Hey guys I’m new and I’ve read a lot of great articles off this site and I was wondering if you guys could help me out.
I’m 19 years old, 6’2, 228 lbs. BF percentage probably 22-24%. I am shipping out to Marine Corps boot camp in early February. I have been training for about a month already.
To get into boot camp, the requirements are as follows
Pullups-2
Crunches-44 in two minutes
1.5 mile run- <13:00 mins
As of yesterday, I am at
Pullups-0 (never been able to do them)
Crunches-38
1.5 mile run- 13:30
The running has obviously helped a lot but I still need to drop some weight and gain a lot of strength.
I’ve read up a lot on nutrition and I’ve been loosely sticking to it. I know I need to get stricter in that area.
Is there any workouts/supplements/etc that you guys could reccomend that could get me to where I want to be within that time?
keep doing pullups no matter if you can’t do any. one day you’ll lift up a couple inches, soon after, you’ll go up a couple moer. the more you do it, the more efficient you’ll become at them.
also, try negatives for the pullups. step up to the bar, then lower yourself down. it will still activate the muscles you need to do the exercise.
one option supplementation-wise is possibly a stimulant such as caffeine (some coffee or tab) or something like spike. a little intensity can go a long way.
So after doing some more research I think I may do the velocity diet with the workout program and everything and maybe just put some extra emphasis on bicep/back excercises to improve my pull ups.
Okay so I have a question about the velocity diet. According to the article, the cardio portion should only be low-moderate intensity walking 7 days a week.
I’d like to increase my run time along with the other things and I know the walking is geared toward minimal muscle loss but can I still do my long runs (3-6 miles) without severely inhibiting my progress?
Needless to say it doesnt look like I’ll be continuing it.
I took the Hot Roxx in the morning and 7 hours later in the after noon. 10 servings of protein shakes mixed in with 8 servings of flax seeds (values modified from the original to fit my caloric needs). 10 or so capsules of 1000mg of fish oil.
Around four or five a pounding headache developed. I was sweating a lot and had to cancel all my plans for the night. It ended until I fell asleep.
Today I woke up fine, took the Hot Roxx, multivitamin, fish oil, and a shake. I did a few warmup excercises and the pounding headache developed again.
I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was dangerously high with a very low blood sugar. My doctor said to discontinue the Hot Roxx and add some healthy carbs to my diet and eat some fruit to maintain blood sugar levels.
From here I’ll continue the shakes but maybe replace a couple of them with healthy meals. No more Hot Roxx either.
I’m not downtalking the Velocity Diet as I’ve seen the results that its had for other people, it just seems that my body doesn’t react well to it and it wont be healthy to continue it.
I’ve been in the military for about a year and a half (Canadian Forces) and quite honestly, I wouldn’t focus so much on losing weight as much as just getting stronger and getting your cardio up, when heading to basic training.
Some of my instructors on basic had a belly, but I’ll be damned if they couldn’t outrun all of us, and generally kick our asses when it came to physical fitness.
Now, I know losing fat and getting in shape go hand in hand, but don’t go on a massively restricted diet like the V-Diet. You need to work out a LOT to get in the best shape possible, and doing that on a very low-calorie diet just isn’t possible.
In short, you need to run A LOT, do lots of pushups, situps, pullups and other bodyweight exercises, and focus on being strong and fast, not lean–that will come in time. If you need a specific program, look up Stewart Smith. He’s a former Navy SEAL and now he’s a personal trainer, and he has some military-oriented workouts available for free online. I can’t promise anything, but it’s helped me.
With all that being said, good luck at boot camp, and I hope you have a fun career.
Now listen here fatbody, I am in officer training for the Army. You are in some really sorry shape there. Maybe that is why they stress to us that we must be in better physical shape than any lowly enlisted person. This just reaffirms my belief that enlisted are weak and that is why you need people telling you what to do.
First things first you must lean out and learn to run atleast to the point where it looks more like a run and less like a walk. Second, get some upper body strength. Third, strive to be the best not the minimum.
In regards to the Canadian forces. A perfect way to characterize you guys is image you present with the instructor with the belly. You are weak and should not in any way be compared to the United States military. Plus just to let you know that Sargeant earned that belly a fatbody private has not.
In reference to Full Metal Jacket I guess the Corps don’t get theirs.
