Military PT

[hoplite]

I have not been in the military. When I speak to my friends they say they ran and did push ups forever. The overweight guys seem tend to come back in great shape having lost weight and the skinny kids seem to have added muscle.


It seems ( to my limited knowledge) that military over trains. But it seems to work.

For those who have been there are at least know more than I do can you please enlighten me.

Thanks,


Hoplite

[theatrain]

Like you found out in your other post, pushups alone aren't going to do much. Those overweight guys come back having lost a lot of weight because its a COMPLETLEY DIFFERNT lifestyle

Those people don't have access to the fast food joints that surround them at home, they also do a lot of cardio and pushups aren't the only bodyweight exercise they do pullups and lots of other stuff. Its not the drop down and give me 20 shit u see on TV.

To put it simply, there is easy way out.

Your body needs a reason to grow and if your doing easy exercises the muscles are not being challenged

[wildstang]

Originally Posted by hoplite

I have not been in the military. When I speak to my friends they say they ran and did push ups forever. The overweight guys seem tend to come back in great shape having lost weight and the skinny kids seem to have added muscle.


It seems ( to my limited knowledge) that military over trains. But it seems to work.

For those who have been there are at least know more than I do can you please enlighten me.

Thanks,


Hoplite

to answer your question about overtraining, its not as if your using weights. you work with your own body weight in calastenics, and such. every thing done in bootcamp is designed to work the whole body. reason why we are in shape in the millitary is we are worked from day one to the time your discharged.
the couch potato in a person is quickly worked out of your ass!

[cujo-1]

i know bootcamp packed 20 pounds of muscle on me. its all diet and shit loads of pt!

[falconfootball]

Originally Posted by cujo-1

i know bootcamp packed 20 pounds of muscle on me. its all diet and shit loads of pt!

I've heard this before from a few marines. They went in skin and bones, and came out stronger and bulkier. Others who went in over weight, came out of boot camp leaner.

As mentioned before, it's a completely different lifestyle. Sleeping only a few hours a day, constant activity, and controlled diet all add up to a different body.

It really depends on what kind of PT they throw at you, how well you're fed, and how much sleep you get.

And seeing how your going though 'boot camp' or basic training, chances are you're gunna get at most 6 hours a night, plus whatever you get when you fall asleep in lectures. Also, if your lucky enough to be on base where there are real army cooks by trade, then your diet will be better than at a place where meals are provided by a low budget catering service. More sloppy-joes anyone?

A good 70% of the actual training a soldier-in-the-making is designed to wear them down. Extensive amounts of push ups and running can only go so far to produce significant gains. The other 30% is whatever your own body is able to gain from the different exercises they put you though. This ratio is by no means official. This is entirely based upon my own experiences.

This isnt all to say that the military isnt a good sourse of training. But one must note that thier training methods are job specific. If they wanted you to be able to bench 300+, then the platoon would spend its PT time in the weight room.

- Cpl. TYN MAN

[TYN MAN]

It really depends on what kind of PT they throw at you, how well you're fed, and how much sleep you get.

And seeing how your going though 'boot camp' or basic training, chances are you're gunna get at most 6 hours a night, plus whatever you get when you fall asleep in lectures. Also, if your lucky enough to be on base where there are real army cooks by trade, then your diet will be better than at a place where meals are provided by a low budget catering service. More sloppy-joes anyone?

A good 70% of the actual training a soldier-in-the-making is designed to wear them down. Extensive amounts of push ups and running can only go so far to produce significant gains. The other 30% is whatever your own body is able to gain from the different exercises they put you though. This ratio is by no means official. This is entirely based upon my own experiences.

This isnt all to say that the military isnt a good sourse of training. But one must note that thier training methods are job specific. If they wanted you to be able to bench 300+, then the platoon would spend its PT time in the weight room.

- Cpl. TYN MAN

[ckn]

Originally Posted by TYN MAN

It really depends on what kind of PT they throw at you, how well you're fed, and how much sleep you get.

And seeing how your going though 'boot camp' or basic training, chances are you're gunna get at most 6 hours a night, plus whatever you get when you fall asleep in lectures. Also, if your lucky enough to be on base where there are real army cooks by trade, then your diet will be better than at a place where meals are provided by a low budget catering service. More sloppy-joes anyone?

A good 70% of the actual training a soldier-in-the-making is designed to wear them down. Extensive amounts of push ups and running can only go so far to produce significant gains. The other 30% is whatever your own body is able to gain from the different exercises they put you though. This ratio is by no means official. This is entirely based upon my own experiences.

