hikes. This could entirely change how billionaires approach philanthropy.
I thought liberal billionaires were chomping at the bit to pay their fair share to the government, and then some.
Daily reminder that anyone who wants to pay more taxes to the federal government is entirely free to do so.
No one chooses to do so.
Stated preferences versus revealed preferences.
“The reason this is insidious is that it’s going to really hit the big liberal foundations like Gates, Ford, and Soros,”
That’s the point fuckhead. Stop the flow of money to the evil commies. There is nothing insidious about it.
Hold on. Liberal billionaires lead thousands of foundations? Thousands? Really?
Powerline: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/05/the-week-in-pictures-forget-it-jake-its-washington-edition.php
Useful video about viscosity and GM’s 6.2L debacle.
I find that guy incredibly annoying, but not totally out to lunch.
It doesn’t matter what the bearing clearances are, or what oil you use, if the block has not been fully cleaned after finish machining, which is what seems to be the underlying issue at GM.
He is both a car guy and an engineer. But definitely a Top Man.
I like that he will actually apply math to automotive claims as an upper or lower bound to what is theoretically possible.
It’s also possible the parts aren’t as round or well finished as they were supposed to be.
Also- If you dump 0w8 oil in your ’70s big block El Camino thinking it will magically improve your fuel mileage, you had better save up for a fresh motor.
Which is why his chart full of viscosity curves was useful to me.
Fair share
On Thursday, Republicans in the House of Representatives managed to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, officially known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” by a single vote. And there are some provisions in it that are bound to affect millions of drivers across America: namely, the bill adds a $250 federal registration fee for electric vehicles.
The text of the Big Beautiful Bill states that the federal government will “propose for each year the following registration fee” of $250 for a covered electric vehicle and $100 for a covered hybrid vehicle. If the bill goes into law as written, this kind of broad, federal registration tax on electric vehicles would be the first of its kind in the United States.
——-
This rhetoric from Republican lawmakers is not surprising. Back in February, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) spearheaded an initiative to add a $1000 annual road use fee for electric vehicle owners, as legislators claimed such a steep annual tax was necessary to recoup a decade of lost gas taxes from battery-powered vehicles. This more recent push to add annual registration fees is motivated by the same mission, though its enforcement will actually rest on the states.
Nobody could object to that, could they?
I thought Elon was only there to bend things to his advantage and walk away with billions…
Speaking of Elon, his home robot thing is going to make him exponentially richer than he is now.
Hmm… Right now I could pass the deadlift, pushup, and plank tests. I could complete the sprint drag carry, but not sure if I can do it in the allotted time.
I definitely can’t run two miles, though. Running is not my thing. I’ve tried it – started the couch-to-5k program several times – and the shinsplints and ankle pain combined with the fact that I hate every second of running means I quit after 2-3 weeks.
I might be able to do better than the male average on the 2 mile run, but I’ve never attempted it. I do 5 miles a couple times a week, and that usually ends up being between 45 and 49 minutes. Those are fairly slow miles, but I’m probably above average in bodyweight for runners (230 pounds).
I’ve been working on one-legged squats. I still can’t do them properly “ass to grass”, but I’m getting there.
the choir performs “HH” at Diddy’s star in Los Angeles
https://x.com/kanyewestCA/status/1925485191876763995
I think you Americans are exaggerating that deadlift strength. 400+ pounds is quite uncommon.
How would you know, you guys are measuring in Metric.
you count the big plates and the little plates which are roughly the same weight
I could easily clear the minimums except maybe for the run. The averages, probably not so much. I’m 62 years old and do what’s really a pretty light workout most mornings. My biggest problem is mobility plus my shoulders are kinda messed up.
The idea that I am fit enough for combat is absurd.
Same here. My ankle is still a mess but I was deadlifting over 300 last week without a problem.
Back in my Marine days I could run 6 minutes miles.
Just now on the TV partially overheard…. “A federal judge today…..”
