I'm going to go ahead and give my personal opinion on the female Marine pull-up controversy. Why would I care you ask? Why should you care? Let me tell you...
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll break it down for you.
Marines are required to perform a Physical Fitness Test (PFT) every year along with a Combat Fitness Test (CFT). For training purposes only we are only going to discuss the PFT today. This PFT is scored and put towards things such as Pros and Cons and a total Composite score that applies to promotions.
The PFT consists of situps, pullups (male), flex arm hang (females), and a 3 mile run. Scoring is broken down as follows:
MALE:
1 pt per situp in 2 mins (100 is perfect score)
5 pts per pullup (20 pullups is the max)
3 mile run (18 mins is perfect score, 5 pts deducted per min.. I think)
There also minimum standards that need to be met but I don't recall them at this time.
FEMALE:
Situps are the same
Flex arm hang (perfect score is 70 secs)
3 mile run (21 mins is perfect score, 5 pts deducted per min.. I think)
Now that I've broken it down, hopefully I'm correct, if not.... sorry. Anyways, the controversy is that females were going to be required to perform pullups for the PFT in place of the flex arm hang. Minimum of 1 and maximum of 3 for perfect score (100 pts). Well apparently there was a control group that was monitored and asked to train and perform these pullups. I don't know the circumstances, I don't know the variables, but I do know that they apparently failed miserably and now the Marine Corps is considering revoking the new pullup rule. Now that we all know what's going on, here goes my rant... its nothing personal....
This is complete horseradish!!! You are telling me that the meanest, most badass, elite Military service wants to change things because 'ish got hard!! I served 5 years active duty and I came across several Marines, male and female. Not once did I ever see a female Marine in the gym training to get a perfect flex arm hang, let alone a pullup. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I never saw it and I spent alot of time in the gym. What does that tell you? The flex arm hang is dumb and worthless!
I'm not 100% positive why I take this so personal but I'm pretty sure its because I deal with many women everyday that work hard at our gym to get that first pullup. I know its not easy, no one said it was, but hell if you want something usually you need to put in a little work to get it. I will use my wife as an example of how to get things done. When she first began her pullup journey almost two months ago she could barely get 1/2 a pullup. Now after some hard work and dedication she can rock out 2 strict pullups and is probably pretty close to 3. That was two months!! You have an entire year to train for the PFT. It's come down to laziness and I hope something gets done. All day I am surrounded by people who want to better their own lives because they want to be healthy and fit and they fight to get things done. They don't serve in the Military, they don't have standards that need to be met, and they don't have a reputation to protect. The only thing I ask is that they give it their all and have fun doing it! Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but "CAN'T" isn't in their vocabulary.
So to conclude... do me a favor... before you sign that dotted line because you want to "serve" your country, then plan for it to get HARD! If you've already signed up then suck it up, get off your ass and do what your asked. Don't be weak, be strong instead.
*disclaimer*
I served 5 years active duty until 2011, so I know things have changed. Sorry if I am incorrect with any information I posted.
#semperfi
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