Posted: 3/25/2010 7:15:38 PM EDT
| I'm thinking about joining the Army or Marines. There's just two things I have to do: pay off college loans and get in better shape. My main problems are I'm very skinny for being 6' 4'', I can't run like crap and upper body strength. I'm looking for workouts that will help me become agile and give me stamina. I also want the work outs to resemble duties I will be doing while deployed. Any words of advice from you guys? |
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BCT is like summer camp with guns.... pretty much if you look at the minimum standards to start basic (l17 sit-ups within one minute, 13 push-ups within one minute, one-mile run in 8½ minutes.) they aren't expecting much out of you to begin with.
It doesn't hurt at all to be able to do a lot better then that, of course. |
| Run. Start out short distance and work your way up. Then you can also do fartleks. You might want to throw on a 45lb pack and do a road march with it. As others have said you really don't need to do anything like that unless you are just god awful and can't do 30 pushups. Basic will get you in shape. You only really need to worry if you are horribly weak. |
| No way to get better but practice. my two mile was about 18 min before the military but they'll teach you how to run. Just run a 2-mile at your own pace every other day and up the speed till you can do it in 14 min. Since you're not insanely fat basic won't be a problem, it's too easy. |
*bench press, squats, power cleans are probably the 3 most useful/important. |
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powersticks,
Google should bring up good info on the Student Loan Repayment Plan. What I know is that the military will pay off up to $65,000 in school loans. I'm not sure what all kinds of loans qualify, but if you have government-subsidized loans like the Stafford loan and PLUS loan, those are definitely eligible. This is something that needs to be specified in your contract when you sign. The way it works is that they will pay 33 1/3% of the principal loan balance every year after the first year of service. So the first year, nothing is paid, but by the end of your 4th year of service, your loans are paid off, and all that remains is the interest which accumulated. You can also enter a period of deferred repayment during your service, which will stop interest from accumulating. The only snag about the SLRP is that you cannot get it and also the GI Bill. So basically you chose whether to get money for future education, or previous education. I already have a Bachelor's and halfway to my Masters, so SLRP is the easy choice between the two. Definitely bring this up when you talk to a recruiter. Also, for running, one thing you might want to think about is working on your cardiovascular endurance in ways other than just running. I'm a cycling enthusiast, so my cardio is pretty top-notch. When I started running to train for BCT, I found that 6.5min miles were not too hard - just that my calves and some other muscles used in running but not so much in cycling needed some work. Try the exercise bike, and also do some leg presses to work on your quads. Since you say it's your side that kills you - I'm guessing your problem is mostly cardiovascular. For push-ups, check out the website hundredpushups.com - They have a really well laid-out program to help increase your push-up performance. I'm also skinny and never had much in the way of upper body strength, but I am definitely seeing results with this program. On top of their plan, try to really max yourself out on each 'push up' day. Do sets of fewer and fewer reps until you can only do 2 reps - then move to your knees and do them that way until you struggle to do 3 per set. Rest a minute between sets. You will see results for sure. Make sure to take your whey protein shakes before and after. |
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Quoted:
A lot of people having been saying just join. Is BCT not really as hard as people say? It's physically hard for people that aren't in shape. The purpose is to turn civilians into basic soldiers. Training never ends in the army. It's not like BCT is supposed to make you an elite killing machine. |
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No BCT is not hard. I finshed BCT at Fort Sill at the end on Jan.
Before I shipped I ran a lot, did a basic work out; push ups, sit ups, ect. Also do a lot of walking with a back pack and weights inside. That will get you ready for the road marches. Drink lots of water. Start getting use to sleep about 5 hours a night. |
