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Sticks Vs. Bodybuilders


joshrk22

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So while I was reading about the FACT a couple days ago I came across this workout that this fighter pilot came up with that he uses to stay in shape. It was a pretty intense workout to say the least.

So I began to wonder, when it comes to fighters or dealing with high g-forces period, who seems to do the best? The guys with pure muscle or your skinny sticks that can run for miles? Seems that the guys with more muscle would do a lot better because they have the muscle to force blood back into the brain.

Lookin' at some old WWII pics, I noticed that most of the best sticks were shorter, built guys. Maybe it has something to do with that there is less distance that blood has to travel so they are less likely to GLOC.

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Guest Jimmy

Well, being a body builder means that a lot of that blood goes to those muscles instead of your brain, which might explain a lot...

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Guest markkyle66

I read having a body type (long necks) where there is more distance from your brain to your heart doesn't help... and being tall, skinny, and having low blood pressure. Short stocky guys handle it a little better.

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I read having a body type (long necks) where there is more distance from your brain to your heart doesn't help... and being tall, skinny, and having low blood pressure. Short stocky guys handle it a little better.

That's what the aerospace physiology guys will tell you, which I'm sure is true. Of all the guys I've known who fly fighters, none with a particular body type has been better than others at pulling Gs.

Course, I fly a mudhen, so what do I know about Gs?

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Like the Aero phys guys say, a shorter, more "built" guy will handle Gs better. That makes sense. However, I've seen skinny bean pole guys handle Gs better than a shorter, stockier guy. At the fuge the first time they showed us a video of some dude who was like 6 ft something and could not GLOC...he'd just sit there talking at 9 Gs and be completely fine...WTFO! So really it all just depends on YOUR body and how it adapts. But, obviously working out makes a big difference. Lower body is where it's at, lifting upper will do pretty much zero for Gs (except for abs).

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On a related note: a little known story and humorous diversion.

In the very early years of the Eagle, the Aerospace Medicine people stuck their oar in and started telling TAC that they needed to hire shorter guys into the Eagle community because they were better able to handle the Gs.

It was more than coincidence then, when in the fall of 1975 the first ever B course class to accept FNGs consisted of seven freshly-graduated UPT studs who were all vertically challenged. Meanwhile, the comparatively-tall and prematurely-greying Dave Deptula also joined the class as the first FAIP to go to the Eagle. The IPs quickly named the motley crew 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', and all seven of the shorter guys were named appropriately ('Sleepy', 'Bashful', 'Grumpy' etc). Some of those guys still retain their Dwarf call signs to this day.

TAC eventually told AM that it would hire people as tall or short as it wanted, since there was no evidence in the jet that any one group was better than the other at sustaining Gs.

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On a related note: a little known story and humorous diversion.

In the very early years of the Eagle, the Aerospace Medicine people stuck their oar in and started telling TAC that they needed to hire shorter guys into the Eagle community because they were better able to handle the Gs.

It was more than coincidence then, when in the fall of 1975 the first ever B course class to accept FNGs consisted of seven freshly-graduated UPT studs who were all vertically challenged. Meanwhile, the comparatively-tall and prematurely-greying Dave Deptula also joined the class as the first FAIP to go to the Eagle. The IPs quickly named the motley crew 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', and all seven of the shorter guys were named appropriately ('Sleepy', 'Bashful', 'Grumpy' etc). Some of those guys still retain their Dwarf call signs to this day.

TAC eventually told AM that it would hire people as tall or short as it wanted, since there was no evidence in the jet that any one group was better than the other at sustaining Gs.

Happy - Grumpy - Sneezy - Sleepy - Dopy - Dock & Bashful

Edited by Yoda
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There's a bit of a dichotomy. Short stocky smoking bacon eating fat kids can usually handle the instantaneous G's better. But for sustained G's the athletic types are able to maintain better. The genetic oddity of a short stocky bacon eating smoking marathon runner does really well ... but there aren't too many of those around. A lot of the G-Cap studs at Luke are skinny kids.

For us anerobic types, there's always 100% O2 and pressure breathing.

Hoss

/fat kid

/G monster

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That is a great story Steve! But I'm thinking the 10% rule applies here: LG Deptula was never a FAIP. He went straight to the Eagle jet out of UPT. He was a couple of years older, having gotten a Masters Degree right after his Batchelors, but that's about it.

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That is a great story Steve! But I'm thinking the 10% rule applies here: LG Deptula was never a FAIP. He went straight to the Eagle jet out of UPT. He was a couple of years older, having gotten a Masters Degree right after his Batchelors, but that's about it.

Huggy

Thanks for the correction on the Deptula part - if not a FAIP, can you confirm whether or not he was prematurely-graying?

I always apply the 10 per cent rule to any story I hear from Air Force pilots (and particularly old Eagle jet drivers), although this one must be at least 20 per cent true as I have actually met "Bashful", one of the seven dwarfs!

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Huggy

Thanks for the correction on the Deptula part - if not a FAIP, can you confirm whether or not he was prematurely-graying?

I always apply the 10 per cent rule to any story I hear from Air Force pilots (and particularly old Eagle jet drivers), although this one must be at least 20 per cent true as I have actually met "Bashful", one of the seven dwarfs!

Wish I had heard this 3 months ago, as LG Deptula was just here flying the U-2. One of my best buds worked for him in Hawai'i, so I'll see if he knows the answer.

He doesn't look gray in this picture.

post-2076-1213938559_thumb.jpg

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