physical Preparation for Basic Training

You still listening to radio? I'll give you some pointers on there.

i can help with the running and weight loss, im currently in track.

weightloss: eat lots of carbs, running will burn em off.

distance: slowly build up. i can run around 6 miles without stopping. just run a little farther and a little faster every night, that will help you with endurance.

i cant help much, that will probably be kinda sketchy.

cant help ya there, i guess do more of em?

Snake: I am overweight but far from obese. I would not consider myself fat but more like chubby. There is excess flab but nothing that wouldn't be too hard to lose over time. The thing is though that I only have three months so I need to step it up.

Thanks for the advice man, there was some great advice that I will definately be following through with especially increasing water intake.

I am going to go out tonight and basically run till I can't move anymore.

Edited by carl_the_sniper - 28 March 2008 at 10:59pm

Snake6 wrote: carl_the_sniper wrote: Sit ups! Actually sit ups! It is a requirement Is that 100 crunches at once? Real situps are retarded. Like I said, 100 crunches until you can do them under 2 minutes. At that point you should do as many as possible in 2 minutes.Yeah, pound water. Pyramid sets are a great way to increase upper body strength.Talking about all this reminds me that I need to start finding time to work again.

Unfortunately, it is a requirement for the fitness test here.

I don't have a chin up bar for the pyramid sets that you were talking about.

So would a gym member**edited** be beneficial in your opinion?

Sit ups are not retarded. Dont listen to the jarhead! Just do as many push ups and sit ups as u possibly can every night and u should improve the number of reps over time.

http://www.rosstraining.com/ check this guys site and vids, theres alot of stuff you can do with out a total gym. For example, no pull up bar, rope and tree!

Scarlett33 wrote: Sit ups are not retarded. Dont listen to the jarhead! Just do as many push ups and sit ups as u possibly can every night and u should improve the number of reps over time.

Who are you? Crunches are a much better exercise than just regular sit ups.

carl_the_sniper wrote: Question 1: What do you guys recommend I do to increase weight loss?

HIIT. Works WONDERS for endurance and burning fat. Look it up.

Question 2: I find that I am not able to run more than 2.5 km on an average night (about 1.5 miles). I have been able to do more per night previously but not often. How can I increase the amount that i can run per night? I would like to be able to run 5km by training in 3 months. Would I be better off running slower but longer or even jogging?

Yes, running slower helps tremendously with going longer, however its becomes hard as hell to increase your speed/energy output as time goes by if you continue to go at an easy pace, and I don't think the military will allow you to set the pace on your runs.

And remember that to increase endurance, it's not about seeing how far you can go per run, and then quitting; go for a good solid run, walk for ~5 minutes, run a good amount, walk ~5 minutes, etc. I told choopie do an interval of run for 2 minutes, walk 1 for 30 minutes until it became overly easy, and then bump it up to 3:1, 4:1, etc. You don't have the time for a leisurely increase in endurance, so you are going to have to push yourself. No matter what you do, do at least 3 intervals of it.

Question 3: I also would like to be able to increase the amount of push ups and sit ups that I can do. I can usually do about ten pushups at once and between 1 and 10 situps depending on if my feet are held down or not. I would like to be able to do 20 of each. How can I increase this?

I'm not going to lie, I facepalmed at this point. Hopefully officers aren't subject to the same basic as others, or the Canadian military really is much easier than the US, because for anyone not morbidly obese, those numbers are pathetic. I'm not trying to be mean, but really now.

The best thing for you to do since you are just starting out (but have done enough to strengthen your tendons/ligaments) is to grind it out, doing as many push/sit ups as you can for as many sets as you can until failure. It is going to burn and hurt like hell, but you will see results.

Pyramid structures work well, but you need to be putting alot more effort into this than pyramid workouts, especially since push ups are more of an endurance thing than strength, and pyramid workouts work best for strength training.

Question 4: Would a gym membership be beneficial to me for anything allready listed here? Thanks

No, but getting a workout buddy will help tremendously.


And a few other things:

Buy a whey protein/meal replacement supplement. You don't need anything else, and the carbohydrate/protein/fat to calorie ratio is superb for losing weight, especially if you buy a meal replacement powder. Obviously you should eat right, and I trust you know how to do that already. Milk is your friend, too. The casein in milk accounts for 80% of the protein in milk, and is harder for your body to digest, which is excellent for your night time snack....that and a few of the nutrients in milk break down/become melatonin, which is great for getting a god night's sleep to help recover your body. And water is important as well, for more than just hydration.

Rest as much as possible, and do an active rest workout on your rest days (meaning work the muscles that are sore until they become warmed up, then stretch). This will help with the soreness you might feel the day after your rest day (which you should be working out on). Also, stretch. Then stretch some more. And stretch some more. This will help with soreness as well, and will make your muscles longer, leaner, more efficient, and will increase your recovery rate as well as decrease the amount of time it takes to contract your muscles (making you much more powerful/sexy).

And once every six weeks, take a week off (from friday to the next friday, to the monday after). Stretch still, eat right, do everything the same except don't workout. This is imperative, and most people I know don't do it. You will feel sore towards the end of the week, which is why you should stretch, but this will allow your body to "reset" and will allow you to get further, faster than if you didn't rest for that week. You might not want to do this given the amount of time you have, but you would be hurting yourself if you didn't.

And eat a lot of meat...of any kind. Protein is important.

Doesn't your branch GIVE you a physical training guide?

I know I ave an army one sitting right next to me. A friend gave it to me after he enlisted.