Physical Preparations

Since we're still in the introductory phases of this blog, I feel like now would be a good time to outline the physical aspect of my military preparations. 

Way back in 2009 (do your best to remember back that far. If not, improvise), I moved home to take some time to work back home after the great financial crisis reared its ugly head the previous fall. While that move had some good (and necessary) financial implications, one negative aspect was I stopped being active. The lack of running and intramural softball (serious business) coupled with a continuation in my college drinking habits did not do good things for my body. In six months of being home I went from an athletic 195lbs to 215. I'm only 5'9 - there's simply nowhere to hide twenty pounds like that. 


So once I decided that I wanted to serve, one of the bigger obstacles that I faced was getting back to being in decent athletic shape. And really, that was only part of it. To post a competitive PFT (Physical Fitness Test) score for the Marine Corps, one has to be a lot better than just in decent shape. I chose the Marine Corps standard as my goal because, as a branch, they take physical fitness the most seriously. Marines fucking love to work out. And I can respect a branch that takes pride in being the most physically ready to wage war. It just makes sense. 

Oo-rah

Getting in good shape serves a multitude of purposes. For starters, it's just a good idea to be healthy. I'm going to avoid being on my political/social soapbox as much as possible with this blog, but America's simply too fat. It's a shame that in today's country the US Army has to change to match the people and not the other way around. Aside from general healthy concerns, I want to be in the military as an officer and I'm not going to get selected unless I post a very competitive PFT score. With the Marines, I need to be shooting probably around a 280 (out of 300) to get selected in the current ultra-competitive selection climate. And logically if I'm physically ready for the Marine Corps' OCS (Officer Candidate School), I'll be ready for every other branch as well. 

Well, maybe not the Air Force

Over the last six months, I've done pretty well. Nothing extraordinary, but through eating right, drinking less, and being more active I've lost the twenty pounds that I gained after my college hiatus. I won't go into the specifics of my diet, there are plenty of other people that can explain nutrition far better than me, but the general rule of creating a calorie deficit is a good one to live by. I've still got a long way to go. For my height (5'9), the highest weight I'm allowed to be at is 185lbs, which is still ten pounds less than what I am now. It's true that the military will measure your body fat % if you don't make weight, so it's not the end of world for shorter, stockier people that are actually in shape, however, I know that I still have at least ten pounds that I can lose and doing it will absolutely help my PFT score. I don't think it's out of the question for me to drop 15lbs and be at a lean 180lbs. It'll just take some more work. Which sucks, a lot. 

This is also probably the time to go a little more in dept into the actual Physical Fitness Test for the Marine Corps. Like I've said earlier, I generally look to the Marines when it comes to getting in shape so I'm most familiar with their fitness test. I'm sure the other branches do a fine job, but personally I'm focusing on the Marine PFT. The PFT is divided into three sections: pull-ups, crunches, and a three-mile run. The more pull-ups one can do, the higher his or her score. Same with crunches (in a two-minute time period) as well as the timed run. To achieve a maximum score of 300 points, one must get 20 pull-ups, 100 crunches (in two minutes), and a 18-minute run time. Yes, 18 minutes. That's a 6-minute mile back-to-back-to-back. Just to clarify, those are the necessary numbers to get a perfect score. You can technically pass a PFT with much lower, but that simply won't cut it for OCS selection or OCS itself. 


My own training is revolving attaining the highest possible PFT score. In theory, that should get me prepared for the physical aspect of OCS. There are also other parts of training I need to take into account, like running in boots, but a good PFT score is a great place to start. 

For the pull-ups, I have a bar that fits into my door frame. This allows me the opportunity to do pull-ups at any point in the day, and honestly - if it's right there a few steps away, I'll do them much more often. There are a number of decent programs for pull-ups, but generally speaking the only way to improve is just by doing lots and lots of pull-ups (Sorry, no magic method). I personally follow the popular Armstrong Plan, but there are many others that will work. 


Crunches are similar in the sense that to improve your abdominal strength, you simply have to keep doing more and more crunches. I wish there was an easier way, but there just isn't. Another thing to keep in mind with crunches is that it's an area where gains are made and lost very quickly. Consistency is they key here. I follow a pretty simple method that I found on a USMC recruiting website. It's called Killer's Crunch Workout. They don't take a whole lot of time, so just go out and do them already. 


The final portion of the USMC PFT is the 3-mile run. I'll preface this section by stating that I absolutely hate running. Distance running was never something I did much of as a baseball player growing up and just the thought of more-or-less sprinting for nearly twenty minutes makes me cringe. But it's necessary. Very, very necessary. Fortunately, the PFT run is very close to a 5K race (3.1 miles) and there are a ton of programs for runners to train for running a fast 5K. For now, I've mainly been running longer distances to get used to running again. It sucks, but it's a process. There are a lot of methods for increasing speed with you runs (speed intervals, for instance), but the one constant is consistency (notice a trend here?). To be a better runner, you have to run. And I hate that. 

Fucking showoffs

Those are the basic physical aspects of my training. I'm in decent athletic shape right now, but I could certainly be in much better. To accomplish my goals I'll have to. Every week or so I'll try to devote a post to my process in the physical aspects of my journey and hopefully there will be some marked improvement in a few months. We'll see.