2 things that came to mind watching the kids from the 60s; 1 is that this was like right before fast food and hyper convenient pre packed foods really started to take off in America. Yes they were around but not at the scale and level of consumption that it would hit a little over a decade later. And 2, while I won't say it happened, it wouldn't surprise me if these kids were the most fit in their school and were compiled together into one class in order to produce this video; this was during the height of the cold war so it wouldn't be shocking if this were made and put out as propaganda like "look at our future troops, the reds don't stand a chance." Still tho, awesome stuff..

In high school we had an old school PE teacher who loved running. Our final for the semester was infamously called the, "20 Minute Run", where we had to run laps for 20 minutes without stopping. This rule was strictly enforced and your grade depended on it. It did not matter how far you went or how slow you ran, you just had to keep running. He slowly worked us up to the 20 minutes mark with 5, 10, and 15 minute runs over weeks. The success rate was extremely high. I remember watching an overweight girl trudging along for the 20 successfully. His point was we all had the potential to do this if we tried, and he was right. We also had to do pegboards and other old school shit like in the video. I had him his last year of teaching at 65. The dude could still do a pegboard no problem.

That lawyer sounds like he lives the majority of his life as sedentary which explains why his own back and his own knees will hate him because they get no stimulation which means they don't get to adapt and become more resilient

My son, who is in high school, has shown some interest in lifting so I started him doing some basic stuff like weighted carries, bearhug squats with a sandbag, chin-ups, push-ups, etc. Basic stuff. I asked him what their Phys Ed class was like and was dumbfounded by his answer. They walk around the gym for 15 minutes and the remaining 45 minutes is free time. I almost wish I didn't ask.

That clip is from La Sierra High School and was part of a program and more or less marketing campaign by Stan LeProtti to try and have similar programs implemented all over the US. It was by no means a typical program, and the video itself included the best of the best kids in the program, many who went to that school specifically for it, not just the average teenage boy. It would be akin to looking at footage of a conditioning and lifting session at a top-tier Highschool football program in Texas or Florida nowadays (and the kids playing football are way stronger and more athletic now).

The issue with kids too is that they always want what they don’t have. If this was the class, they would hate it and wish you rolled out the ball. If you roll out the ball, they think you’re lazy and wish you ran it like this.

Yeah man, physical culture in schools is huge- whether through PE classes or sports. It’s something I didn’t understand or appreciate back then because I was the skinny kid who got picked last for teams. A friend of mine here in Shanghai managed to get BJJ instated as a mandatory subject for all students K-12 at one of the big private schools here. The PE curriculum before was the basic Chinese revolutionary jumping jacks (I should send you a video of that to review!) the difference is amazing.

What the Army means when it says "not fit for service" doesn't mean literally too weak to do military stuff. Basic training is designed to gradually take a new private from the couch to a fitness level sufficient to handle the demands of service. Instead "fit for service" refers to a potential recruit who is: 1) Free of serious criminal convictions/charges 2) Free of medical issues (this includes depression, anxiety, asthma, diabetes) 3) Free of face and hand tattoos 4) BMI under 27.1 for males and 5) Have a high school diploma and pass the ASVAB.

Thanks for these videos Zach. I come home from a shitty long day where my job has me wanting to end it all and this just levels me out. On the one hand these little videos are such a small thing, but the humour, self deprecation and common sense just give me hope that the world hasn’t completely lose the plot. Keep it coming bro

You’re right about lack of fitness but some of it is due to taking the gym & recess time to spend further instruction on book subjects which have also deteriorated due to “enlightened” teaching concepts

I think we might be overglorifying the 60s here. That video was most likely made for propaganda purposes during the cold war. This could have been a way of the US trying to show them how much fitter their future soldiers were. So because of that, I'm sure they only filmed the fittest kids and left out the unfit. However, I still think they should adopt systems like these at all schools in the world. I only had PE once a week and although it wasn't as bad as in some of the comments here, it still could have been made a lot better.

I graduated from a small private school 4 years ago and now help my friend lead an afterschool weightlifting "class". Really fun to see kids get into lifting earlier than I did

10 reps of "Kelapa sawit" push press🤣

The 1960's might've been the single greatest time to be a teenager/young person in American history, everything was cheap, jobs paid well and everyone was having sex and doing drugs. Now everyone is doing a different kind of drugs.

