Military Fitness

BroomBurner

Decided to start following the Official British Army Fitness Guide book to get fit, see if it'll work for me (I really need the discipine to stay on track).

Starting with the easiest of the three programmes as I'm very unfit at the minute.

Today is Day One, which calls for the fitness test to be carried out. Results given below:

BMI - 22.4
Wasit to hip ratio - 0.76
Two minute press-up test - 50 (46+ is 'excellent')
Two minute sit-up test - 15 (anything below 39 is 'below average')
1.5 mile test - altered to 3/4 mile test for various reasons, did this in 8 minutes. Nearly vomited.

MoonDancer

Wow, this sounds very interesting!
Do you have a link so I could have a look at the schedule/programme?

BroomBurner

Heya Moondance,
The programme itself is in the book 'The Official British Army Guide to Fitness', I don't think it's programmes available online unfortunately. The book is well worth buying though, think it's about 12 quid. It's very common sense and has loads of good diagrams of each exercise.


Yesterday was meant to be Day 2, it's a day on, day off programme that's flexible. Though they recommend not doing exercise for more than two days in a row. Anyway, yesterday got way laid, so Day 2 was today:

Warm-up - used all the warm-up suggestions in the book, took 25 minutes

2 x 30 seconds plank (though I used the modified plank, my stomach muscles are still smarting from those 15 sit-ups)
2 x 10 seconds bridge
2 x 10 half sit-ups (was meant to be twist sit-ups, but owing to my inability to do actual sit-ups, did the halfies)
2 x 10 dorsal raises
2 x 10 forward lunges
2 x 10 standard squats

Following the above, stretched out my muscles, in particular the ones used for the above. Good examples of stretches to use in the book also. Thank God for hamstring stretches, squats are an old foe.

MoonDancer

Ahh, I see I must go have a look at it, sounds very interesting
Thanks, good luck with the training

BroomBurner

Day 3 today, thankfully a short programme of events:

Warm up
10 minute brisk walk, 5 of those 10 minutes spent jogging
10 minute cool down and stretching

BroomBurner

Day 4 today. Should have been before today, but finding the motivation after work is going to be the biggest challenge.

Programme today was:

• Warm up
• 2 x 10 push-ups
• 2 x 14 sit-ups (still halfies, I'm still not flexible enough to do the full ones)
• Stretching of all muscles afterwards (holding each stretch for 20-25 seconds)

BroomBurner

Feeling good, but mainly because I managed to actually do stick to the routine on a work day.

• Warm-up
• Brisk walk for 10 minutes (jogged for 1 minute as per instruction)
• Cool down and stretch

Now, where's my cake...

BroomBurner

A change from the walking/jogging:

• Warm-up (20 minutes)
• 2 x 10 press-ups
• 2 x 10 pull-ups (though I doubt anyone would call them proper heaves)
• 2 x 10 dips
• 2 x 10 dorsal raises
• 2 x 10 sit-ups (still halfies, but I can get my torso up a bit higher today! Hooray!)
• Stretched out all major muscles

BroomBurner

Had a good day yesterday, did Day 3 of Week 2:

• Warm-up (loosened muscles, 5 minute pulse-raiser and muscle targetting)
• 15 minute brisk walk, of which 10 minutes was to be jogged. Actually managed to do a little more than this. My jogging stamina is beginning to raise!
• Cool-down and stretching of all major muscles (~10 minutes)

Wasn't anywhere close to wanted to vomit after yesterday's jogging, so that's a major boost for me. According to the book, I should start seeing improvements around the 6 week mark but may feel improvements before that. That's one to count anyway!

BroomBurner

Had another good day with the training yesterday. Think I'm getting in to the swing of it now.

Anyway, Day 4 of Week 2 programme is:

• Warm-up (both pulse raisers involved running and a kick about with a football)
• 2 x 10 push-ups
• 2 x 14 sit-ups - I'm delighted to say that about 10 of these were actually full sit-ups. Couldn't quite believe it, but I can now get my full torso off the ground using my stomach muscles more than my shoulders. For anyone else starting off, I'd recommend sticking with the halfies, before you know it, you're doing full sit-ups!
• Cool down and stretching of all major muscles

As an added extra, played a bit more ball after the above, just for fun and 'cause the weather's been great recently.

I'm trying not to include any dietary references in this log either as the diet is generally good and weight-loss isn't an issue. It also spares the possibility of guilt!

BroomBurner

Started Week 3 today, as with the last few sessions, I did this on the beach near our house:

• Warm-up (as per usual, played ball as pulse-raisers)
• 15 minute brisk walk, of which 1 minute had to be jogged at 85% effort
• 10 minute cool-down and stretching - cool down was just slowing up on the brisk walk for a few minutes, then stretched mainly the leg muscles and torso.

A short enough programme today, the beach definitely helps though. Easier on the feet for jogging/walking.

BroomBurner

Day 2's are most definitely the worst of the four days.

Anyway, followed the programme:

• Warm-up - the usual
• 2 x 45 seconds plank (did easier plank)
• 2 x 12 second bridge (made this harder by raising each leg similtaneously and holding for 6 seconds each)
• 2 x 12 twist sit-ups (well, 8 of the first 12 were twist sit-ups, the rest were normal ones)
• 2 x 12 dorsal raises (made these harder also by doing 2 x 12 supermen)
• 2 x 12 forward lunges (prob did these too fast)
• 2 x 12 standard squats
• Stretched all major muscles, holding each stretch for 20 seconds

As I was meant to do this yesterday, but put it off, I did go out for a jog and a kick about for about 25 minutes. Feel good about that.

BroomBurner

Back to the beach again for today's programme:

• Warm-up
• 20 minute brisk walk, with 12 of those minutes to be jogged (managed 10 continuously, new pb)
• 10 minute cool-down and stretching

Also did about an hour of gardening, feeling a bit knackered from that now

BroomBurner

Did today's work-out on the beach as per usual. Proper sit-ups also, the full set.

• Warm-up
• 2 x 12 push-ups
• 2 x 16 sit-ups
• Stretch all major muscles

Quarter of the way through, feeling good so far. Just had a quick look at the next three weeks and it does get more difficult, but the first three have been a good foundation.

BroomBurner

Haven't posted in a good while as I had to stop the training due to an illness, but I'm all better now, thankfully Anyway, kick-started my fitness training with an unscheduled two hour hike/climb around Maulin Mountain in Crone Woods at the weekend. It was good fun, we didn't stick to the path, so it was a tough climb on the legs, but worth it.

Started back with the proper military fitness training yesterday:

• Warm-up
• 20 minute walk, jogged for 2 minutes at 70% effort during this
• Cool-down and stretch

I like the day 1's of any week, they're by far the easiest

BroomBurner

Another Day 2:

• Warm up
• 2 x 12 press-ups
• 2 x 12 pull-ups
• 2 x 12 dips
• 2 x 12 dorsal raises (did "superman" style DR's)
• 2 x 12 sit-ups
• Streched all major muscles, held each stretch for ~20 seconds

BroomBurner

• Warm-up
• 15 minute jog
• 10 minute walk
• Cool-down and stretch

As a testament to the programme, I can now jog continuously for 15 minutes without wanting to get sick or collapse.

tba

Did you go through the full 16 weeks?

What did you do afterwards?