Originally Posted by
JohnnyG
I know a whole lot of pilots who lift, especially ex military guys.
Most of them had to dilute their weightlifting with lots of cardio to stay on the winning side of military PT tests, but as civilians I know lots of pilots who are big with muscle.
I wouldn't exactly call those guys healthy or "fit". Some of them maintain a balance and some of them go bat **** crazy trying to "build muscle". They can't run a couple miles, participate in things like rock-climbing or compete in ironmans, because they've focused so much on one aspect. There are medical problems associated with doing this, from the supplements and the disproportionate muscle bulk.
In any case, this is just like one of those yahoo articles where "plus sized models" with no tone or general fitness are featured, and then every fat lazy woman on the planet comes into the thread to defend them. Course the "difference" here is that we are mostly guys, but defending a sedentary lifestyle is a lost cause IMO. We weren't made to sit in cockpits for 10hrs a day. That doesn't mean we can't do that and still be healthy, but it takes a certain commitment. The commitment is lacking in many cases. Should it be regulated? I'm not sure, but it's funny to see pilot's complain that rest rules and fatigue are more of an issue and that they should be treated more fair in this respect. If that was really the case, wouldn't we have put our foot down years ago and refused to work until fair and safe work rules were imposed? I don't want the FAA coming in and regulating every aspect of aviation, but this would seem like one of those areas where we only have ourselves to blame?