- Military fitness experts criticize Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s workout videos for poor form and technique, with one expert stating that none of his push-ups or pull-ups were done correctly.
- Hegseth has faced backlash and mockery for his fitness videos, which have gone viral on social media, with critics calling out his lack of proper form and endurance.
- Despite Hegseth’s emphasis on physical fitness and appearance, his workout videos have been scrutinized for not meeting the strict standards outlined in military exercise training manuals.
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It sounds plausible to say that America has seen Pete Hegseth in a T-shirt and shorts more than any prior Secretary of Defense, but his technique in those workout videos he loves posting would get a flunking grade, according to several military fitness experts interviewed byThe Atlantic
The Secretary of Defense has made physical fitness and appearance a core part of his focus since making the transition from a Fox & Friends Weekendhost to leading the world’s powerful military. He’s scolded older officers for getting “fat,” barred troops with facial hair from events, and posted numerous videos of himself working out with members of the military
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One recent video Hegseth posted showed him and Health and Human Services SecretaryRobert F. Kennedy Jr. promoting what they called “The Pete and Bobby Challenge,” which consists of trying to do at least 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in under ten minutes
Video clips of Hegseth and Kennedy went viral, with many commentators mocking Kennedy’s habit of working out in jeans and dissing the whole thing as cringy and awkward
Hegseth’s form is so bad, multiple military fitness experts said he “fails on form” the service’s tests based on his videos, according to a report byThe Atlantic’sTom Bartlett headlined “Pete Hegseth, You Call That a Pull-Up?“
Bartlett noted that Hegseth and the agency he oversees are the ones recording, editing, posting, and heavily promoting these videos (which he mockingly refers to as “Boot Camp Pete” episodes), and he’s the one who declared strict and harsh judgment was the way to go on military fitness issues
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With each one of these videos, Bartlett wrote, “critics skewer his form and mock his endurance,” dissing him as “all flex and no fundamentals.”
In the video below declaring he “CRUSHED 44 reps” doing bench presses, Bartlett pointed out that Hegseth “doesn’t fully extend his arms, making the exercise far easier and inflating his total.”
“A few seconds into the clip, you can hear someone yell, ‘All the way down, all the way up!'” Bartlett continued. “Hegseth fails to heed that helpful cue.”
Bartlett researched the “hundreds of pages” in military exercise training manuals, including numerous “charts, bullet points, and illustrations” and described how these are “directives rather than suggestions” when it comes to the various branches’ fitness tests
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If you fail to meet the declared standards, it “results in a ‘no-go,’ in military parlance, meaning you haven’t passed that portion of the test,” wrote Bartlett, and “Hegseth’s push-ups wouldn’t pass muster in any branch.”
Hegseth’s trouble, the reporter explained, is that he sometimes displays “more or less textbook” form but struggles with “consistency” and can be seen not fully executing the required movements and ends up “flouting the rules and sacrificing form for speed”:
Hegseth’s push-ups are more like half-ups: In the ones captured on video, he doesn’t go through the full range of motion. His substandard technique is ironic because he’s on record ridiculing others for their lack of push-up prowess. In his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth mocks women soldiers who can do only “ten push-ups at a pop” and refers to a transgender woman as a “ten-push-up kind of guy.”
To be fair, Hegseth’s pull-up form, at times, is more or less textbook. The issue is consistency: Hegseth can’t seem to maintain the standard for the duration of the competition, and raises his knees to his chest to give himself additional oomph. This is known as “kipping” and is forbidden in an eight-page pull-up guide published by the Marines. In one clip, Hegseth kips while using an underhand grip, which technically makes what he’s doing a chin-up—an exercise often considered less challenging than a pull-up. (The Marine guide permits both, though kipping is always forbidden.) According to the guide: “Poor quality work will prevent you from getting the most from your workout and can lead to injury.” Hegseth’s work is, by Marine standards, poor.
Former Navy SEAL Stew Smith has written a series of books about how to qualify for the Special Forces, and told The Atlantic he wouldn’t comment specifically on Hegseth’s videos because he “doesn’t evaluate the performance of people unless they ask, and so wouldn’t comment specifically on Hegseth’s approach and abilities,” wrote Bartlett. “But he said he stresses to his students the importance of going all the way up and all the way down, whether it’s a pull-up, push-up, or bench press.”
Retired Brigadier General Maureen LeBoeuf was “the first and only woman to head the physical-education department at West Point, a position known as ‘master of the sword,'” and was willing to give The Atlantic a frank assessment of Hegseth’s technique
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LeBoeuf would have failed him
“She said that nothing she saw from the defense secretary in that video would have counted if she had been the grader, and she has graded thousands of such tests,” wrote Bartlett, and she honed in on how he was “kicking” his legs:
“His pull-ups or chin-ups and the kicking that he does—you would never allow that. You’d stop somebody; you’d say, ‘Okay, you’re done,’ ” LeBoeuf said. “He just keeps kicking, and it’s not a good look.” She allowed that he might have been exhausted in those clips, but the Army doesn’t usually recognize fatigue as an excuse. And it’s hard to forgive such lapses and corner-cutting from someone who, as LeBoeuf put it, is “real big on standards.”
Joel Valdez, the acting Pentagon press secretary, defended his boss when reached for comment by accusingThe Atlantic of holding Hegseth to an unfairly high standard and taking some swipes at his predecessor during the Biden Administration
“Have you ever seenLloyd Austin’s form? Did the Atlantic ever ask about it?” Valdez wrote. “The answer to both of those questions is no.”
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Austin, however, “was not known for posting self-promotional exercise content on social media,” Bartlett concluded with a snarky note. “He did, however, complete Ranger School and Airborne School, command the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan, lead the fight against the Islamic State, and earn a Silver Star.”
The post Military Fitness Experts Bash Hegseth’s Workout Videos — One Says NONE of His Push-Ups or Pull-Ups Were Done Right first appeared on Mediaite
