Why wouldn't you compare the fitness standards now to what they were immediately before they were changed (1 PFA/year and 39/35.5" waist)?
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Road to 350: What Does the US Navy Do Anyway?
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
I'm not understanding what part of my post was confusing to you.
The part I quoted about lowering fitness standards by a large margin. We increased the number of times per year we take the PRT, the BCA is a push, you can now be separated again for PFA failures whereas before you would only not advance.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
The BCA is not a push. The max waist size was raised from 39 / 35.5" to 44-46", because the max bodyfat allowed was raised from 24 / 32% to 26 / 36%.
My point of referencing the pre-2016 standards is that the new BCA is even farther from that, contrary to the direction given by SECDEF.
Doing the PRT more frequently isn't an increase in standards. The scores to pass remain the same.
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To pass the BCA with a 44" waist, you'd have to be 6'9". The chart ends at 45.5" so I guess if you were 7'+ you could get a waiver or something. All this to say, youre correct in that 17-39 year olds can now get away with 2-4% more body fat. I think we just disagree on the definition of "large margin".
The PRT standard has literally increased from pass it once a year to pass it twice a year. That's just objectively true.
Anyway...
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
You're misreading the chart for the body fat test (step 2 in guide 4).
The 0.55 waist to height ratio test is superfluous in terms of passing because the next step just throws that away and uses your height, waist, and weight to estimate bodyfat percentage, with an allowance of 26% for men and 36% for women.
Although you trigger mandatory FEP by going to step 2, you can easily pass with a 44" waist as short as 5'8" for a man and 5'1" for a woman.
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OK I'll bite. Check my math. A person who is 5'8" (68") can have a maximum waist of 37" per Table-1. With a 44" waist we get a 24 (68-44) for the height - waist metric to use in Table 2. To pass with 26% body fat they'd have to be 149 lbs (page 13). That sound right to you/did I miscalculate anything?
Probably supports your point that the new test is pretty lenient…. But I think you’re mistaken on this point. Going to step 2 doesn’t trigger FEP.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
That does sound right. And I was using broad estimates. If we go down to 42" (which is still more than 39"), you now have a max allowable weight of 190 lbs. And if you go to 40", the max allowable weight is 230 lbs.
So you got me on the minutiae, but not my overall point... the standards are lower.
The research that determined WtH ratio was a better predictor of health complications than BMI saw a rapid increase at 0.51 and higher. This person should have a 35" waist or less. This would have been in-line with the previous rope-and-choke, but merely removing the neck (and hip) measurement, because it turns out they just add statistical noise. Also, that research didn't allow the bulk of your hair to count toward the test subjects' height.
And the best results were obtained when using it in conjunction with BMI. In other words, to catch the < 10% of the population who exceed 25.0 BMI but are actually fit.
Allowing a waist size > 40" is just throwing away the science (and previous standards). If we wanted to do it right, there'd be a height / weight table with weights corresponding to a BMI of 26 (allows for some measurement fluff) and if you failed that then a rope-and-choke with a WtH ratio of < 0.51, always rounded up to the nearest 0.5".
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Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
You are correct, I conflated the PRT score BCA exemption with going to step 2.