Hi all, I’m going to basic training on July 1st and need some advice. First of all, I am enlisting in the US Army – MOS 18X (Special Forces Recruit). Now for some background: I’m 19, 5’10” 185lbs with somewhere from 15-20% bf. I am also taking M, Tribex, new Methoxy, Myostat, Surge, and of course AP. I have been training submission wrestling and mixed martial arts for the past year and played hockey through high school. The minimums on the Army physical training test is as follows: pushups 42, situps 53, and 2-mile run 15:54. The problem is, I’ve never been a runner and have always hated running with a passion, but I need to do it anyway. My 2-mile run time absolutely sucks – 18:30 but I have only done this twice in my life, the first time being 20:00. My goal is to be able to complete this two-mile run in 15:54 before July 1st, which does not give me much time. I also want to increase the quantity of pushups and situps that I can do in the allotted 2 minute period (can currently do 42 pushups and 35 full situps). I have searched the forum and read the previous basic training threads and have considered some of the training methods prescribed therein. I am now asking for some help on creating a training program for the next two weeks so that I can perform these minimums before I ship out, as one of the stipulations in my contract is that I be able to complete these minimums before going to basic. I have tentatively decided to have two training days, A and B, and repeat these back to back. Day A I will simply run two miles and try to speed up each day (I am also considering doing intervals at the desired pace as prescribed in the previous basic training threads). Day B I will do three sets alternating pushups and situps, increasing the reps in each set each day, but keeping the reps per set the same each given day. Therefore, my basic questions are these: 1) Is there a more effective way to reach my goals, and if so what is it? 2) What kind of diet should I be following? (Currently on Winning Formula diet with 500 kcal deficit - strongly considering going with a slightly hypercaloric diet instead) 3) Is there anything else that I should know that the recruiter/counselor hasn’t told me? Thanks in advance guys, can supply any other info if needed.
If you hate running don’t even bother joining
the infnatry or special forces cause thats all you’ll do (past experience) but besides that don’t worry much about your mass but build up your endurance. Belive me you don’ t want to fall out of formation with and 80lb pack
Ok, as a cross country runner, who ran 5k(3.1) miles we rarely if ever practiced and ran less than 5 miles. You should not be running 2 miles. You should be running four. Run 4 miles at a clip. four days a week. Try to run on grass to reduce the impact. You will run so much in basic so you don’t want an injury now. It will be hard to get the 4 miles at first but just concentrate on making it at firt. Don’t quit and jog the four miles. Once you are confident you can make it, then bring a stopwatch and push yourself to beat the time you made the last time if only by a few seconds. On the fifth day(friday) do a speed workout. 1 example is find a steep hill and sprint up it and jog down and repeat till you want to puke, another is phone poles, warm up and run one mile. Sprint from one telaphone pole to the next and the jog slowly to the next one and then sprint till the next ect. Take sat and sunday off from running. You do this and you should be able to run 2 miles at 14:00 or less. You have to run more than 2 miles in order to make 2 miles easy. If my team ran only 3.1 miles a day we would of not won our conference title.
As a former Green Beaner, all I can say is you gotta run. Waiting to the last two weeks before going to basic training was… The good news is that you many have until the end of basic to reach the minimum requirements. For your run, break it down into sections and do each section at the speed you want. Example (16 minute - 2 mile = 2 x 1 mile at 8 minutes, 4 x .5 miles at 4 minutes, 8 x 1/4 miles at 2 minutes) find a track and get to it. For push-ups and sit-ups do the same thing. remember they are timed and only correctly performed push-ups will count. Forget the calorie deficit. You will need the calories to build muscle. Also check out Air Force>Special Operations website lots of good training information there. Best of Luck. Let us know when you graduate basic and then airborne. They should not send you to the “Q” course right away.
Actually, I made the decision to join only about a week ago, so I didn’t know in advance that I would be leaving so soon. I had the option to wait until late August but I really didn’t want to wait that long, so I took the earlier ship date. But thanks for the advice, I will ditch the cal defecit and use those running programs as well.
BEst of Luck, Goose. Have you checked out the basic training video on the US Army website? It should give you a good idea of what you are going to do and when. The interval routine I gave you was just so you can get your pacing down. I used to practice my pus-ups and sit-ups to a metronome. Do worry about push-up the first couple of days. The DI’s play a game of running you in an out of the classrooms and dropping you for push-ups, because you are not fast enough. They do it in every army school, nothing personal. The same goes for the yelling. Finally, find out when you courses are: Basic-July 1 to Septemeber ?, Airborne-Septemeber to October, etc. Remember this is the first time in your life that you are being paid to study! Focus on the course work. The better you score the easier your time in the military will be. Once again Best of Luck.
I thought you had to have a minimum of several years in the Army and at least be a sargent before you could join Special Ops.(not Rangers, Green berets).
Was I wrong?
I wish I had known that before I chose not to join…
No advice, just a word of thanks for choosing to serve our country.
