I don’t consider them restricting. I see them as goals. If you reach the goal then you strive to redefine the standard.
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Interesting, that’s really like the polar opposite of what I’m used to.
Kind of funny really, especially the difference in our gyms
You know, the gym I train at is not exactly a million dollar place. It’s small and gritty and somebody left blood on the EZ-curl bar again and why won’t anybody flush the goddamn toilet.
I feel that if I trained in a similar atmosphere as you do, maybe I’d like the formulas too
Really? I know plenty. I’m 6’4" myself and usually I’m not even the tallest guy in there
Granted, not all of those who are in the gym are passionate about it, but I know a lot of those too
If he is easily annoyed asking that could be bad for your physical well-being
If you look at the link from my last post you see what I’d consider a great natural physique. The dude is also strong as hell.
He has squatted 405 for 20 reps, close grip benched 365 for 6 and overhead pressed 225 for 4, for example (and this guy is probably as explosive as it gets, when he could pull 475 for a single on deadlift, his best rep PR was 4 with 315, if that’s not insane, what is?)
I’m telling you this to show that natural guys can be strong as hell (and quite big too), so it’s very possible that the guy is natural and has just trained his ass off
That kind of mindset I can agree with
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General life update (okay well, this one is all about training and dieting)
Diet: Day 36
I was supposed to refeed on this day, but as I mentioned I’m going to try to push it a bit further this time.
I’m feeling good at the moment, depleted for sure, but still good.
Lately I’ve been tinkering with my conditioning/cardio work, trying new stuff.
I’ll give you a runtrough of what I’m doing at the moment
Split is the same as it was (push/pull/legs, 2 on 1 off) and I’m still doing “regular” cardio on off days and push days.
What I’ve changed is that I’ve added hillsprints on leg days (nothing really serious, just 10-15 ~50 meter sprints).
In addition to that I’ve really been liking doing GPP work with my girlfriend - quite literally. What I do is I carry her on my shoulders for as long as I can on pull days after training. She only weights about 140 pounds so in addition to having her on my back I’m carrying bags in my hands, and let me tell you, this fries your whole traps, from top to bottom. (I get a nice neck pump as well)
So yeah, not much has changed training wise.
Also my diet has stayed exactly the same for the whole duration of this diet, and that’s quite nice if you ask me.
I’m finally starting to get my head straight about the way I’m going to lay out my next block of training, but it’ll take me some more time. Man, do I want to get on to adding some serious mass (sadly I can’t really do that for the next ~12 months, I’m gonna be in a hurry if I don’t want to lose the challenge about competing)
Why not?
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I’m off to the army in ~five weeks and I’ll spend 9-12 months there
If I tried to really put on mass there it would most likely be really difficult
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Whaaaat! I didn’t know that! And you haven’t started running consistently?? Dude, you so don’t want to get shin splints or feet/ankle problems from not acclimatising yourself to regular runs and rucks…
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Can my GPP work (carrying heavy-ish bags while having my girlfriend on my shoulders and going for distance) be called rucking?
If not, yeah, I haven’t done too much
If I remember correctly you are going to join the Aussie air force(?)
So you probably have some information on what they are looking for in the army (I haven’t gotten around to looking into that myself, I admit I’m lazy)
Could you throw me a couple of standards for whatever they want to see in the army?
Say, rucking, running, pushups etc
That way I could see what I need to improve on (granted, five weeks isn’t too much but I’ll get something done)
Oh yeah, thanks for caring!
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Not unless you carry her for 3-5km 
Sure am!
Well of course every country is different with the specs but my standards are -
2.4km (1.5mile) run in 12min
25Push-ups
60 Sit-ups
30second Flexed arm hang (top position of chin ups)
8 on Beep test
If anything, I would start running a couple times a week to acclimatise your feet, ankles and shins to repeated impact of the enevitable jogging your likely to experience.
No problem mate!
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That’s cool
I’d imagine it’s pretty hard too
I don’t think they are too different from one and other, but I don’t have anything to prove my beliefs
These two I’ve actually tried quite recently (although the run was after training legs and the pushups were done just after finishing push session)
I ran a bit over 3000m in 12 minutes, so I think I’m good to go there
And I lost count of pushups at around 50 in a row, I probably ended up around 75 or so
These I haven’t tried, I’d imagine the flexed arm hang won’t be a problem as I can do 25-30 chinups on any given day, but I have no idea of the rest
I’d imagine this is the most important thing for me, luckily I’m a lot lighter now than I usually am so the amount of stress is a bit smaller
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Well physically it looks like you won’t have an issue. My biggest concern was just injuries from running and obstacle courses. I am spending these few months leading up to basic training just trying to injury proof myself.
I’m not so worried though as I’ve never really injured myself too badly. Generally pretty resilient when it comes to that and illness.
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As far as I remember I’ve had one real injury (fell and messed up my shoulder) but apart from that, no injuries and I’m really pretty much never sick
So in that regard we are quite similar
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Hey brother,
I joined the military when I was still pretty actively powerlifting. Bigger boy back then, about 235 at 5’10 (no, not lean). I’ll say this, you want to start running yesterday. Seriously, you will run and run and run, it pays to be good at it. Condition yourself to do it well, because running injuries like shin splints or runners knee will cripple you if you go from not running at all to a military type standard.