How is it we are having the left usurp the power of the presidency on a daily basis and conduct foreign and domestic policy through unelected federal judges?
There was a Tom Kratman novel where President Pat Buchanan kept pardoning people who shot Federal Judges. The problem solved itself eventually m.
30-year-old combat soldiers
🤦♂️
Bought cut sheets of BCX plywood for shelving. Assholes put the barcode sticker on the B side instead of the C face.
The average US infantryman in WW2 was 5’8 and 144 pounds. The average Viet Cong was 5’4 and 120 pounds. I don’t know how much either could deadlift, etc.
The Army has a puzzling take on physical fitness: https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-blog-about-military-matters/79771779-the-military-is-overemphasizing-physical-fitness-at-the-expense-of-more-important-use-of-the-time
***
The answer is apparently that enlarging muscles and going for reveille runs is apparently easier and more within our control than winning our current wars—like the drunk’s lamppost: easier, but irrelevant.
“But,” you ask, “isn’t physical fitness important for winning in combat?”
Pray tell, what actual war or battle was lost because one side was in better physical condition than the other?
***
US Army WW2 fitness standards:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2024/01/us-army-ww2-fitness-standards-there-was.html
Jackson’s “foot cavalry” did wonders as long as they were fed somewhat regularly.
Maybe they got an early version of pepperoni rolls:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperoni_roll
***
The pepperoni roll is an Italian-American stuffed bread roll. Originally conceived of as a coal miner’s lunch, it is popular in West Virginia and some nearby regions of the Appalachian Mountains most notably Western Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and Appalachian Ohio.[1] In West Virginia it is nearly ubiquitous, particularly in convenience stores, and is arguably the food most closely associated with the state.
…
In the early 2000s, the U.S. military began including a version of the pepperoni roll in one of the MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) provided to troops. In the late 2000s, the U.S. Army changed the pepperoni roll to its First Strike Ration. These rations are designed for light infantry, airborne, and special forces during a typical 72-hour patrol. The pepperoni roll’s compact size and comparatively high nutritional return make it an ideal ration for these patrols. These rations were extensively employed during Operation Enduring Freedom. The military’s rolls are made by a North Carolina company.
***
I ate many as a college student. Not being able to find them outside WV was disappointing, though the convenience store closest to me has decent calzones.
Derp:
Peopperoni rolls are awesome. Growing up, there were piles of them wrapped up at convenience stores for $1 each. Now they’ve gotten a bit more expensive, and a little harder to find, but going to nearly any bakery and they’ll have them. Go to the West Side Market, and there’s at least five stands with different versions of pepperoni rolls/bread.
I find the deadlift to be awfully low. Granted, I trained and completed, but I could lift 315 lbs when I was in high school, with me ~130lb. I am not a large man.
Lowering military standards is another example of the Left’s downgrading *everything* it touches. Should be an easy barb to shoot at the left, how they could possibly stand this enshittening of US military, but I’ve not yet seen it used as a focused attack on the dumbing down of culture and society.
Perhaps most likely, the masses have simply become too comfortable with the way things have been, such that they’ve no time for anything *but* sound bytes and social tribesmanship. Modern tech sure does make life nice, and I rather enjoy living in the technological pinnacle of our species. But humanity’s been without a global war for a good while, by post-industrial standards. I’d really prefer to not live in the next one. Guess: Satellite ‘nukes’ and directed attacks to take the internet away from significant spatial populations. Can keep that up, make it bigger? You’d create a riot/ uprising, combined with gang opportunity for vengeance and profit, so much more. You could fuck up a big city within a day.
Would be my tactic, and I’m positive every nation (with any money) has offensive and defensive measures for it.
Because OpenSCAD came set up to 1 unit=1mm, I had to design my print files in milimeters to make sure the real world dimensions are correct. But in the end my box holding a gross of .45 ACP ended up 8 inches x 5.5 inches. The walls will be 3mm thick. The honeycomb inser is 198.5mm x 133.8mm and holds an even gross of cartridges.