File :-(, x, )
Enlisting after high school..... Anonymous
Hey there, /fit/. I've been lurking /fit/ since it was created, and I've used it's advice plenty of times to work out on my own. I am now a senior in high school, and it has always been my dream to enlist in the USMC. I have a year to get in shape, and I fixed my schedule specifically so I could have time to work out after school.

My question is, what would /fit/ recommend I do to get in shape for the USMC? I already do HIIT every other day three days a week, and the days I'm not doing that I do the Body by Fish workout (but I still can't do a pullup. >_<) and it's been doing great so far. I'm trying to have a healthy diet, but I'm not sure exactly what the best diet would consist of. Not specific foods, but rather the proportion of the foods.

So, should I just keep the workout I do now, work my diet, and would I be fine? My last question is, by following whatever routine you suggest (be it my own or another's) how soon can I expect to be in good enough shape to enlist? I'll never stop working out, but I want to know when I can stop freaking out that I might not succeed by the time I graduate.

I'm 6'0 even and 240 pounds (a lot of it used to be fat, but I gained a shit ton of muscle over the last year or so)

Pic related, it's the guy that inspired me to enlist, and he's a Marine (obviously).
>> Anonymous
If you ship off to basic unable to do a single pullup, you're gonna be fucked pal.

And 240lbs? Their 3+ mile runs will not be fun....
>> Anonymous
>>288759
I'm not shipping out now, fucktard.

I said in my post that I have an entire year to work out and get in shape, and I worked my schedule to give myself all the time I need.

So please be helpful instead of telling me how fat I am.
>> Anonymous
Be sure to take your shots...and get cancer as the new GI bill screws you over.

Your government has been hijacked, don't enlist.
>> Anonymous
>>288766
Why do you feel the need to tell me not to enlist?

Seriously, why?
>> Anonymous
Something simple to add; run in the mornings. After you wake up, maybe have something quick to eat, but run in the mornings, it will call on your body's reserves and burn off a lot more fat + it will help when you're forced to run 5miles.
>> Anonymous
>>288777

Thanks for helping.

I'll be sure to do that, but should I run everyday? Or on certain days?
>> Anonymous
you should be running damn near every day if your gonna enlist, they're gonna fucking grill you on cardio. do decent length runs 5 days a week and pick one day a week to do a heavy run. rest the 7th day. If it feels like your starting to overtrain, back off a week , then start again but lessen up the intensity a bit till you can do 6 days a week
>> Anonymous
>>288806
Well how would you define decent length runs

And then heavy runs


Would two miles five days and then five miles on the heavy day be good?
>> Anonymous
>>288776

Let's play reversi. Why did you feel the need to tell us you plan to exist? That information is largely irrelevant. You could have just as well asked about getting into better shape without mentioning your plans for military service. This would be more relevant if you actually posted your fitness requirements for enlisting (I know them already, but that's all you really needed to post).

That aside, I will give you advice, since I was enlisted in the USMC for two years. Boot camp is going to be almost entirely cardio, so I suggest you really work your ass off to get your lungs in good shape. You never do anything involving weights in boot camp unless you get sent to the remedial fitness platoon (you go here if you fail any portion of the IST, it's like being forced to workout at a gym all day).

Ideally, you'll want to shed pounds and not worry SO much about gaining muscle. Lose weight and condition your lungs or else the constant runs and backpacking will be very difficult. And I don't just mean organized runs, you run EVERYWHERE in boot camp except in the chow hall. The moment you leave the deck, you will be running to your next location 99% of the time unless you're practicing some type of drills.
>> Anonymous
>>288815

cont.

The only thing you will really need muscles for in boot camp will be the obstacle course (lots of things involving pulling your own body weight over bulkheads...and rope climbs will be hell if you are weak) and the constant body weight exercises. You WILL be running, doing crunches, doing pull-ups and doing push-ups every single day. If you fuck up one thing (and you will, DIs will MAKE you fuck up just to punish you for fun) you will be doing push-ups. You will get quarter-decked often, which means you run to the front of the deck and get hammered with constant exercises until you're ready to barf.

I'm assuming you know the IST requirements - 1.5 miles run, at least three pull-ups and at least 35 or so crunches in two minutes. Your PFT is double this, but you should never only make the minimum because your entire platoon is scored based on everyone's performance and you DON'T want to be the guy who brought down the average, EVERYONE will hate you, the weak link gets their ass chewed out at every turn.

