Physical Benchmarks Every Man Should Meet, At Every Age

The Art of Manliness

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 14.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As men, we all want to be physically capable. We want to be able to save our own life in two ways: in the more metaphorical sense of wanting to preserve it in healthy, fit form for as long as possible, and in the more literal sense of being able to make it through an emergency unscathed. How do you know if you do possess that kind of lifesaving physical capability?

It's time to do more than wonder, and really check in with yourself. My guest today has some helpful benchmarks that guys from age 8 to 80 can use to see if they've got an operative level of strength, mobility, and conditioning. His name is Dan John, and he's a strength coach and the author of numerous books and articles on health and fitness. Dan walks us through the fitness standards the average male should be able to meet from childhood to old age, beginning with the assessments he gives to those who are 55 years old and older, which includes carrying their body weight, a long jump, and something called "the toilet test." We then reach back to childhood, and Dan discusses the physical skills kids should become adept in, which were inspired by a turn-of-the-20th-century physical culturist who thought every individual ought to be able to save his own life, and which can be broken down into the categories of pursuit, escape, and attack. We end our conversation with the physical standards those in the 18-55 range should be able to meet, including how much a man should be able to bench press, squat, and deadlift, and the walking test that's an excellent assessment of your cardiovascular conditioning.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:11.0	As men we all want to be physically capable.
0:13.0	You want to be able to save our life in two ways.
0:15.0	First, in the more metaphorical sense of wanting to preserve it in a healthy fit form for
0:18.7	as long as possible.
0:19.7	And second, in the more literal sense of being able to make it through an emergency unscathed.
0:24.0	How do you know if you possess that kind of life-saving physical capability?
0:27.6	Well, it's time to do more than wonder and really checking with yourself.
0:30.6	And my guest today has some helpful benchmarks that guides from ages 8 to 80 can use to see if they've got an operative level of strength, mobility, and conditioning.
0:38.6	His name is Dan John.
0:39.6	He's a strength coach in the author of numerous books and articles on health and fitness.
0:42.6	Today in the show, Dan walks us through the fitness standards the average male should be able to meet from childhood to old age.
0:47.6	Beginning with the assessments he gives to those who are 55 years older, which include carrying their body weight, a long jump, and something Dan calls the toilet test.
0:55.6	We then reach back to childhood and Dan discuss the physical skills kids should become adept in, which were inspired by a turn of the 20th century physical cultureists.
1:02.6	We thought every individual ought to be able to save his own life and these skills can be broken down to the following categories.
1:07.6	Pursuit, Escape, and Attack.
1:09.6	And we enter conversation with the physical standards those in the 18 to 55-year-old range should be able to meet, including how much a man should be able to bench press, squat, deadlift, and the walking test that's an excellent assessment of your cardiovascular conditioning.
1:21.6	We'll start with the shows over. Check out our show notes at a.wim.is slash, Finchmarks.
1:28.6	Alright, Dan John, welcome back to the show.
1:36.6	Hey, well, thanks so much. It's been, it doesn't seem like it was that terribly long ago.
1:42.6	Well, it wasn't that long. It was October, so that was what, three months ago, four months ago.
1:47.6	And the reason I brought you back on so soon because we had a great conversation last time, wide-raging, but there was this series of questions I wanted to get to that we couldn't get to because the podcast would have gone on for another hour.
	...

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