Hey dude I’m also training for boot camp. What you’re training for is just the Initial Strength Test and that’s the very easy part. Go to your nearest recruiting station I think they’ll help you out. But you got to pass this part quickly because the real training is how to make boot camp easier
I don’t have any intention to turn this into a pissing contest, because, frankly, it’s useless. I just figured, let’s help out this young guy who’s trying to get into the Marines. Who knows, maybe if he puts his mind to it he’ll be a fine Marine and will go far.
I guess you’d rather just tell him how bad he is, and not help him, uh? Is that what they teach officers down there, belittling enlisted men?
I’m 5’10" 205lb, used to be 240. I had to drop weight just to get into the military. Took me a few a months but I did it and I’m a pencil necked geek.(working on changing that though). I’m also weak.
pushups:30
pullups:5
curl-ups:36
1.5 mile:13:10 (it’s been a while since I tested and acorrding to the elliptical wich has given higher times in the past is down to 12:30). RTC in Feb. as well.
For pullups I suggest doing ten second negatives until you just drop in two seconds(failure). And every training day test to see if you can get a full rep in. I also suggest buying a heart-rate moniter and working at 70-80% of max for 30-45min. twice a day on non-training days. You’ll lose weight and get your endurance up. Don’t forget to sleep, I found training really hard my sleep needs went up.
You’re going to make a 1SG’s day showing up at a unit with that kind of attitude. I feel sorry for the unit/platoon you will be assigned to.
[quote]t3hcho53non3 wrote:
Now listen here fatbody, I am in officer training for the Army. You are in some really sorry shape there. Maybe that is why they stress to us that we must be in better physical shape than any lowly enlisted person. This just reaffirms my belief that enlisted are weak and that is why you need people telling you what to do.
[/quote]
hey t3h…whatever, you sound clueless. I suppose you don’t realize that the backbone of the military is an enlisted man/woman with a rifle. It’s pretty funny that officers are TRAINED by enlisted personnel. I suppose if you are ever unlucky enough to actually go into combat, your view of enlisted men and women will change, especially if they carry your sorry- condescending-ass off the field of battle. You have much to learn about being a leader, it is truly earned, not just bestowed on you because you are a college-graduate and have a shiny little metal emblem on your lapel. Frankly, your views on enlisted folks is so asinine I believe you’re probably a troll instead of an officer candidate. Sign me…Ex Jarhead, oh yeah, you took a jab at the USMC too. Fool, and that is all.
[quote]sibellius wrote:
Hey guys I’m new and I’ve read a lot of great articles off this site and I was wondering if you guys could help me out.
I’m 19 years old, 6’2, 228 lbs. BF percentage probably 22-24%. I am shipping out to Marine Corps boot camp in early February. I have been training for about a month already.
To get into boot camp, the requirements are as follows
Pullups-2
Crunches-44 in two minutes
1.5 mile run- <13:00 mins
As of yesterday, I am at
Pullups-0 (never been able to do them)
Crunches-38
1.5 mile run- 13:30
The running has obviously helped a lot but I still need to drop some weight and gain a lot of strength.
I’ve read up a lot on nutrition and I’ve been loosely sticking to it. I know I need to get stricter in that area.
Is there any workouts/supplements/etc that you guys could reccomend that could get me to where I want to be within that time?[/quote]
Aight,
Read these Articles:
How to get started iof you cant do 1 pullup: (It’s written for women but can be applied just as easily to men:
Max the USMC pullup test:
Goto www.crossfit.com and start doing the WOD (xfit haters quit your hating, crossfit is not just the WOD, but it helps alot for people trying to get into good overall shape)
If you can’t do a WOD as perscribed goto www.brandxmartialarts.com
On Pullups-
Your recruiter should be able to hook you up with a free gym membership till you ship out. There should be a Y or something similar close to the recruiting station where you can go and train. Once you get to the gym, see if they got a graviton machine and/or bands to assist you in your pullups.
Find yourself an excercise partner that can help you with the pullups and push you on when you’re slacking.
If you got trees, basketball goals or sturdy doors near by, use them and start doing eccentric pullups (jump up and try to lower yourself as slowly as possible).
Do GTG (Grease The Groove), basically you try to get as much work done while staying as fresh as possible. That means you go out there (wherever you got something to hold onto do some eccentrics) and do a couple of sets or reps.
Lets say you can only do 3 eccentrics with good form, after the 3rd one you start going down to fast, that means you do 1 maybe 2 eccentrics for GTG.
Give yourself alot of rest inbetween, you dont wanna wear yourself out, you might think that you’re slacking but you’re not, go out there and do atleast 5 GTG sessions a day with 3-5 sets, be consistent and you’ll rack up a lot of pullups over the course of the day.
