Pentagon’s Exercise Highlight Reels Hide Secretary Hegseth’s Form Failures

Pete Hegseth wants America to watch him sweat. Videos of the secretary of defense exercising alongside troops have become central to his tenure: running on Omaha Beach, swinging kettlebells on university campuses, doing jumping jacks on amphibious assault ships. The Pentagon's social media accounts amplify these moments. One post celebrated him completing "44 reps on the bench after a morning run" at Guantánamo Bay.

But military fitness experts say these highlight reels mask systematic form violations that would fail official military standards.

The Push-Up Problem

Hegseth's push-ups don't meet requirements across any military branch. In videos of the "Pete & Bobby Challenge"—a competition he launched with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking participants to complete 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in under 10 minutes—Hegseth doesn't achieve full range of motion. His chest doesn't descend to proper depth; his arms don't fully extend.

The Marine Corps manual specifies that 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 Army's Holistic Health and Fitness Testing manual prohibits "jerk or shrug of the shoulders, arch of the back, or allow hips to rise off the bench." These aren't suggestions. Failure to meet the standard results in a "no-go," meaning you fail that portion of the fitness test.

In one bench-press clip, someone can be heard yelling, "All the way down, all the way up!" Hegseth doesn't comply.

Pull-Up Inconsistency

Hegseth's pull-up form is less consistent than his bench work. He sometimes performs textbook repetitions, but he cannot maintain proper form throughout the competition. During several reps, he raises his knees to his chest—a technique called "kipping"—which is explicitly forbidden by Marine Corps guidelines. In at least one instance, he uses an underhand grip while kipping, technically making it a chin-up rather than a pull-up.

The Marine pull-up guide states: "Poor quality work will prevent you from getting the most from your workout and can lead to injury." According to military fitness standards, Hegseth's work qualifies as poor.

The Kettlebell Misstep

In January, Hegseth was filmed swinging a kettlebell with recruits at UCLA. The proper technique requires keeping the kettlebell near the body and generating momentum through the legs and hips. Instead, Hegseth performs deep knee bends and brings the weight too close to the ground, placing strain on shoulders and back.

Joel Del Rosario, a retired Marine and kettlebell coach, confirmed this violates proper form. Del Rosario told The Atlantic he's glad Hegseth is encouraging better fitness in the military but noted that the exercise requires corrective instruction.

The Credibility Gap

The inconsistency matters because Hegseth has shown little restraint in judging others. Last September, he gathered the nation's generals and admirals to upbraid them for being overweight, telling them that leaders set the standard. In his 2024 book The War on Warriors, he mocked women soldiers for being able to do only "ten push-ups at a pop."

Hegseth claims in one video that he finished the challenge in less than six minutes—which would be remarkable if he weren't violating form standards throughout. Because the Pentagon posts these as official highlight reels rather than instructional corrections, and because Hegseth promotes a fitness challenge bearing his own name while flouting its implied rules, the validity of his self-reported accomplishments becomes difficult to assess.

Military training manuals contain hundreds of pages specifying proper form for everything from thigh stretches to medicine ball throws. These aren't arbitrary preferences. They exist to prevent injury and maintain uniform standards across service branches. When the secretary of defense publicly fails to meet those standards while criticizing others for physical inadequacy, the disconnect becomes impossible to ignore.