My command is a bit different, not sure what yours is, but for us the minimum requirements are
1.5 mile in 10:30
50 push-ups in two minutes (don’t cheat the form, they won’t count)
65 crunches in two minutes
Note that those are the minimums. You want to be competitive, I’d recommend
1.5 mile in 9:30 or lower
85+ push-ups
101 crunches (max for us, kinda expected)
Weights don’t matter in the military. Well, they do; being strong has helped me a ton, but they aren’t all that important during training. I never touched a barbell during my training, but I sure as hell ran a lot. It’s a different kind of athleticism, very possible to be strong and an endurance athlete if you train for it, but don’t expect to just show up and be good.
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Obstacle course scares the crap out of me. Tore my patella tendon a few months back on the o-course. I didn’t even mess up, the damn rope I was climbing just snapped on me. Luckily I wasn’t too too high up but still, messed my knee up pretty good
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I’d imagine so, whelp, gotta start running right now
Oh man, I’m always up for a competition
That being said, I’m gonna try to push these even further
I’m used to starting from the bottom, and if I do get cocky I’ll just get the much needed slap in the face there
That sounds nasty
Haha, it wasn’t exactly pleasant. Dislocated my shoulder a week later, so been feeling fairly crippled the last few weeks.
Also, pt standards should differ pretty wildly depending on what your trying to do. I’ve been part of groups where i hit a 9:00 1.5 mile, 100 push-ups, 20 pulls, and max crunches, and no one thought I was in exceptionally good shape, and been part of others where running a 9:45 (I hate running, so I only get fast when I’m about to go through testing haha) seems fast as hell. More infantry/spec ops/eod are gonna have higher standards that supply or logistics (not shitting on supply or logistics, just saying they have different jobs)
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Jesus
Well, on a positive side I’d guess that builds character
Honestly speaking I haven’t even thought of what I’ll do yet
I’ll be assigned a few weeks after I get there and I don’t need to be sure about anything before that (but I really should have an idea already)
But I’d guess being in best possible shape I can is always a positive thing
Builds character? Haha well I suppose that’s one way to look at it. I think it just builds fat more than anything.
As far as a career, my advice is to take a hard look at your strengths and weaknesses, and see what job is best suited to your talents. I take it your going the enlisted route?
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Actually it’s just the mandatory military service here
As far as considering strengths and weaknesses.. Let’s think (Briefly at the moment, I could elaborate if someone is interested for some reason)
My biggest weakness would probably be the lack of real attention span if I’m not passionate about what I’m doing
So basically if I’m doing something I don’t like, I don’t put too much though into it (of course I do it if I have to, but the results are not spectacular)
A neutral thing could be the fact that I’m big (as in I’m tall, 6’4" at the moment) so I’m not too agile and I’m easy to spot (in some cases I’d imagine that could be a positive thing)
The plus side of being tall is the intimidation factor, although that’s probably quite useless in army
A strength of mine would be that I know how to push people (and I’ve been told that I’m a naturally good leader) but that alone doesn’t really get me too far.
One job I’m truly interested by is the military police, if I like it I could even become a leader (I can’t recall the official title now) there
What are your thoughts?
I wasn’t aware that you all had mandatory military service. Probably should have checked up on. Still, it’s a good experience for every man, you should absolutely make the most of it.
Now, take in mind that all my experience is with the American Armed forces, myself going the Officer route, and my family consisting of mainly Marine Corps Enlisted infantry guys.
Your height is meaningless. Your not too tall for any jobs, so all positions should be open. Body weight stuff may be a bit harder for ya, but I’ve worked with several 6’4+ SEALS, so it easily can be done.
Now for the attention deficit, address this. Lots of men are the same, use it to your advantage. Don’t get stuck doing a technical role if it’s not something that engages you, because if you struggle with focusing on something you don’t enjoy, you will hate your life. So I’d advise a job that focuses on people, or on problem solving; which is honestly the best part of the military anyway.
Now, being able to push people is huge. I can stress the importance of this. Leadership within the senior ranks can make or break a unit. That skill will carry you far wherever you go, but I’d highly recommend looking for a role that has you working daily with others.
Military police. Very hit or miss. I know some who are absolutely amazing individuals, would be a great group to work with. Others who are egotistical little assholes who relish the opportunity to boss around someone of higher rank. Know that as a MP you would deal with a lot of daily BS from the worst the military has to offer, but also do a lot of good helping people out. Pros and Cons, but I have nothing but respect for a good MP
Other hands on, entertaining, and challenging people oriented jobs include: Infantry, Intelligence, Communications, Infantry, Artillery, Armor, Infantry, and Logistics.
Also, and I’m sure this is mentioned somewhere but I don’t know where, where are you from? I’m guessing Northern Europe from your English and your height.
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Your guess is correct, I’m from Finland
That’s the plan, if I went to the army with a negative attitude it would probably feel like eternity
That’s good to hear, for some reason I had the thought that I may not be able to go for certain positions
I’d imagine so
I’ll keep this in mind when I’m choosing the jobs. I’ll have to look into the options sometimes soon
I’ll try to make good use of it
I’d like to fall into that first group, but as I haven’t been in such situation before I don’t know what kind of impact it’ll have on me (you know, some people change completely when they are put in a unfamiliar situation)
Helping people out is something I really like doing, as far as dealing with the bullshit, I can manage, to a certain extent (but I’d think that’s the case with everyone)
I’ll look into those as well, thanks!
(And thanks for taking the time to write such post, it helped a lot!)