Alright, my university offers an Army ROTC physical readiness course. It’s 3x a week (MWF) from 6-7:15am. I’m thinking of signing up. It’s my last semester, I only have a meager 16 credit hours (I’ve taken 18-20 for the past 3.5 years. hooray music majors), and there’s no homework–just have to show up and bust your ass. From an academic standpoint it seems okay.
from a physical standpoint: Good choice or poor choice?
I’m going to guess it’ll involve a ton of running mixed in with some other activities.
Thoughts?
Goals/info/all that crap:
6’2"
205ish
BF??? I could stand to lose some fat, that was going to be plan for the beginning of next year anyway.
Currently training with WS4SB III.
Yep, I imagine the course will center around running, with lots of push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups thrown in. Add some team endurance work like carrying logs, and you’re good to go.
If your goal is fat loss and endurance acquisition, you probably couldn’t go wrong with this course. The potential downsides, as I seem them, are:
-getting up early in the morning to exercise. Not all people will have the oomph to make that commitment.
-your weight lifting may be adversely effected by the course. That is to say, you may be too tired and sore, at least for a bit, to do intensive weight lifting.
-if you’re able to do the course and gym train as well, you’ll be at a heightened susceptibility for over-training.
Even with those potential downsides in view, I think you should do the prep course. It’d be a fresh perspective on exercise, it’d give you a tiny glimpse into military prep, and you’d most likely reach your goal of fat loss. So long as you can get up and out there each morning, it’d probably be an interesting way to spend your last semester in school.
From my perspective, military PT is mostly a waist of time. It will be geared towards an average level of fitness. It is based off of old fashion (not to be confused with old school) principles and methods are outdated. Through years of practice, it has perfected the art of taking any fun out of a workout.
If you are leaning towards a military future, than great, any exposure is good. If not, it may be counterproductive. You already know how to run, do pushups, pullups and situps. Take another class, learn something new.
You positive you can take the class? At Minnesota you used to have to be in the program. I’d say go for it - it’s only three months and it’s something new.
[quote]TriednTrue wrote:
So long as you can get up and out there each morning, it’d probably be an interesting way to spend your last semester in school.[/quote]
Well, pseudo last semester. I’m graduating with a bachelor of music, which is pretty much good for going to get a masters of and doctorate of music. I’ll be in school for a few more (5-6) years.
Thanks for the comments. I was leaning the same way. I’ll still be lifting, obviously–but it might have to drop down to justworking on strength to maintain/slightly increase muscle mass. Which is what happens during a fat loss phase anyway.
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
You positive you can take the class? At Minnesota you used to have to be in the program. I’d say go for it - it’s only three months and it’s something new.[/quote]
Yeah, no Army ROTC participation or otherwise connection with the army required. I go to a small school, 5-6k, so they probably just need people.
Jeebus,
They give credits out for anything these days. When I went through ROTC, we were required to go to PT 3x a week. It was a decent workout with the goal of getting everyone up to a 275 score on the PT test, but, like BM said, unless you’re going into the military, it’s probably a waste of time. A lot of it will likely be spent on doing Army exercises in formation.
Hell, sign up for it and go for the first week and see if you like it. Personally, I can think of better things to be doing at 6 AM in college.
I took lessons from him for a couple of years…he’s pretty good and has helped a lot of guys actually make money from music…not sure what instrument you play…was assuming guitar…as…um…why would you want to play anything else…except maybe the bag pipes…
I agree with bulldogmedic. I’ve been in for my share of years, and can assure you that the military (the Army especially) has perfected the art of leeching all possible fun out of physical training.
You will NOT get stronger.
You will be tired.
You will get a grade that will directly reflect your initial score (level of “fitness”) vs your subsequent score and the maintenance of it (the final score).
I had to design a program for a bunch of cadets to follow a couple of years back for a course like this. You would not believe how much better results were when I took all the old fashioned “military” crap out of training and gave it a new school make-over.
I’d avoid this course like the plague unless you were interested in joining the military.
I took lessons from him for a couple of years…he’s pretty good and has helped a lot of guys actually make money from music…not sure what instrument you play…was assuming guitar…as…um…why would you want to play anything else…except maybe the bag pipes…
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I’ve checked Tom Hess’ website out before. He knows what he’s doing. I’m actually more interested in going on to graduate school with the eventual goal of teaching at a college level. I did the academic aspect of guitar as I play chiefly classical guitar. I’m also interested in music theory and the pedagogy behind guitar–it’s a very “young” instrument compared to piano or violin, so researching the most effective means of teaching is pretty interesting.
[quote]Contrl wrote:
I agree with bulldogmedic. I’ve been in for my share of years, and can assure you that the military (the Army especially) has perfected the art of leeching all possible fun out of physical training.
You will NOT get stronger.
You will be tired.
You will get a grade that will directly reflect your initial score (level of “fitness”) vs your subsequent score and the maintenance of it (the final score).
I had to design a program for a bunch of cadets to follow a couple of years back for a course like this. You would not believe how much better results were when I took all the old fashioned “military” crap out of training and gave it a new school make-over.
I’d avoid this course like the plague unless you were interested in joining the military.[/quote]
Thanks for the heads up. I’m not interested in joining the military, so there you go.