True. I agree on the pictures above cent percent. I primarily wanted to clarify the confusion, if there was one, with regards to the usefulness of massive muscles' within the context of the workings of a military soldier.
That said, I must also add that some of the physiques shown in the pictures are a bit confusing to me. The routine training regimen of the SSG should in and of itself ensure men built like rocks. Some of the pictures do give that impression but then others do not. Due to that I've always wondered if it is a difference born out of the stage the soldier is at in his career in the SSG, e.g. cadets upon their graduation look little more than featherless chicks but then start gaining mass along their career. Another factor that might be contributing to the apparent lack of physical form is the attire of the said soldier. The optimal physical shape that we are talking about isn't exactly one which would look very pronounced from beneath the, hitherto, less crisp uniform and gear of our soldiers. Like this picture of Saudi special forces being trained by the SSG (they're no fine tuned performance machines like pushups world record holder Capt Muhammad Arbab from the last picture in my previous post but how many are?)
For example Captain Salman Farooq Shaheed in the picture below looks quite reasonable,
and in the one below looks anything but,
or these,
Vs these,
But then the jaw lines, neck width and forearm width usually do serve as good markers, like in these,
which are admittedly found lacking in some pictures.
So I believe the apparent lesser physical shape in some of the pictures above is a mixture of a little bit of uniform, gear, body type and lack of muscle mass. As far as my personal experience is concerned, the two times that I've met SSG personnel, I was not left unimpressed. These guys were built like rocks, with grips made to break necks. But then again these guys had 'Koh Pehma' badges (some of them with 8000m summits, if I may add) and were only a handful out of the original pool.
One interesting bit I remember reading somewhere about the Navy Seals was that experience and the tactical expertise derived from it are sought after the most which results in the selection of personnel who are older in age and lesser in physical form. Like this Delta Force operative,
-.- figure of speech mate.....
Also, if you put a shirt on the seals in the picture, their physique would look a lot less pronounced. However, this is not to contest the fact that our soldiers on the whole could do with purposed weight regimens. The rest in my above reply to Irfan Baloch.
