Pete Hegseth yet again mocked for poor form in workout video
Reanna Smith US News Reporter
08:31 ET, 21 Jul 2026Updated 08:32 ET, 21 Jul 2026
Pete Hegseth has once again been ridiculed for his poor form and endurance in yet another workout video, as new analysis suggests the Secretary of War would not pass the United States military’s fitness tests
The 46-year-old former Fox News host was humiliated just last month after video footage emerged on X of him clearly struggling to bench press in front of US soldiers. In the clip, a sweaty Hegseth can be seen clearly having a hard time lifting <a href="https://healthylife7.com/the-hidden-weight-of-loneliness-on-mental-health-and-wellbeing/” title=”The hidden weight of loneliness on mental health and wellbeing”>weights with troops at the Guantánamo Bay naval base
It’s far from the first time since joining the Trump administration that Hegseth has appeared in cringeworthy workout videos. He’s been filmed running on Omaha Beach, swinging a kettlebell on a university campus, doing jumping jacks on board an amphibious assault ship in Singapore, and even struggling to complete his own fitness challenge alongside a jean-clad RFK Jr
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“America’s @SECWAR CRUSHED 44 reps on the bench after a morning run,” The Defense Department’s X account claimed as they shared the footage of Hegseth’s workout with troops last month
However, critics were quick to noted that Hegseth doesn’t fully extend his arms in the bench press clip. At one point, you can hear someone attempting him to do so as they shout, “All the way down, all the way up!”
If you can’t see the clip below, click here
Hegseth fails to follow that instruction. “A rep, is when the elbows lock out. That is not a full rep. Similar to his pull-ups, those are not full reps,” one X user commented
“That’s not even a single rep. Not even close to a lockout. If he’s truly gonna do this performative stuff, he should actually try to do it remotely right,” a second said
“Horrible form. Barely gets the bar up. Needs to be slower too. None of those count. Also, low weight. This was purely performative,” another noted
Hegseth, who has enforced strict grooming and fitness standards for servicemembers, said last year that it is “completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” as he also called out “fat troops.”
His bizarre workout videos appear to be an attempt to show he is leading by example, but whenThe Atlantic asked experts to access Hegseth’s workout, they weren’t impressed
In an article titled “Pete Hegseth, You Call That a Pull-Up?,” reporter Tom Bartlett examines what the United States military’s training manuals say about proper exercise form, and claims that Hegseth fails to adhere to much of it
Bartlett notes that Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness Testing manual provides detailed instructions, accompanied by photographs, on the bench press, stating that you must not “jerk or shrug the shoulders, arch the back, or allow the hips to rise off the bench.”
Hegseth’s back could cleary be seen arching while his body jerked during June’s bench press video. When it comes to push-ups, standards vary across the branches of the military
In the Army’s fitness test, soldiers are required to perform a hand-release push-up in which they must stick their arms straight out to the side after each repetition. Meanwhile the Marine guide specifies that in a traditional push-up the chest may not rest on the deck “except as required to ensure that the upper arms are at least parallel to the deck.”
The Air Force states that your feet cannot be more than 12 inches apart, and you must maintain a “rigid head to heel form.” These are directives and failure to meet them results in a “no-go,” in military parlance, meaning you fail the portion of the test in question
“Hegseth’s push-ups wouldn’t pass muster in any branch,” Bartlett claims. He also noted that when Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kicked off their “Pete & Bobby Challenge” last summer, in which participants attempt to do 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in less than 10 minutes, Hegseth’s push-ups were “more like half-ups.”
In a video of Hegseth’s attempt at the challenge, he fails to go through the full range of motion, despite ridiculing others for their push-up form. In his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth bashed female soldiers who can do only “ten push-ups at a pop” and refered to a transgender woman as a “ten-push-up kind of guy.”
But during the duration of his own push-up challenge, which Hegseth claimed to have completed in under six minutes, he appears to break the US military’s rules
While Hegseth’s form is at times “textbook,” he appears to struggle with consistency and does not maintain the military’s standard for the duration of the challenge. At points, Hegseth is seen raising his knees to his chest to give himself an extra boost
This is known as “kipping,” and is strictly forbidden in a pull-up guide published by the Marines, which states that “Poor quality work will prevent you from getting the most from your workout and can lead to injury.”
Bartlett also spoke with Maureen LeBoeuf, a retired brigadier general and the first and only woman to head the physical-education department at West Point, about what she thought the Pete & Bobby Challenge video
She claimed that none of the defense secretary’s exercises in the video would have met her grading standards, and she has graded thousands of fitness tests
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“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 told the outlet. “He just keeps kicking, and it’s not a good look,” she added
LeBoeuf noted that Hegseth might have been exhausted during the challenge, but pointed out that the Army doesn’t typically ecognize fatigue as an excuse. She said it is also difficult to excuse corner-cutting from someone like Hegseth who is “real big on standards.”
