20 gets you a perfect score; 3 is the minimum. You can get a first class PFT score (it's based on multiple events) without doing the full 20.

Elevated cortisol during pregnancy (the hormone linked to mental and emotional stress) is bad for the baby, and is in fact being studied as a contributing cause of autism. That fucked me right up, while pregnant, let me tell you. You're stressed? Can't have alcohol, pot, or sedatives because that'll fry the baby. But…

Yup. It's right up there with The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth in looking at evidence, and exposing how very much OB advice is pulled out their ass/totally uninformed.

"the next wave ..."

Apparently FaceBook is implicated in a huge number of divorces, too. This puzzles me. I can understand meeting someone, having chemistry, and behaving badly, but really do not see how virtual interactions with someone who may or may not even exist as desscribed can lead to that.

Well when you consider that if you have to climb a wall in combat, climb out of a trench, climb up a rope or a ladder etc, you'll be doing it with your own bodyweight plus between 30 and 70 lbs of equipment, it seems fair enough, given that when you do it in your PFT you're wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

I'm horrified and highly amused at the same time.

Incorrect. Physical performance is hugely important in the military. (I'm not saying I agree with it, or that it makes sense, but this is just how it is.) Junior officers (male) who can't score at, or near, perfect on their physical fitness tests get no respect from their (male) soldiers/marines. Logically you'd think…

Exactly. Thank you.

They absolutely use assisted pull up machines to train. The point of the test, though, is to do actual pullups. Given that the justification of the pull up test is to simulate your ability to move your own bodyweight vertically in combat situations, being able to do really well with 1/4 of your bodyweight supported is…

The resurrection of the dead, like so many other Christian tropes, is actually lifted entirely from Judaism. It's a pretty enormous leap from that to the Rapture scenario as popularized by these books.

... Church of England, Church of Scotland, mainstream methodists, just going by my discussions of theology with them ...

So I have been hanging out with a lot of extreme athletes lately (long story) and you know what they say, to a man, about this? "Anybody who gives out of shape/fat/newbies at the gym a hard time is an asshole. The gym is where you go to improve yourself, and we respect you for showing up, especially if you're not…

Oh, agreed entirely. Much of the "obesity" issue really boils down to class and race, but those are even more incendiary than fat, so root causes seldom if ever get discussed. Not to mention gradations of socioeconomic status, in particular - intrinsically minor medical issues that go untreated, either because you…

Yes, absolutely - particularly when women who are a size 12 are labelled (and worse, describe themselves) as "fat." So yeah, I'm on board with emphasizing health, rather than weight. That will ultimately benefit the extremes at the spectrum too, of course.

You say that like it's a bad thing!

I don't think there's anything wrong from a doctor treating a high BMI as a potential red flag, but it should lead to a conversation about habits, not a prescription to lose weight, because that's only part of the issue. Everyone should be encouraged to be active and healthy, regardless of size!

Yes, that. Which is really, appropriately enough, another form of appropriation/playing dress-up in an identity that, when authentic, makes people's lives more difficult.

Oh God the world needs a fitness trainer like that. Do it!

No, it doesn't help them give better advice, that's absolutely true. But much of the time the problem isn't the nature of the advice. For most fat people, it really, really isn't rocket science, what they need to do. The problem is that for whatever reason, doing so seems impossible, or a lower priority than whatever…