Latest news with #physicalchallenges
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
From finding love and God to gruelling challenges and coming close to death: How Mike Posner's life has changed 11 years on from writing hit single I Took A Pill in Ibiza
From finding love to coming close to death, Mike Posner's life has changed a lot over the past 11 years. The 37-year-old singer is best known for his 2010 hit Cooler Than Me, and his 2016 track with Avicii, I Took A Pill In Ibiza. But in recent years, instead of partying on the Spanish Island, Mike has completely changed his lifestyle. He now focuses on religion and meditation, is in a happy relationship, and has taken on huge physical challenges, including walking across America and climbing Mount Everest. 11 years after penning the lyrics to the hit track, which became a global hit thanks to a dance remix by SeeB, Mike reflected on how his life has changed since its release. Giving a verse-by-verse comparison on social media platform X, he penned: 'On my 26th birthday, I wrote I Took A Pill in Ibiza... 11 years ago. The song became popular several years after I wrote it. 'This year I celebrated my 37th birthday. I feel proud to look at the song lyrics and know that NONE of them are true anymore. I've grown into a completely new man... one that I'm proud of. check this out...' He continued, '26: 1 took a pill in Ibiza to show Avicii I was cool and when I finally got sober, felt 10 years older, but fuck it, it was something to do '37: I love myself more than ever, no longer do shit that harms my body to try to get people to like me. '26: I'm living out in LA, I drive a sports car just to prove. I'm a real big baller cause I made a million dollars and I spend it on girls and shoes. '37: donated massive Jordan collection, drive 4runner, don't need to prove anything to anyone other than God, love myself. If I buy myself something nice, it's because I love myself and I deserve it, not because I'm trying to prove to others I'm good enough.' Mike is also now in a happy relationship with his girlfriend Alli Schaper, who appeared in his music video for the single 'Is It Just Me?'. The video premiered in January 2025. He continued on X: '26: And I can't keep a girl, no. Cause as soon as the sun comes up I cut 'em all loose and work's my excuse But the truth is I can't open up '37: overcame my fear of intimacy and old patterns, worked through the pain of my previous breakups, recognised how much having a wife and family would actually mean to me, got the best help, did the inner work, and now I'm in the healthiest and most beautiful relationship I've ever had.' The artist's remarkable and inspiring revelation comes after he wrote the song having taken an impromptu trip to Ibiza with Swedish DJ Avicii - who tragically took his own life in 2018 - after writing a song with him. Explaining the song via online music encyclopedia Genius, Posner said the trip to Ibiza came after writing a song with Avicii in Sweden, and deciding to follow the DJ to the island where he was performing because he'd never been before. 'We were at his show and I was drinking at the time. And I just sort of moseyed out into the audience to watch Avicii spin from their point of view,' he said. Posner explained that he took a pill after a chance encounter with a fan who happened to recognise him while he was going between the VIP and general admission areas of the venue. 'So I took one and I had never done that before, and I felt amazing. Then when I came down, I felt ten years older,' he recalled. Mike's father Jon Miller died of cancer in 2017, and his friends Avicii and Mac Miller passed in 2018, the first by suicide and the second by an accidental overdose. At the time, Mike explained: 'Even though I had millions of dollars and followers and Grammy nominations, my life still felt empty.' Following this, Mike decided to complete a six-month journey across the United States on foot in 2019. Mike had to soldier through part of his trek with a walker after a baby rattlesnake bit him in Colorado this August, landing him briefly in the ICU. He initially wrote on Instagram that he would 'not be able to walk for several weeks' - but was then up on a walker three days after the bite. 'From 24 miles per day to using this walker to get to bathroom. I'm on my way back. Gonna rebuild with patience and equanimity,' he tweeted. The cross-country trek, which began five days before the first anniversary of Avicii's death, was partly a result of Mike's personal bereavement. 'The big thing is, everyone wants you to forget you're gonna die. Why? Because then you waste your precious life doing what they want you to do,' he told CBS This Morning around the time he began his trip from Asbury Park. 'People ask: "You know, is there a cause for your walk?" You know, I'm not raising money or anything, but maybe the cause is just to remind people your life is now. You know, if you close your eyes and you open 'em back up, this is it,' he said. The songwriter is no stranger to physically exhausting ventures, as he also successfully summited Mount Everest. Mike still performs at huge festivals, including Tomorrowland and Ultra, and recently released a new version of I Took A Pill In Ibiza with Steve Aoki. Along with his recording career, he has served as a record producer and songwriter for acts including Justin Bieber, Big Sean, Maroon 5, Nick Jonas, Cher Lloyd, and Labrinth. He co-wrote Boyfriend by Justin Bieber and Sugar by Maroon 5, among others.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Want to challenge yourself with the Presidential Fitness Test? Here's what you've got to do.
