CFAV Fitness (For Duty)

Mine generally involves laying in bed awake for a good half hour to an hour catching up on news/reddit/ACC/email etc. The exercise bit is holding my phone in the air over my head!

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I’ve been doing it between sets :rofl:

I mean, same, but for me a set consists of dozing back off to sleep and then dropping my phone in my face :rofl:

I used someone else’s lessons from Atomic Habits to get myself out of bed early this morning, and knock out a very steady 25 minutes run.

Quite nice to know that my lunch break is now mine for dossing!

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Watching the Tour de France and wondering how the hell anyone is riding today’s stage. These guys are ridiculously fit!

But what does the WGBT say??

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I’ve met some very sprightly and reliable grey-haired members of society and this organisation. Some of whom are far safer drivers behind the wheel of a minibus than others I’ve seen.

You seem to have taken a biased, stereotypical view…

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Would depend on the driver. We forced my grandma to give up her license well before that. My 93 year old great uncle is still a better driver than most cretins half his age that you see on the road

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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Fitness Chat

Well, a certain former OC 6AEF is still flying at 90+, and was still an examiner into his mid-80s. Indeed he did my IR(R) renewal not more than 10 years ago.

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In the RAF Reserves extensions are currently being refused beyond age 60 except in sone very exceptional and time-limited circumstances. All at the same time that the PM is apologising for the treatment of LGB service personnel decades ago.

How long until a future PM has to apologise for this ageism debacle? We have medical, fitness, and capability routes to remove people who aren’t up to the job — why consider an arbitrary number on their birth certificate over all that?

I don’t believe it’s arbitrary.

We are expected to deploy. I don’t believe in the upper age limits for uniformed CFAVs, but for deployable servicemembers I do.

I work very hard to keep up with my juniors and contemporaries. With my injuries and as I get older… That will be harder. I’m essentially going to be a liability at some point.

Bodies do age. It’s one discriminatory characteristic I agree with with the MoD.

In your case, you struggle, many don’t though. There’s plenty of hippo shaped 30 somethings who have to gasp their way through a fitness test each year, despite being in their prime.

There’s equally plenty of ultra marathon runners in their 50s and 60s who’d run rings around the majority of the services.

Case in point - Chris Terrill, at 55, completed the Royal Marines commando tests. Completed them in full, not some knock off TV stunt, in full. The same ones plenty of people in their 20s fail despite six months of brutal training. Would you make him quit the second he hit 60? Excellent Documentary on it

Arbitrary is the issue I think, if you can’t meet the standard any more then bye bye. But to be fit on a Tuesday and out the door on the Wednesday for being ‘unfit’ is a nonsense.

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I’m a physically disabled staff cadet. There are things I can’t do but that doesn’t mean that I can’t contribute to my sqn elsewhere (classroom trg, radio/cyber etc). This change would mean that becoming CFAV, and doing basically the same job i do already with a different cap badge, would not be an option.

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You’ve given a good example of why physical fitness standards would never be appropriate for RAFAC. Different people want and are able to contribute in different ways, which are all equally valuable.

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Jzs. Was he the one that was awarded the DFC by General Gordon in Khartoum?

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He trained Pontius and signed him off as his QFI.

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Or maybe he was the one who had King Harold’s eye out at Hastings. Didn’t aim off for wind.

I use the same timings - but eyelids, not socks ! :rofl:

Very well said, young man !!

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