Full Breakdown
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Workout Videos Prompt Military-Fitness Criticism
7/21/2026, 12:41:47 AM
Hegseth’s “Pete & Bobby Challenge” Videos Under Scrutiny
In the summer of 2023, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched the “Pete & Bobby Challenge,” a social-media contest requiring participants to complete 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in under ten minutes. Video clips released by the secretaries show Hegseth performing the exercises with irregular technique: half-range push-ups, “kipping” pull-ups that raise the knees, and a kettlebell swing that brings the weight too close to the ground. Military training manuals for the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force prescribe precise form for each movement, and failure to meet those standards results in a “no-go” on fitness tests.
Expert Analysis of Exercise Form
Retired Marine and kettlebell coach Joel Del Rosario noted that Hegseth’s swing “puts strain on his shoulders and back” and offered to demonstrate proper technique. Former Navy SEAL and author Stew Smith emphasized the importance of completing the full range of motion on pull-ups, push-ups, and bench presses, though he declined to evaluate Hegseth directly. Retired Brigadier General Maureen LeBoeuf, the first woman to head West Point’s physical-education department, said that “nothing she saw from the defense secretary in that video would have counted if she had been the grader.”
Official Pentagon Response
Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez defended Hegseth, stating the secretary was “being unfairly singled out” and questioning why similar scrutiny had not been applied to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s exercise form.
Verbatim Quotes
- “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,’” — Maureen LeBoeuf, retired brigadier general
- “Have you ever seen Lloyd Austin’s form? Did the Atlantic ever ask about it?” — Joel Valdez, acting Pentagon press secretary
- “Hegseth’s push-ups wouldn’t pass muster in any branch.” — The Atlantic analysis
The controversy highlights tension between public fitness promotion by senior officials and adherence to the rigorous standards governing U.S. military physical assessments.