Zack my man just be honest u got these compliments cause ur god damn handsome 😌 Have a nice day y'all 🙏

I will be 70 next year. During grades 1-12 there were only two fat kids through all the grades. We walked everywhere. Always playing and active. My parents would say after supper. Get outside and don’t come home til street lights come on. Always playing and making up competitions. On field days only got medals for first, second and third. Fitness was last thing on our minds, only fun. No participation ribbons. If you wanted a medal you worked hard to earn one.

You are easily my favorite KZfaqr next to the boogz. Your style is so fun to watch

Zack to your point about fitness in schooling. The video is of course a very limited example, essentially a piece of marketing. But regardless I think the biggest reason a P.E regimen like that isn't possible anymore has more to do with the defunding and increased privatization of the American school system. Considering that for at least white Americans the 60s where a period where the country had seen some of it's most extensive spending to improve it's welfare it makes sense that a school could have resources to actually put a program like that in place. Oh also I thought it important to note that the school in question seems like a non-intigrated all-white school I wonder what the P.E program for schools that weren't looked like in that same town

I'm a parent, teacher, and I have been highly physically active since I was 6. I have to say this about the PE part of things (I'm not a PE teacher by the way) - it starts at home. Your kids need to see you active. You need to instill in your kids that it is important to be physically active. The kids that are the most active in PE at my school are those that are on sports teams and are active on their own. The kids that do not participate in PE are the ones that go home and play 8 hours of video games with parents that do nothing about it. Some kids may have a disability that prevents them from participating, but we have plenty that do not have a disability and simply decide not to take part. PE is not a class that would be considered for summer school. We have students that know they can fail PE and still move on to the next grade. It's a shame to see because we have some great PE teachers at my school.

fitness back in the day. I remember my dad and my uncles telling me how fit they were in their teens and that they didnt need to lift weights to get strong and that in fact they were stronger back then than we are today (keep in mind this was 10 years ago or more), at first I thought that they were trying to bring me down or something because I was making gains in the gym like crazy and people were noticing but today, in 2022 I realize they are right. Looking at the young dudes in the clips I can 100% say I cant do some of that stuff without injuring myself, sure I can outlift them but their athleticism back then trumps mine by a lot.

That thrower, Payton Otterdahl isn’t even a top 4 shot putter in America right now either, just goes to show how absurd throwers are

As soon as I saw the title I knew it was gonna be La Sierra. That seems like such a neat program to be a part of but I can also see the complaints people had

"We can't just fail a student because they can't do some sort of physical task." I disagree and I think we should be failing students for not being able to complete a physical standardized test, which includes modified tests for disabled students. PE teachers need to be held accountable like any other subject in school to ensure students are receiving both a physical education and an adequate amount of physical activity that supports them in their journey of becoming an adult. In my experience throughout grade school, I was never given an actual education about fitness, how to maintain the chassis that carries the head on my shoulders, and how it relates to my health. Carrying this education into adulthood wasn't even available as an option - it didn't exist. There are a lot of good PE teachers out there that genuinely care, but there's also a lack of emphasis on preventative education, lack of funding for schools and teachers, and a lack of consequences for failure that filters out many of the good ones. As a result, like you said, kids just don't give a sht. Most of us watching this video would agree that the world needs more exercise and physical activity, but unlike eating and sleeping, the majority of those that are not active participants don't see the point in participation until their chassis starts to break down and affects their ADLs. It's never too late, but it's kind of late. - PS I enjoy hearing your thoughts and opinions on topics in fitness. Thank you for your content!

I’ve never seen such a strange squat rack as the thrower was using

The man in the beginning did a bazooka lift! 😂😂 impressive lift

Agree that PE when I was in school sucked. We played some team sport and ran... Not even regular pushups, air squats or pullups. A disgrace. Hoping to keep my kids fit and healthy despite the total collapse of fitness in school.

Please do a video on throwers, use to be one and your description of throwers is spot on, has me laughing everytime.

9:20 There are interviews of those kids (now elderly) on KZfaq.

3:32 The face hugger

Jordan Harbinger had the video on loop and thought he was actually lifting it up every 15 seconds

Anime plot: A chad from the 1960s is sent to the future to take on evil corporations plaguing modern American society. His name: Paris Butler aka Bald Omni Man

Bro he was kidding when he said squat. Did that joke really fly over ZT's head?

And 9:45 that's what's wrong with the US school system. Class was always too slow for me and PE was a joke

95% of what I did in high school PE was play soccer. Loved every minute 😁

Training regular actually makes my body recover faster.

