General Fitness & Nutrition: Im Unfit, Poor, 23 Years Old, But Attempting To Get Fit For The Army

Hey

 im 23 years old male and this summer intend to join the army. im gloriously unfit and equally gloriously poor. so going to the gym or getting new equitment is out of the question.

 at home i have a nice set of weights which i use for strength purposes but its my stamina that is the problem.

 im so unfit that running a mile is a task right now, i know with exercise this will steadily increase but im not sure how best to approach it. i want to avoid cycling because i get lazy on it.

 8 days ago i started my "get off my ass get fit" routine and on my weigh in yesterday i had gone down from 210 pounds at the start to 200 pounds after a week, so improvement is there.

 i would just like some suggestions on starting from the bottom of the fitness ladder to super fit on a shoe-string. i have the fitness of a 20 stone man but the commitment of a royal marine so im up for anything to get fit.

Any help guys?

Congratulations to you on your decision! I have been in the National Guard for ten years, and I love it. I now consider myself a runner, but when I first joined, I hated running. There are so many things you can do without paying for memberships! It's nice that you have a weight set, that helps.  Most important for you I think will be cardio. I definately agree with the run/walk intervals. I would even start lower than half miles to begin with. I would do five minutes running, three minutes walking, if you can, and increase the time of the running segments each week. Don't be afraid to walk! But try to do it as quickly as possible. My husband had to lose 40 pounds to join the Marine Corps, and this is what he did. He's now a consistent 4 mile a day runner.  Also, I have a pretty good circuit training workout where all you need is some weights and your body weight. If you email me at rebecca.nieves@yahoo.com I can send it to you. Good luck!

I am in the RAF and after 20+ years I decided that I wasn't doing enough exercise.

I started off walking to work, then I ran to work and walked home, then I ran both ways and now I'm looking at completing my first marathon this year.

This of course takes time and the worst thing you can do is do too much.  Listen to your body.  You will know if you've done too much..It''l hurt!

Keep a log, that helped/is helping me and set yourself mini targets.

Once you keep a log try and increase your mileage by 10% each week, but remember...DON'T OVERDO IT. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey.

Another place to look is the Army website or visit the Armed Forces Careers Office, they should be able to give you plenty of advice.

Hope this helps
Glenn

thats some really good advice thanks.

i keep logs of all exercise i do on this site and i must say it motivates me to do more. see if you can think about adding in anything extra to this schedule i have at the moment.

5 days a week i walk (brisk walk not the type of walk you'd do thru shopping malls etc) over a distance of 2 miles...so thats 10 miles a week that i just count as normal life.

i referee a 6-a-side soccer league for an hour on monday evenings, this includes a 4 mile cycle to the venue and a 4 mile cycle home.

daily i use my weights, not excessively but i concentrate on 1 area of the body a day and make sure i do around 50 reps.

and between 2-4 nights a week ill go for 30 mins of run/walking. just doing as much running as i can before needing to walk. im doing it over a 1.5 mile lap so when i can run the distance i can compare my times to that which i need to join the army

the good thing is with strength i never feel like ive overdone it so im pretty confident on my strength. cardio is where i let myself down.

i agree with the increase of distance i can run each time.

once agree thanks for all the advice so far and any to follow

One thing that will help you get into shape as well is make sure you are keeping good track of what you are putting into your body.

 Stay away from fast food and sodas (or whatever it is that tastes good but is bad for you) and you will see a huge change in your body. 

I have started writing down my calories and what I am eating, and I have found that I am much more successful this way.  You will also develop new healthuer habits this way.

Diet + what people are suggesting for your workouts will = a successful trip to boot camp.

Most of this is pretty sound advice, take what you think you need from all the posts and ditch the rest. For me - 15 years Royal Engineers - the mental attitude will determine whether you can hack it or not - as the gunny says in the last post 9 hours ago. I don't know what it's like these days but in 1975 it was long days, well into the night/early morning and then up at 05.30 to start again for the first 13 weeks, and the 13 that followed weren't a huge improvement! We did everything at the double, that'll improve your fitness levels immensely without you even knowing it.

