Maintaining Muscle in Boot Camp

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

ok i have a fairly big problem at the moment.

I’ve recently had to go into military service (in singapore) and the nutrition and training that i’m being made to do seem very bad for muscle building! I would appreciate any suggestions on what i could do to stop myself losing large amounts of LBM.

NUTRITION:
I only get 3 meals a day, and sometimes a night snack (which is actually made of simple carbs!). Protein for each day is minimal with about 20g for breakfast, 40 for lunch and 40 for dinner and about 5 for night snack. Also i have been able to bring in protein powder so i’ll most probably be ahving that before i go to bed.

Since i’m only getting 3 meals i’ve been trying to eat as much as i can during these times to get as much calories as possible, these calories are usually coming from simple carbs! (white rice)

TRAINING
The training we are doing consists of alot of steady cardio. Mostly consistent running (20 mins and over). There is also some interval training, some kettle ball training and some dumbbell training (consists of a large superset (10 shoulder exercises) done in a row with 5 kg dumbbells).

There is no gym (that i can use) in the camp but there are chinup bars. In my free time i usually go and do chin-ups (my chins are weak (can only do 12) so this is good to concentrate on.) Also i do dips (only with body weight so reps go in the 20s) and pushups (if i can i get someone to sit on my back so i can do low rep work)

During the week i have to stay in camp and follow these rules, i get to book out on weekends and am able to go to the gym. I usually am only able to get 1 workout in, any suggestion on what to do in this workout?

Also sleep is a problem, because of doing my little bodyweight workout in my free time i end up getting less sleep time because of this. As a result i end up getting only about 6 hours of sleep a night.

Any suggestions on things i could do to minimize loss of muscle?

2

just a bump!

Any suggestions anyone?

So far i’ve noticed an increase in fat but not much change to my weight. I’m scared i’m gaining fat while losing muscle!

3

[quote]Dilligaf wrote:
just a bump!

Any suggestions anyone?

So far i’ve noticed an increase in fat but not much change to my weight. I’m scared i’m gaining fat while losing muscle![/quote]

Singapore army? You’re shit out of luck. While I was serving my national service I lost muscle and strength at an alarming rate. Even though I was doing push ups, pull ups all the time and sprinting all over the place, I became much worse at push ups, pull ups and sprinting. The PT programme and army gyms are undeniably crappy… They didn’t have kettlebells while I was serving, though.

All I can suggest is to bring in a ton of high calorie foods (nuts and such) when you book in, and try to snack on them as often as possible. If you are unfortunate enough to experience as much hazing as I did, don’t expect to be able to eat too much if at all. If you bring them out field, take care lest your superiors turn up such “unauthorised items”, decide to be anal and punish the entire platoon.

Good luck, and don’t worry too much about muscle loss. Plenty of youthful years for building muscle and strength left after the army is done with.

4

The only people who gain weight in Basic training are guys who were extremely underdeveloped. Most people are going to lose muscle mass. They also tend to lose any fat they have in excess, but it is by no means conducive to building muscle mass. Most people just try to reduce the damage until it is over. Trying to actually gain significant muscle under those conditions is near pointless.

5

[quote]Professor X wrote:
The only people who gain weight in Basic training are guys who were extremely underdeveloped. Most people are going to lose muscle mass. They also tend to lose any fat they have in excess, but it is by no means conducive to building muscle mass. Most people just try to reduce the damage until it is over. Trying to actually gain significant muscle under those conditions is near pointless.[/quote]

When I was younger, and just began lifting, all of my older friends who had come out of Benning claimed they had gained 20lbs, gotted ripped, and so much stronger.

Turns out this was not the case. While alot of them did get bigger/stronger, they were all undernurished and underdeveloped before hand. So in a sense, they went from shit, to suck.

Of course every claimed they had become meat heads and nuckle draggers, but that’s just how uneducated people act.

For the time being, you’re pretty much fucked. I wish you the best of luck, though.