If you got some money for a one of those pullups bars that goes in the doorframe get it! Place the bar somewhere in the house where you go often. Every time you pass under the bar knock out a couple of pullups.
With most people their grip goes out way before their ellbow extensors, back or arms gove out, so work tour grip, with KOCs, platepinches, DLs etc.
GTG article:
Do the same thing for you situps, GTG that is.
Read all of Stew Smiths articles, this man knows what he’s talking about when it comes to getting into “military shape”. Pay extra attentiion to the articles dealing with the PFT. http://www.stewsmith.com/stewsmithlinks.htm
Dont do to much lifting, you should be focusing on bodyweight excercises. The only time youll be touching a weight in bootcamp is to do some barbell curls and stepups, and thats maybe 3 or 4 times in 14 weeks, so dont sweat the lifting.
On GPP-
Now, once you get quarterdecked aka IT’d (Intensive Trtaining), the Drill Instructors will have you doing a couple of things:
Mountain Climbers
Mountain Jumpers
Prone Flutter Kicks
Situps
Pushups
Lying Legraises
Burpees
High Knees (Run in place)
Side Straddle Hops (Jumping Jacks)
You’ll be doing alot of dips off your footlocker aswell, so work on that too.
To get ready for beeing quarterdecked, you want to start doing these excercises in circuit or interval session. Tabata burpees are a killer and you can bet your ass that you’ll be losing some weight.
On Running-
You’ll be doping alot of running in bootcamp, not just for PT. You will be running/sprinting wherever you are to go as fast as humanly possible at all times (nomatter how fast you go it wont be fast enough for your Drill Instructors (= )
Start doing 25-50m Windsprints or shuttleruns.
Get yourself some good running shoes and do some long distance running every 2-3 days.
Good luck with you training, don’t worryabout the soon the be butter bar up there, that stereotyping elitist attitude doesnt help so ignore it.
Be consistent with your training, adapt and overcome and you’ll be good to go.
If you got any question feel free to ask.
Oh, one more thing, dont ever settle for the bare minimum, if you need 3 pullups to pass the IST shoot for the 20max, the more effort you put into training now the less you’ll suffer once your in boot. If you show alot of fortitude and motivation you might end up E-2 or even E-3 (If you make guide).
[quote]SickDevildog wrote:
sibellius wrote:
Hey guys I’m new and I’ve read a lot of great articles off this site and I was wondering if you guys could help me out.
I’m 19 years old, 6’2, 228 lbs. BF percentage probably 22-24%. I am shipping out to Marine Corps boot camp in early February. I have been training for about a month already.
To get into boot camp, the requirements are as follows
Pullups-2
Crunches-44 in two minutes
1.5 mile run- <13:00 mins
As of yesterday, I am at
Pullups-0 (never been able to do them)
Crunches-38
1.5 mile run- 13:30
The running has obviously helped a lot but I still need to drop some weight and gain a lot of strength.
I’ve read up a lot on nutrition and I’ve been loosely sticking to it. I know I need to get stricter in that area.
Is there any workouts/supplements/etc that you guys could reccomend that could get me to where I want to be within that time?
Aight,
Read these Articles:
How to get started iof you cant do 1 pullup: (It’s written for women but can be applied just as easily to men:
Max the USMC pullup test:
Goto www.crossfit.com and start doing the WOD (xfit haters quit your hating, crossfit is not just the WOD, but it helps alot for people trying to get into good overall shape)
If you can’t do a WOD as perscribed goto www.brandxmartialarts.com
On Pullups-
Your recruiter should be able to hook you up with a free gym membership till you ship out. There should be a Y or something similar close to the recruiting station where you can go and train. Once you get to the gym, see if they got a graviton machine and/or bands to assist you in your pullups.
Find yourself an excercise partner that can help you with the pullups and push you on when you’re slacking.
If you got trees, basketball goals or sturdy doors near by, use them and start doing eccentric pullups (jump up and try to lower yourself as slowly as possible).
Do GTG (Grease The Groove), basically you try to get as much work done while staying as fresh as possible. That means you go out there (wherever you got something to hold onto do some eccentrics) and do a couple of sets or reps.
Lets say you can only do 3 eccentrics with good form, after the 3rd one you start going down to fast, that means you do 1 maybe 2 eccentrics for GTG.
Give yourself alot of rest inbetween, you dont wanna wear yourself out, you might think that you’re slacking but you’re not, go out there and do atleast 5 GTG sessions a day with 3-5 sets, be consistent and you’ll rack up a lot of pullups over the course of the day.