It’s pretty funny/sad that P.E. is the only “class” that doesn’t have to educate you at all. In every high school I knew growing up; you would pass or fail based solely on attendance. That’s the first area we’d have to change imo. Make P.E. an actual class. Educate kids on healthy habits & physical activity. Don’t just let them have the option to play. P.E. right now is not a class, it’s just recess with an attendance requirement.

Well part of the problem is the gym teachers are typically the most out shape teacher in the building.

When I have time I take the majority of my nieces and nephews (im a bachelor) and we do a little circuit of jumping Jack's push ups and squatting and then we do 2 laps of short distance running 1 walking for 10 minutes. I love them so much so I try my best

Chads where we at 💪

Love the Deus Ex Human Revolution background!

12:14 If the lawyer actually puts in a couple of hours of training a week he is going to much better off. The worker is impressive, but heavy repetitive work will absolutely leave your body with injuries from wear and tear. Just look at regular workers, they have bad backs and knees and so forth. There even is research on this kind of stuff.

6:41 (In flaffy voiceover accent) "These fine young men will make great cannon fodder in South Vietnam fighting for Military Industrial Complex profits". You have to keep in mind that this is what these programs were for. Tim Kennedy is a supreme soldier, and yet he was fighting in two wars no US soldier should have been sent to fight in. How many hundreds of thousands died in Iraq and Afghanistan and all we got out of it was ISIS and a reborn Taliban. What a joke. No kid should aspire to that. So yes, I would much rather everyone be stronger, fitter, tougher and more capable. But I would rather kids aspire to be that guy who shot their Draft Officer in Russia than to fight in some bulls**t war for some war profiteer.

Well said about the ego with CrossFit. I know CrossFitters who strong AF and very good athletes, and others who are not and get themselves hurt all the time because of their ego.

Wonder what those chads in 1962 would think of the class of 22

those boys were being prepared for conscription

Wear and Tear doesn't matter because our bodies fucking regenerate. Yes not every single tissue type regenerates, but even when tissues fail the body is extremely good at finding new ways to move.

I work in the California education system, what makes things worse is how schools have made PE optional by offering classes to replace it (elective health classes).

Really cool video as usual ! You are looking bigger than before man !

Just 15. minutes a day of competing physically against their peers must of had a huge positive influence on those kids mental health.

With the kid trying to do the powerclean, maybe start with just the bar and get technique down first.

it's not impossible. it's just that nobody in the education department cares ENOUGH to re-implement the La Sierra program and make it better today.

My middle school had and still has the color shorts system

I was in HS around this time..64-68. PE would have been fun with equipment like that. We just ran around the campus. There was a temporary setup for pull ups and parallel bars but for those of us who would have benefited from strength training there was no program available.

Mastering the lunchtime content

That style of Phys Ed is totally posisble. start earlier and provide nutritious meals like france, japan, or finland.

American Ninja Warrior = 1962 PE class

Competition makes greatness.

That is the La Sierra High School fitness program. It was not standard across the nation

zack youve never done hard manual labor and it shows. doing that type of work destroys your body. i used to work for an agriculture company and it makes training impossible and your lower back and knees are always sore

We have traditional over-head press, behind-the-neck press, and now "in-the-neck press".

Love the Deus Ex background.

Paint it Black is a good song, but I do appreciate some Yoshi's Island tunes, too.

This was good forum.

HALLOW THANK YOU FOR NEW VIDEO I AM LADY! That 60s video wreaks of propaganda, I’m not sure that’s how it was normally. The main problem is definitely the amount of sugar, salt, and fat they put in our food. The restrictions for the amount of shit they put in our food is next to nothing in the us.

Great vid

Great documentary on La Sierra HS.....Very cool to watch--highly recommend.

That blue check should stick to what he knows.

Truth be told Zack part of my family is farmers and i do see that heavy toll from continous hard physical work. Its not like there is no drawbacks. I still thing tho its better then sit at the desk and do nothing. But just to keep that in mind. If you work for years in hard physical enviroment it the pain and injuries gonna catch u up eventually :/

HE DID THAT IN FLIP FLOPS

6:03 In shorts/tictoc ppl with title a lift with an easier movement so when they do the harder movement it is more impressive!

I never really thought of 1960s people as having fun haha that was kinda cool to see

if that one guy who did the 505 behind the neck press trained the arthur lift im sure he could beat the world record of 386 lbs

5:29 😂

Listening to "the Hu" will easily get your behind the neck press above 200kg

I was born in the mid 1950s in Sweden. Almost no young persons were fat at that time and the few we considered fat then would probably not have been viewed that way today. Of course we moved around much more then than young people do today, but I believe the main reason we were ripped were the way we ate. My sister and I shared one small soda once every week. We didn’t snack, three meals a day, very seldom fast food or highly processed food. And only sailors and criminals were tattooed back then...

