Author Topic: Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up  (Read 727 times)

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Offline flowers

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Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up
« on: December 27, 2013, 11:13:03 pm »
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-boland/female-marines-not-required-do-1-pull

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(CNSNews.com) -- Females in the Marine Corps currently are not required to do pull-ups as part of their physical training, and a deadline mandating that they do at least 3 pull-ups by Jan. 1, 2014 as part of their  training has been delayed for at least a year, the Corps quietly announced on social media.

Unlike their female counterparts, male Marines have long been required to do at least 3 pullups as part of the Physical Fitness Test (PFT). That's the minimum requirement for males.

Female Marines are required, however, to do a flexed-arm hang from a bar, and their PFT score is calculated based upon how long they can properly hang on the bar.  (See video for pull-ups and flexed-arm hang demonstrations.)

Currently, “women aren’t able to make the minimum standard of three pull-ups,” Marine spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan told CNSNews.com. Fifty-five percent of female recruits tested at the end of boot camp were unable to do three pull-ups (1 percent of male recruits also failed).

Marine officers told NPR off-the-record that, given the three-pull-ups rule,  they were afraid of losing “not only new recruits, but also current female Marines who can’t pass the test.”

Female Marines will be allowed to do the flexed-arm hang instead of pull-ups this year. With the arm hang, a person grabs the bar with both hands and pulls their body up and holds their chin above the bar for as long as possible.

If a female Marine can hold that flexed-arm hang for 70 seconds, she scores 100 points; 60 seconds, 80 points; 30 seconds, 30 points -- see chart.

The deadline for women to meet the men’s minimum standard of three pull-ups has been postponed a year and “will continue to be assessed,” Capt. Flanagan told CNSNews.com.  The Marines' Twitter announcement on the topic was posted on Nov. 20. But by Dec. 27, few media outlets had mentioned the news.

Pull-ups have been used to test Marines’ upper body strength for over 40 years. The ability to pull-up one’s own body weight over a bar shows the upper body strength that, in combat, is needed to lift fallen comrades, pull one’s self over a wall, and carry heavy munitions. Combat Marines also carry a pack that weighs around 90 pounds, with gunners carrying an additional 50 or 60 pounds.

Of course for the sake of political correctness all the bad guys will be nice to any female they capture or come across.  :whistle:


Oceander

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Re: Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2013, 11:22:13 pm »
How far up does a "pull up" go?  The only ones I'm familiar with are essentially the same as chin-ups, but with the palms reversed.

Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2013, 11:23:26 pm »
A lot of good Marines and soldiers are going to die because of this.  Few women have the physical stamina for infantry combat.
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Offline EC

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Re: Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2013, 11:28:00 pm »
How far up does a "pull up" go?  The only ones I'm familiar with are essentially the same as chin-ups, but with the palms reversed.

Pull up - palms face the body. Chin up, palms face away from the body. A flexed arm hang is basically a chin up that is held as long as possible. Otherwise they are identical.

Seems odd, because pull ups tend to be easier than chin ups - a lot less strain on the wrists.
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Oceander

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Re: Female Marines Not Required To Do 1 Pull-Up
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2013, 11:38:04 pm »
Pull up - palms face the body. Chin up, palms face away from the body. A flexed arm hang is basically a chin up that is held as long as possible. Otherwise they are identical.

Seems odd, because pull ups tend to be easier than chin ups - a lot less strain on the wrists.

That's funny, because as I always had it, chin-ups were with the palms facing the body and pull-ups with the palms facing away from the body.  It would seem from the wiki article on chin ups that the terminology is somewhat imprecise and can be used both your way as well as mine.

According to that same article, however, the Marines use the term "pull up" to refer to either interchangeably, so that still leaves me at sea about just exactly what a "pull up" means in this context.