Those intervals really helped out my pacing, I actually almost broke 16:00 yesterday, I will defenitley break 16 tomorrow. Pushups already exceed the minimum and situps are about 5-6 reps away. I do in fact need to complete these minumums before I ship out, it’s part of my contract for some reason, not sure why but I suppose it is because I am enlisting at E-3 or some such reason. I am also not sure of what these dates are but in my contract it states the following: Prereq MOS (11B) at Benning, 13 weeks (7/5) - Prereq at Benning 3 weeks (10/25) - Prereq at Bragg 3 weeks (11/15) - OSUT Training at Benning 4 weeks(1/14). So what I get from that is I first get basic/infantry training followed by Airborne followed by the SF Prep Course followed by SFAS, after which I will have to make my reservation for the Q. Sounds like fun!
I’m a little confused on what you mean, Special Ops means all of the military branches elite units - seals, CCTs, rangers, sf, etc. Special Forces are the “Green Berets”, while Rangers are an entirely different type of unit. Apparently in the past, you did have to be in for several years before joining one of these Special Ops units, but my counselor and my recruiter said that recently they have added ways for people to get ranger/sf contracts from the beginning, like I did.
Thanks for the support bro!
Good for you. Have someone help you with the push-ups and sit-ups. By this I mean watch your form. For push-ups place a paperback (about the thickness of a hand between your chest and the floor) do you push-ups hitting the book and locking the arms. On sit-ups you must come all the way up! Have someone was you. If you want you can check out the TRADOC Library website, from there you can open some Field Manuals.
Once again Best of Luck.
I meant Specail forces(greb berets). A lot of people get confused between all the specops branches, they think “Green Berets” is different then Special Forces, and now that everyone is wearing a beret people wil be even more confused.
Good luck…you are doing what most people in this country would never do and take for granted, defending our freddom.
Be safe.
The Army is running a program right now (18x) that allows you to go straight into Special Forces. You go to 11B OSUT, Airborne, SOPC, SFAS, and then down the road SFQC (SOPC may be out of order). So Goose, make sure your contract says 18x on it, otherwise that isn’t what you’re doing.
As for Rangers, they are Special Operations. They are under command of the Army Special Operations Command and the US Special Operations Command. In fact, their numbers are slightly lower if not equal to the number of Special Forces. So Goose, Rangers are Special Operations in every way, they missions they conduct, how they are trained, how they are organized, what command they fall under, etc.
Thus ends today's lesson in Special Operations :)
Kick ass.
Good luck.
I spent the last month before leaving for basic training drinking my ass off. Then, at 3 in the morning on my way home from where ever I had been out at, I’d stop by the track to jog a few laps and puke. I was NEVER a runner (and still hate it today). I was 23, 5’10" and 238 lbs the day I left. Once at basic I never had a problem making time. You are not factoring in the big, black drill sargent motivation factor. At 19 and 185, as long as you have both legs you’ll make time. By the way, 10 weeks later I weighed a bean pole 176.
Goose,
The best advice I could give you is not to worry about the PT Test at this point. You’ll quickly learn that Boot & AIT is 90% mental and only 10% physical (eventhough the 10% is extremely physical). When I was at the Benning School for Boys (11 yrs ago) there were many guys who were in much worst condition then you and there was maybe a single digit percentage of guys who could pass all three facets of the PT Test when they got off the cattle truck. So don’t worry, the drill sergeants will condition to pass the PT test in as little as six weeks. At the six week mark they have a preliminary test to weed out the guys who are in horrendous shape and the final PT test isn’t until your third week of AIT. Best of Luck and HOOAAA.
K2 - Mortars Rule!
I don’t have any relevant advise but I would just like to say Thank You. GOod Luck!
I’m a former 19K and 19E, the former being a M1 abram series armor crewman, the last being a M60A3 crewman. I did my basic at Fort Knox, in an area called Disney barracks. I like you, didn’t run much and never for time or consistently. The pushups and situps were always passing–as I did do them or other similar exercises. I was a little disappointed at the Army doctrine where they easily over trained us and in fact at the final APFT in which you had to pass or be held back for another cycle–I only added 3 reps to my pushups and 5 to situps. The run however was in the low 14’s–at a 218 bodyweight. That was good enough to get me elected to the first round of Exellence in Armor (EIA) where they take the top 10% and really test this %. As for supplements, the Drill SGT. didn’t want anyone taking anything in a bottle–another platoon was allowed to lift weights–but we weren’t until the last week of OSUT. We lost 25% of our class–most to injuries! Many from running related, especially the knees and many were held back because of shin splints and other related physical stressed out activities. My advice for two weeks is to start running and on grass–so you won’t have a great big jolt to the running mechanism. Other than that, two weeks is very short to prepare as you will have to see if your body will make it–you have to go thru the system to truly understand it. Another word of wisdom–don’t tell anyone you were a submission fighter in training, or a lifting fanatic; because I guarantee you this information will be used against you. How? You will see–. Remember, this is a team effort and even if you can do a 300 APFT in your age category; it won’t be any easy on you; they’ll just tell you to do more–a never ending cycle of more and more progress. Don’t let any of this scare you–the more you know going in–the more prepared you’ll be. Good luck. You posted for your preparation and already have some concern–the odds are for you. I wonder if they have Internet available at Basic Tradoc Training sites–they didn’t at Knox, of course this was in 93.
I did basic at Fort Knox in 95. Agony, Misery, and Heartbreak. Anyway, if the Disney barracks were the ones from STRIPES, they where pretty much removed by a tornado while I was there.