This isnt all to say that the military isnt a good sourse of training. But one must note that thier training methods are job specific. If they wanted you to be able to bench 300+, then the platoon would spend its PT time in the weight room.

- Cpl. TYN MAN

Missed this thread the first time round but since it's been necro'ed I'll stick my opinion in.

I had a very long chat about training with the then British Army head of recruit training at a training depot just before I left in 1995. There is a solid and well proven plan for training, it's not just to break people and get them fit. Army training has three main goals:

- to provide the training necessary to fit the soldier into his operational unit while ensuring he's not a danger to himself or others while he gets the experience to fully understand his basic training.
- to provide mental toughness and an introduction to combat teamwork. The mark of the success of this is when after a monster piss-around that would break a week 1 recruit the recruit squad goes back into their room and has a solid laugh at the instructor's failure to break them. My squad's "win" point came after 2hrs standing to attention on a cold Scottish parade square at 1am in February with nothing but mess tins front and back following a "pathetic" performance in a drill session, two hours of parading in EVERY item of our clothing one set at a time, finishing in the mess-tin order.

Now the one you posted about.

- physical fitness. The training isn't meant to get you super fit, it is meant to get the entire squad to a minimum standard of fitness and capable of physically performing all the tasks a soldier should be able to do. Contrary to beliefs, the army training catering is specifically designed with this in mind, the British Army averages 5000 calories per day for infantry recruits.

The British Army's accepted minimum physical standards for a recruit passing-out in 1995 were:
- minimum of 8 miles individual run at better than 8mph (56minutes was the official pass but they accepted up to 1hr)
- 8 miles under full combat load and in combat gear in <2hrs as a squad followed by a short strength/stamina test. This was then usually followed the next day by an individual version where the pass mark was 90 minutes.
- "Official" fitness test of 1½ miles as a slow squadded jog (15 minutes) followed by an individual 1½ miles in <10 minutes 30 seconds. In reality, you would receive remedial fitness instruction if you were slower than 9 minutes 30 secs.
- Assault course completed under pressure with no significant problems.

Army training isn't there to bulk you up or get you to lose weight, those are just nice-to-have by-products of the system. The core goals are a minimum stamina, strength and agility benchmark that you have to pass before leaving training. This means receiving operational units know that their new recruits are going to be at least a set standard and that they can work with them.

[TYN MAN]

Originally Posted by ckn

Army training isn't there to bulk you up or get you to lose weight, those are just nice-to-have by-products of the system. The core goals are a minimum stamina, strength and agility benchmark that you have to pass before leaving training. This means receiving operational units know that their new recruits are going to be at least a set standard and that they can work with them.

Thats a very true statement. Much better interpretation than mine. Were you in the British army?
I guess its harder to see the benifits when ur too busy grunting. Like i said, my comments were based of personal experience.

People must note that they're probably not going to come back from training jacked. But u will be fit enough to do the job.

[ckn]

Originally Posted by TYN MAN

Thats a very true statement. Much better interpretation than mine. Were you in the British army?
I guess its harder to see the benifits when ur too busy grunting. Like i said, my comments were based of personal experience.

People must note that they're probably not going to come back from training jacked. But u will be fit enough to do the job.

Arrrrrtillery Forward observation

A fantastic job that I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone wanting to move into special forces. Certainly a much easier way to get there than through the infantry paths.

[TYN MAN]

Tell me about it. My knees are going to be shot to shit by the time im 40.
What does artillery give you for a SF path?

[ckn]

Originally Posted by TYN MAN

Tell me about it. My knees are going to be shot to shit by the time im 40.
What does artillery give you for a SF path?

Artillery forward observation is one of the very few standard army careers where you get the chance to be a solo'er with huge life affecting responsibilities at quite a junior rank; there's very little like it elsewhere in a non SF unit. That means you've got a much better chance of developing the skills needed for spec forces plus the SF recruiters know this and often poach the best.

[TYN MAN]

Originally Posted by ckn

Artillery forward observation is one of the very few standard army careers where you get the chance to be a solo'er with huge life affecting responsibilities at quite a junior rank; there's very little like it elsewhere in a non SF unit. That means you've got a much better chance of developing the skills needed for spec forces plus the SF recruiters know this and often poach the best.

Makes perfect sense to me. Have you ever thought about going for SAS selection?
Totally off topic here...sorry

[ckn]

Originally Posted by TYN MAN

Makes perfect sense to me. Have you ever thought about going for SAS selection?
Totally off topic here...sorry

No... that's for the terminally insane and terminally friendless Some really scary dudes in there!

Plus I left the army a good while ago