IDK i really didn't start developing muscles untill after high school around 25 even though I was in wrestling and worked out my body just didn't respond to it much. maybe I was eating a much worse diet not getting enough protein. But I think some people just develop there strength later than others as well.

The physical fitness program like that of that high school in the 60s is possible they'll just have to start gently and more game-like with the youngest kids and apply the program to every year after that until they have it for every year Jim Wendler's 50minute talk about how he coaches strength and conditioning for his high school football team really fits how I see the unfit youth problem Why tf would you blame the kids, the older generations who raised them are the ones who have failed And most of the time the parents straight up just didn't know any better So there's no one to blame just some work to be done But it's way easier to bitch in some comment section about perceived glory days than it is to actually help others and fight back against decaying systems

Re: the kids, I suspect that there are similar examples of especially apt students being given (though less demonstrably) a vastly superior education in mathematics and science. Might an elite mathematician (or math coach, to keep the metaphorical symmetry) express dismay over our systems inability to produce quality students at such a rate? More broadly, this segment highlights the problem with uniform expectations for large populations. Having a fixed standard of mathematical competence for every single student would be like requiring every student to bench 225 for 10 reps - easy for some, impossible for others.

I have only ever tried doing power cleans and I am sure my form was awful and I worked up to 175lbs which was easy, but every rep I would get light headed and by the time I worked up to 175lbs I almost passed out, had to sit down, had major stars in my vision. I think I was low bar back skwaating close to 400lbs at the time. Not really sure what was going on. Can anyone explain this to me? Oh and I have terrible shoulder mobility and cannot actually get a front rack position either which is awful I know.

High rep technical movements for reps for time is a terrible methodology. Encourages poor technique to get the most amount of reps on lifts that require high technique.

I’m pretty late to this, but I think you missed some context on the 60s video. The US was not long off the heels of the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict was ramping up. The draft for Vietnam started in ‘64 so it would make sense for the president/fed gov to, most likely, incentivize training boys to make them as easily as possible to draft/recruit. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy that created the program was a Vet that rolled over a lot of physical training he learned in his service.

I like the Deus Ex background

One more reason to home school .... PE is personalized instruction father to son.

lookin swoleeeee

The problem with the standardized tests isn’t with the actual tests, it’s the fact that passing standardized tests is taught as the goal of education. Passing standardized testing should be the bare minimum, with education giving ALL students the tools and opportunity to exceed the standard.

Kid in line for the peg board was balding. Oh the 1960s.

Most men back then were thin but not that strong. I’d argue the men who did train actually looked better, though. I mean.. look at footage of Woodstock pr and early Beatles concert. Most young men were thin and not strong.

So Juji just dropped a song. Seems like you've got some competition Zack.

Every developing country that still uses manual labour instead of machines will have people lifting heavy objects for transporting them as paid work. Does not mean that the person is going to do that his or her whole life. Only for a limited period of time.

Lol you know that was a magnet school for athletes, don't you? It's not just some random high school. Lmfao dude

In US public schools if you fail kids you lose funding, so schools have to make kids pass, so standards get lower and lower (other option is closing down schools, which is even worse in the end). And Its happening with reading skills, maths AND physical education. It's the "no child left behind" policy. Ironically, one of the seasons of "The Wire" explores this issue in depth.

Christ $150 Khakis they better give me a 10% increase in strength 😂

Deus Ex: HR background wtf lol

Sheaf toss in highland games

Let’s be honest, all of ours knees elbows backs and etc. Will be fucked up in the elderly ages and of course training and maxing out would affect that, but what the reason to be absolutely healthy when your are old and can’t do anything like this anymore anyways?

My dad was born in the 60's I can never give him the affirmation of seeing this video

That generation of kids ended up being one of the most overweight generations in the world in the middle age.

Don’t blame the teachers. Most don’t mail it in.

Isn't ironic when your buddies act tough and call the younger generation weak or p*ssy's, but they haven't worked out since their last football practice in 2004?

That palm lift isn't super heavy, it's cumbersome because of the shape/size. I see a lot of those types of comments on image sharing sites like imgur, along with horrible lifting infographics. The casual doesn't know their knee from their elbows.