Try the run/walk routine until you get up to 30 minutes then try 30 minutes slow jog without stopping - take fluid every 15/20 minutes even in cold weather, buy yourself a waterbottle pouch with pockets for energy supplements. Get a small backpack after that and put a bit of weight in it - maybe 10 lbs (less than a rifle weighs hey?! - , only a couple of times a week but you'll feel a big benefit when you don't have the backpack on your training runs. Hills are great, you'll throw up after the first decent one, I did, but stick with it and after a couple of months you'll see the benefit. Don't try too hard, take at least one day a week off all training and relax, all the best runners/sportsmen will tell you that rest and recovery is the most important part of their regime.

Don't be a loudmouth, don't be too quiet. Learn from your instructors, they've been there, done that, got the t-shirts. It'll save your life one day. Good luck and, most of all, enjoy it. I certainly did!

Dave, Aylesbury, Bucks.

mo_field,

    Just a little note about my personal experiences.  Simply put, I had the same hang up about walking.  "That's not exercise, I'm not sweating or breathing hard enough."  Then I had a kid.  When she was about a year old, my wife went back to work.  I took care of her in the mornings, then went to work after lunch.  I started walking with my daughter in a jog stroller.  I lost 30 lbs in a year.  Two years later I read "Marathoning for Mortals" after seeing a local news story about it (San Diego).  That year I trained for a half marathon; I would have completed it had my wife not passed a kidney stone race morning.  I eventually ran several halfs.  Everybody else who has responsed is spot on.  Just keep yourself moving.

Hello Mo,  Start with gradual running distances and work to longer distances.  The farthest we ran in the army was 5 mi.  That was only after months of continual running 1 - 3mi. each day.  Also, work on situps and pushups.  Easiest to do during commercial breaks on TV. It helped me, and I was pathetically out of shape when I joined. At end of 10yr hitch I was able to run on average 4mi./per session.  Good luck and let us know how its going...............

Mo,

 You need CrossFit.

 www.crossfit.com

 Running will certainly help you, and weights are a great tool, but if you want to be truly FIT, nothing will get you there faster and more efficiently than CrossFit.  Visit the website and read a bit about the ideas and methods; you probably have enough equipment to start with some basic versions of the workouts.  Then, on the CrossFit site, click on "Affiliate Blog," and, at the bottom of the list, check out the list of affiliates in the UK to see if there's one near you that you can visit.  It's the best fitness decision you'll ever make.

mo_field,

One more war story to add some encouragement.  I was just found a bunch of old Army fitness records while cleaning out an old filing cabinet.  The records contain everything from my very first fitness test on the day after I arrived in boot camp to my last test before I left the Army four years later.

The first test shows a failing score on a 1-mile run (half of the normal test distance) of 8:32.  Here is a short summary of my progress:

07-90: 1 Mile: 8:32 - Fail

08-90: 2 Miles: 16:50 - Minimum Passing Score

09-90: 2 Miles: 15:26 - Passing

10-90: 2 Miles: 14:40 -  Passing

06-91: 2 Miles: 14:14 - Passing

09-91: 2 Miles: 13:49 - Passing

01-92: 2 Miles: 14:40 - Passing (doh.. must have had a bad day)

05-92: 2 Miles: 12:06 - Passing with a 98% score!!!

That last score was after doing some serious hill training at an elevation of  about 1 mile in the Arizona mountains.  My scores for pushups and situps improved similarly.  

Don't worry.. they will get you fit!  Afterall the military has been turning civilians into soldiers for hundreds of years and probably has developed some of the worlds best programs for taking people in terrible shape to high levels of fitness.

i was a pt instructor in the british army for 7 years and here is my advice.