6

ahhh fuck…thanks for all the encouraging messages :frowning:

ah well i now only have only have about 4 weeks left and hopefully after i finish basic training i’ll get more privileges and be able to start gaining again.

lol booger your exactly right about the PT programme being crappy, and i think all the PT instructors dont know anything about muscle. For example they say that the chinup with the palm facing away from you uses the triceps while only the chinup with palm facing you uses the bicep!

Also able to sneak bags of protein powder on field camp :smiley: but even so i still lost 3 kg in that week :frowning:

booger out of interest how long ago did u do national service? Were you able to start gaining weight after BMT?

sorry for the late reply BTW, there’s no internet access when i bookin and i got confined last weekend :frowning:

7

[quote]Dilligaf wrote:
ahhh fuck…thanks for all the encouraging messages :frowning:

ah well i now only have only have about 4 weeks left and hopefully after i finish basic training i’ll get more privileges and be able to start gaining again.

lol booger your exactly right about the PT programme being crappy, and i think all the PT instructors dont know anything about muscle. For example they say that the chinup with the palm facing away from you uses the triceps while only the chinup with palm facing you uses the bicep!

Also able to sneak bags of protein powder on field camp :smiley: but even so i still lost 3 kg in that week :frowning:

booger out of interest how long ago did u do national service? Were you able to start gaining weight after BMT?

sorry for the late reply BTW, there’s no internet access when i bookin and i got confined last weekend :([/quote]

I got enlisted more than 2 years ago. Whether you can gain weight after BMT all depends on which unit you will be posted to. If you’re posted to specialist or officer training, like I was, expect the weight to keep draining off.

Operational units differ in the amount of free time you get and discipline you endure, so I can’t give a definitive answer there.

Prof X’s advice was spot on. These two years of military service are, for the most part, terrible for gaining any appreciable muscle mass. Minimise the damage if you can, don’t worry too much about it, and enjoy the experience (where possible).

In the year after I disrupted from the military, I put on 13 kg with surprising ease and got back to the weight I was before enlistment, with more muscle and less fat.

How on earth did you sneak protein powder into a field camp? All the equipment inspections I experienced involved pouring everything out of our packs and webbing, then stuffing it all back in multiple times under duress =) No way a pack of protein powder would have survived or escaped notice. Ah, great times.

Good luck with the rest of your term.

8

[quote]booger wrote:
I got enlisted more than 2 years ago. Whether you can gain weight after BMT all depends on which unit you will be posted to. If you’re posted to specialist or officer training, like I was, expect the weight to keep draining off.

Operational units differ in the amount of free time you get and discipline you endure, so I can’t give a definitive answer there.

Prof X’s advice was spot on. These two years of military service are, for the most part, terrible for gaining any appreciable muscle mass. Minimise the damage if you can, don’t worry too much about it, and enjoy the experience (where possible).

In the year after I disrupted from the military, I put on 13 kg with surprising ease and got back to the weight I was before enlistment, with more muscle and less fat.

How on earth did you sneak protein powder into a field camp? All the equipment inspections I experienced involved pouring everything out of our packs and webbing, then stuffing it all back in multiple times under duress =) No way a pack of protein powder would have survived or escaped notice. Ah, great times.

Good luck with the rest of your term.[/quote]

Thanks heaps for the info booger, after BMT i was thinking of joining SAFSA rugby although before i do i was thinking of trying to complete specialists or officers training just to help my resume, but your experience has made me think of reconsidering. Were you in specialists or OCS?

Also in regards to the field camp our sergents are fairly slack and didnt check our bags as throughly as it sounds they did for you. Rather i was able to sneak bags of protein powder in by putting it inside my spare uniforms and then folding my uniform into see through zip lock bags. The sargents would only look at the zip lock bags to make sure we brought the stuff we were meant to, they didn’t bother opening them up and checking inside. Lucky me =)

I understand what you mean about not worrying to much but damn, seems like i’ll just be wasting all my previous hard work as i waste away :frowning: I was also hoping to spend these 2 years concentrating on getting bigger and bigger :cry: Haha oh well, i guess i’ll take consolation in the fact that we were able to gain all your muscle back fairly quickly.