President Trump is bringing back the tough — and, for some children, traumatic — collection of physical challenges. President Trump signed an executive order Thursday reviving the Presidential Fitness Test, a series of physical challenges that was once something of a rite of passage for generations of American schoolchildren. 'This is a wonderful tradition, and we're bringing it back,' Trump said during a press conference in which he was flanked by several famous athletes, including pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau and former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Bringing back the test, which was scrapped by the Obama administration more than a decade ago, is part of the Trump administration's broader campaign to 'restore the urgency of improving the health of Americans,' according to the executive order. The Presidential Fitness Test was born in the early stages of the Cold War at a time when U.S. leaders had begun to view the perceived athletic ineptitude of the average American child as a genuine national security threat. 'The harsh fact of the matter is that there is also an increasingly large number of young Americans who are neglecting their bodies — whose physical fitness is not what it should be — who are getting soft. And such softness on the part of the individual citizen can help to strip and destroy the vitality of a nation,' incoming President John F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in a 1960 magazine article titled The Soft American. The specifics of the test changed quite a bit over the years. A softball throw that was part of the original framework — as a way to judge one's grenade-tossing prowess — was eliminated. The sit-ups were changed from straight-leg to bent-knee posture to relieve strain on children's backs. The runs were made longer as cardiovascular endurance became a bigger priority. Why did the test end? Though the test had become a routine part of the school calendar for millions of students across the country, questions about both its effectiveness and potential negative outcomes ultimately compelled the Obama administration to retire it. For years, health experts had argued that testing kids on a limited set of specific skills is not a productive way to gauge the overall fitness of a child — let alone the general fitness of America's youth as a whole. There were also concerns that forcing children to do these challenges in front of their peers could be a major source of shame, ridicule and bullying. In 2012, the government announced it would replace the test with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, a more holistic health initiative that prioritized individualized goals for children over uniform, competitive testing. Take the test yourself The Trump administration hasn't outlined what the exact makeup of the revived test will be, but you can measure your adult self against children of decades past by using an older version of the test. Here's what you'll need to do and how well you'll need to perform to beat the average 12-year-old in 1985 or score high enough to reach the 85th percentile and earn the coveted Presidential Physical Fitness Award. Sit-ups What it measures: Core strength How to do it: Lie flat on your back with knees bent and your hands on opposite shoulders. Lift your torso until your elbows touch your thighs, then lower back down until your shoulders touch the floor. Repeat as many times as possible in one minute. 50th percentile: 40 reps (boys), 35 reps (girls) 85th percentile: 50 reps (boys), 45 reps (girls) Shuttle run What it measures: Agility How to do it: Mark two parallel lines 30 feet apart and place two small objects behind one of the lines. Starting at the other line, run as quickly as possible to grab one of the objects and place it on the ground back where you started. Repeat this a second time to retrieve the second object. The timer stops when you cross the starting line with the second object in your hand. 50th percentile: 10.6 seconds (boys), 11.3 seconds (girls) 85th percentile: 9.8 seconds (boys), 10.4 seconds (girls) 1-mile run What it measures: Physical endurance How to do it: Run, for one mile. 50th percentile: 8:40 minutes (boys), 11:05 minutes (girls) 85th percentile: 7:11 minutes (boys), 8:23 minutes (girls) V-sit & reach What it measures: Flexibility How to do it: Place a measuring tape stretched out at least two feet on the floor. Sit with the soles of your feet level with the 12-inch mark of the tape measure; this is your baseline. With straight legs and knees firmly on the ground, bend forward as far as possible and hold for three seconds. Every inch beyond the baseline receives a plus value (reaching the 17-inch mark on the tape measure would be a +5 score, for example), and every inch short of the 12-inch mark gets a negative value. A version of this test can also be done with a box if one is available. 50th percentile: +1 (boys), +3.5 (girls) 85th percentile: +4 (boys), +7 (girls) Pull-ups What it tests: Upper body strength How to do it: Hang from a horizontal bar with your feet off the ground. Hands can be in either an overhand or underhand position. Pull yourself up until your chin clears the bar, then lower yourself until your arms are straight for one repetition. Do as many as you can with no time limit. Swinging or kicking is not permitted, so CrossFit-style 'kipping' pull-ups will not be counted. 50th percentile: 2 (boys), 1 (girls) 85th percentile: 7 (boys), 2 (girls) Solve the daily Crossword