1. mental determination.  in the army you will be pushed to places that you never thought you could reach. you need to be able to switch off, get your head down and do what needs to be done. 

2.in your basic training you will be tested on your basic fitness level.  you need to work on your upper body (the best exercise for this is push ups, squat thrusts and burpees), your core (sit ups and more sit ups im afraid!) and your cardio fitness ( running and marching).

to get yourself fit heres what you need to do.

1.  you dont need weights at all. i dont do weights, never have, never will. all you need is your own body because believe me, when you get to the army you will see the training you do is all about body resistance.

the army loves push ups, loves giving them out and loves doing them!

everyday you should aim to do;

50 standard push ups

30 close arm push ups

30 wide arm push ups

(you can do these in sets of however many you want but the aim is to be able to complete the number in one set)

50 squat thrusts

50 burpees

50 sit ups

remember this.  in basic training its not like going to a gym where the personal trainer will give you a tailored program that ensures you get adequate rest.  you will be pushed until breaking point, your muscles will constantly be sore.  this is to give you a mental toughness that will enable you to endure hardships when you are in situations that aint too pretty.

there are fundamental differences between civilian training and army training. army training is designed to give you determination, to push your body constantly, to challenge you to constantly push your body, to work through pain and keep going.

as for running, i would suggest starting with;

time yourself on a mile and half run at maximum effort (max effort means you have nothing left at the end, if you are sick at the end that is proof that you gave it your all)

go out running every day. split your run to walk run.

2min run 2 min walk, gradually increase the running time every run, even if it is only by 5 secs every time.  aim to run for 30 to 40 mins.

running is the biggest test of mental toughness i think as you fight a constant battle with the part of you that just wants to stop and rest.

if you win that battle , you are on your way to becoming a good soldier.

good luck man.

I'm 23 too and I'm in the Marine Corps. Your weight really isn't a problem for your stamina man. I know guys that weigh 20 lbs more and run 3 miles in under 18 minutes; it's more a question of how big you would actually like to be.  I weighed 180 and ran 20 minute 3 miles; now I weigh 160 and run for the hell of it but I run between 5 and 10 miles everytime I go. 

Start off by power walking - it sounds dumb but it will be easier on your knees (lower impact) and it will build up your stamina better than jogging at slow speeds.  This is what I did before I enlisted to build up stamina; I am a hell of a sprinter but not much for a distance runner.  Don't start off by killing yourself man just ease into the sport.  When I decided to lose weight (from 180) I went straight into running 5 miles every other day with a sprint workout or recovery workout and now my knees are failing me horribly; so I started cycling which is fairly expensive.  Once you get into the weight range you feel comfortable running then give it a go; push yourself but don't hurt yourself. 

 There are a lot of good running sites with workouts etc.  My only advice is don't push yourself to the point where you have to stop running mid-route.  Pacing yourself and knowing your distance limits are a great start.  Once you start getting comfortable and your buddy gets used to the exercise then you can start throwing in training runs such as doing mid-route sprints with mid-route recovery jogs and eventually straight sprinting workouts with warm-up and cool-down jogs will increase your stamina and speed greatly.  The military has really made me run quite a bit and I didn't like it until recently when as Leeb put it; I realized that running made me look inward for the strength to push myself and I focused on that aspect rather than questioning why I'm running.  Always keep a positive out-look and even when it seems like a drag - do it anyway; you'll feel better and be proud that you did.

- Tony

Fedgerocks, he is in the UK man.  All great advice though; weight equipment is severely over-rated when compared to natural exercises.  I worked out for 2 years and couldn't seem to hurdle an 8 pullup wall.  I started rock climbing (just found a boulder to climb) and within a month I was doing 18 pull ups.  Plus, it proportioned my body a little better.

 I would agree that most people get injured on humps when compared to running.  I think it's usually because people get fatigued and don't watch where they're stepping - a lot of it is twisted ankles and hyper-extended joints.  Most of which can be avoided by paying attention.

Tony