If you got some money for a one of those pullups bars that goes in the doorframe get it! Place the bar somewhere in the house where you go often. Every time you pass under the bar knock out a couple of pullups.
With most people their grip goes out way before their ellbow extensors, back or arms gove out, so work tour grip, with KOCs, platepinches, DLs etc.
GTG article:
Do the same thing for you situps, GTG that is.
Read all of Stew Smiths articles, this man knows what he’s talking about when it comes to getting into “military shape”. Pay extra attentiion to the articles dealing with the PFT. http://www.stewsmith.com/stewsmithlinks.htm
Dont do to much lifting, you should be focusing on bodyweight excercises. The only time youll be touching a weight in bootcamp is to do some barbell curls and stepups, and thats maybe 3 or 4 times in 14 weeks, so dont sweat the lifting.
On GPP-
Now, once you get quarterdecked aka IT’d (Intensive Trtaining), the Drill Instructors will have you doing a couple of things:
Mountain Climbers
Mountain Jumpers
Prone Flutter Kicks
Situps
Pushups
Lying Legraises
Burpees
High Knees (Run in place)
Side Straddle Hops (Jumping Jacks)
You’ll be doing alot of dips off your footlocker aswell, so work on that too.
To get ready for beeing quarterdecked, you want to start doing these excercises in circuit or interval session. Tabata burpees are a killer and you can bet your ass that you’ll be losing some weight.
On Running-
You’ll be doping alot of running in bootcamp, not just for PT. You will be running/sprinting wherever you are to go as fast as humanly possible at all times (nomatter how fast you go it wont be fast enough for your Drill Instructors (= )
Start doing 25-50m Windsprints or shuttleruns.
Get yourself some good running shoes and do some long distance running every 2-3 days.
Good luck with you training, don’t worryabout the soon the be butter bar up there, that stereotyping elitist attitude doesnt help so ignore it.
Be consistent with your training, adapt and overcome and you’ll be good to go.
If you got any question feel free to ask.
Oh, one more thing, dont ever settle for the bare minimum, if you need 3 pullups to pass the IST shoot for the 20max, the more effort you put into training now the less you’ll suffer once your in boot. If you show alot of fortitude and motivation you might end up E-2 or even E-3 (If you make guide).
Semper Fi[/quote]
This is the only post you need to read. You, as a noob, shouldn’t be worrying about suppliments and extreme diets. There is no magic pill that will make you lose 30 lbs. in two weeks. Read this post again, go look up Chris Shugart’s writings on diet and nutrition (especially the FFB articles) and, for God’s sake, get off the couch. 1.5 miles in 13:00? Should be a piece of cake.
Thanks everyone for all the advice, especially Devildog for taking the time to find and write out all the information for me. I visited every site there and took all your suggestions and made a plan to stick to for the next 12 weeks.
Currently I’m at 222 lbs down from 234 when I weighed in at the processing station a couple months ago.
I’ve been running a lot and I’ll do a timed one tonight to see where I’m at.
I’m eating healthy but I know I need to get stricter with it.
I know I have the heart to get to where I want to be. I’m not worried about not getting through boot camp, I just want to be prepared as I can be.
The elitist attitude doesn’t bother me and its something I’ll have to get used to and learn to handle anyway. I wish the guy good luck in his officer training as its where I’d like to be in a few years when I get my degree.
SickDevilDog’s post is very good. Definately try and do more than the minimum. You should shoot for more than the maximum. I wnt in doing 25 pull ups, 123 sit us, and an 18:25 3 mile.(the run always got me) and was made guide the day we did our first PFT.
It also helps to get with another Marine now and learn some of the basics. How to salute. How to left face, right face, about face. If you can get a hold of a rilfe, learn some rifle manual. Again, do it with a Marine who knows Marine rifle manual.
Then, when you get there, don’t be cocky, just act like you’re picking it up quickly. Watch “Full Metal Jacket” to pick up on the way that recruits are required to speak. It is all in third person, with sir being the first and last thing out of your mouth.
I saw more people hitting the deck because they screwed that up more than any thing else. I prepared like crazy, but nothing prepares you for the mental shock, however, these things can make the first few weeks go a lot smoother.
I tried Stew Smiths plan but I stopped dropping weight after 3 weeks and I was only getting 1800cal(I weighed 222lbs, yes I used a journal to track cal intake) a day. I had to add some heavy leg work to start dropping again. Then again I could have been doing something wrong. Not sure what though. Any ideas?