To recap: Run daily, you will be doing this in boot anyway, they don't care if you're sore or exhausted, you WILL run every fucking day. Understand that they will break you physically, they really don't care if it's "healthy" or not, it is NOT like working out as a civilian. Max out your push-ups, crunches and pull-ups as often as you can, ideally three times a day; again, you will be doing these multiple times a day in boot camp. Get organized, everything in boot camp revolves around following orders and keeping your gear perfectly neat and organized, slobs need not apply. Lastly, I suggest you get familiar with swimming, it seems a lot of recruits have trouble with the swimming tests and simulated drowning.
>> Anonymous
>>288809

That's good as a start, but don't go into this unprepared. Since you have a full year, there's no excuse not to be in tip top shape by the time you ship out. By the time you ship out, you should be able to do a five mile run without being in much pain (honestly, some of these Marines after graduation do shit like 60 mile runs over a two day period just for fun).

I suggest you strive to be around 170 pounds when you ship out, too. Weighing less = pull-ups and running are vastly easier.
>> Anonymous
>>288824

I'm not the guy who posted>>288766or>>288776, just FYI.

All I was saying was that it's really a lot easier if you listed the three IST requirements and asked how to prepare for those. Anyone who has served would recognize them as the Marine IST. I only say this because the moment you mention military service on 4chan, it's bound to turn into a shit storm somehow.
>> Anonymous
>>288819
>>288822

Thank you guys for your help, really.

I already know a lot of what I need to do, I'll be training in the numbers to max out the PFT with a 300, but I think if I tried to max it out right now I'd kill myself. I'm asking for a routine to help build myself up to that so I can get to it before I ship out.

I probably should've mentioned that... haha.
>> Anonymous
>>288830

Guy who posted>>288815>>288816>>288828here.

Have you asked your recruiter about the Delayed Entry Program (DEP)? It's designed for people who are finishing up high school or college and want to ship out after they complete their education. They'd basically have you come train with the recruiters and other DEP kids on the weekends of after school and they'll train you specifically for boot camp as well as do organized fun shit like football or whatever. I was in the DEP senior year of high school and had a fucking blast as well as got into better shape. Our recruiter took us to play paintball a few times.
>> Anonymous
Don't expect everyone to agree with you :)
I spent 4 years in the Army in the 82nd airborne so my PT requirements were different. However if you are able to enter into the marine corp maxing or near maxing your pt requirements you will be respected by your drills, as long as you arn't as dumb as a box of rocks that is. However don't expect your drill sergants to be nice to you until the last week or 2 days. Also do a personal heart to heart, if you want to be career go ROTC and be a fuckin officer, if you want to be in for 2-4 years and gone do whatever, but enlisted shoot more guns.
>> Anonymous
>>288832
I would love to do that, and my recruiter is really pushing for me to do that, and I'm trying like HELL to do it, but the thing is I'm 17 and I need a parent's permission to DEP in. My mom is fucking fanatical about me not joining the military, she thinks I'm going to die. >_< My dad is proud of my wanting to enlist, but he's so whipped he always agrees with what my mom says.

Also, I'd like to say that when you put it that way in the post, it makes sense, and yeah I can see what you're saying, but I don't care if it turns into a shitstorm, because someone (like you) will actually help. Besides, the more posts this thread gets, more people will come in and may help me.

Also, you'd expect that thing from /b/ more than /fit/.
>> Anonymous
>>288836
I'm not dumb, I got an 88 on my ASVAB and my recruiter keeps saying I'm a hell of a lot smarter than the rest of the guys he gets in here. Also 3.67 GPA hahaha

Anyway, I want to go career, but I don't know if being an officer is right for me. I'm just not the officer type.
>> Anonymous
>>288837

Well, you ARE taking a job as a body guard for an entire nation. Part of your job may likely involve the death of you or close friends. It makes no sense to sugar coat it, you're going to be at risk for being sent to a combat zone even if you take a warehouse or office MOS, and being in a combat zone is a risk for combat, obviously.

If you really aren't prepared to potentially die your country, the military is not for you. I know you "know" this, but you not fully comprehend it until the moment of truth arrives, then you'll really find out whether you're capable of killing other people. If they're shorthanded in an infantry platoon for any reason, they may very well take the closest able bodied Marine and add him to the platoon. After all, EVERY Marine is a rifleman, and there's a good reason for that. They want everyone to be able to fight at any time no matter what's going down. Make sure you really get that down before shipping out, you're training to become a warrior and the country is trusting you to protect our interests and citizens.

Not trying to talk you out of it, just trying to make you think about what you're really preparing to do with your life for the next 2-4 years. My best friend was a tank repairman in the National Guard, he thought he wouldn't see any combat, boy was he fucking wrong. The fucker got sent to Iraq almost right out of basic. Granted, he come home in one piece, but the unexpected happened and he DID see combat as an MOS that wasn't supposed to be fighting directly.
>> Anonymous
well if you are thinking career I strongly urge you to look in to it. OCS that is, officers really do have it that much better in the military.
>> Anonymous
>>288840

Being smart is bad as an enlistee. The more booksmart you are, the more likely you're going to be to have trouble with the basic shit. I did at first, honestly. I was completely used to being able to correct people who stated incorrect "facts" or pronounced shit wrong or whatever, but this just gets you looked at as a smugfag by the average kid in boot camp (seriously, prepare yourself for a ton of stereotypical blacks, wiggers, "hardcore" white kids and Napoleon Complex hispanics...they're not generally the type of people you could converse with about philosophy or calculus, however loyal or willing to serve they may be).

For lack of a better term, you WILL be a sheep in boot camp, and it sucks if you're an intelligent person who is used to having freedom or expression...it really, really fucking sucks for the first two weeks or so. Nobody is going to respect your education, talents or wit, and that's frustrating at times.
>> Anonymous
>>288847
I have come to terms with it. I really, really love America. For all it's faults, all the problems and hatred and evil, I still love it with all my heart. I understand that I could very well die, and that people die every day there, but I also believe that when your number is up, it's up no matter what, in the military or not. I'm not gonna be a jackass and say I'm not gonna die, I'm not gonna be an idiot and say I'll never see combat. I've been in life or death situations before and I'm confident I can handle myself.

But the thing about my mom is she knows that I'm going to die. She says "If you enlist, you'll die. You won't come home." She checks the mail and if I get a brochure from the military, she throws it away so I don't find it and "get any ideas". She forced me out of JROTC at my high school because she doesn't want me indoctrinated and brain washed. She's only thinking about the negative possibilites and not the positive outcomes. It's driving me nuts.

>>288848
Yeah I know but I still don't think that officer life is for me.
>> Anonymous
The best way to start cranking out push ups is... LOSE WEIGHT. Right now you are about 40-50 pounds over weight so right now you are trying to do a pull up with that excess weight around your waste. You will easily crank out 5 pull ups when you lose that extra pounds even if you do moderate-low weight exercises.
>> Anonymous
>>288855
I don't correct people unless they ask me for help.

And for the first few weeks of basic, nobody gets any kind of respect at all. So I think that I could walk in there with fucking Einstein intelligence and I'd still get treated like scum that isn't worth being on the bottom of the D.I.'s boot.

Also, pretty much everybody at my school is a fucking idiot. My high school has one of the lowest API scores in the state, and we have hundreds of kids that don't graduate every year. I'm used to that, and I find it really entertaining.
>> Anonymous
>>288860
I know that. When I say I can't do a pullup, I can't complete one rep, but I can get really, really close.

So I know when I'm at my target weight I can do a few, then from there I can start belting them out quick.
>> Anonymous
She's doing that because she's your mom dude, it's what they do she's just protecting her baby from danger. When I was in the army (deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq) my mom was a wreck. Not as bad as my father who was a Vietnam veteran, he knew the shit I was going through and while he didn't show it he barely slept when I was deployed.

Yes joining the military is risky, however a grand majority of veterans will say the time they spent in the military was some of the best times in their life, though having a bomb explode 50 feet from me was a low point, I got through it ok route clearance is a bitch =/ and I got a cool scar.
>> Anonymous
If he lives in a fly over state then enlisting tends to be a better option then living a dead end job at some shitty factory.
>> Anonymous
marines dont care about strength faggot- shred down to 180s by running every day. also do pushups and pullups until you cannot do anymore. every day. that is all.
>> Anonymous
Not OP, but I'm 20 years old and have done absolutely nothing with my life. I've been thinking of joining the military for a while now. I myself don't give a shit about America or protecting it. I see is as a way to do something with my life. Tried to see college as an option, but I don't know the material that they are spewing out. Wanted to go to building computers or even coding, but math is a requirement and I suck at it. Have to take an English class and I suck at that. So my only option would be going to the military or end up like my parents being a dish washer or working for a factory majority of my life. I'd rather choose military life. Will having no driver's license be a problem?
>> Anonymous
>>288917

WE DO NOT WANT FUCKING DUMBSHITS LIKE YOU IN THE MILITERY. DO NOT JOIN YOU UNPATRIOTIC BASTARD.
>> Anonymous
>>288749
>(but I still can't do a pullup. >_<)
>(a lot of it used to be fat, but I gained a shit ton of muscle over the last year or so)
if you had a lot of muscle you'd be able to do pullups
>> Anonymous
>>288953

Protip: 95% of soldiers in the military are not doing it for their country, but because they want something out of it.
>> Anonymous
>>288962
Question: Are you currently serving?
>> Anonymous
>>288970

Currently on my fifth year of being a Marine.
>> Anonymous
>>288972
Haha riiiiight....so then why did you join?
>> Anonymous
>>288972

since this is now an Ask a Marine thread,
here's my question:
you have to kill a man and you are unarmed.
how would you do it?
>> Anonymous
The 'fifth year Marine' sure is quiet......
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>288954
Surprise surprise, faggot, not every muscle in your body is in your arms

Fail harder, I dare you
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Oh hai guys, we'll be over here training about four times harder than you