physical fitness

[jamesj]

Hi there!
I am a 17 high school student just finishing up grade 11, and looking at joining the reserves. My question is as follows: I am not in the greatest shape, but could pass the test. Should I wait and lose some weight before I start the application process, or start the application process now (obviously continuing with the fitness program I've designed for myself)? How quickly could I be taking the the physical fitness test? I'd prefer to be able to do much better than the basic requirements. Thanks in advance,
JamesJ

 

[Hopkins]

No rush.

You won't be in quick enough to go for a summer course so just stick with it now, apply after the summer...That gives you the summer to get stronger and be more fit than you are now and improve your results for when you take the test.  But normally it takes about 2-3 months before you actually take your initial testing.

 

[canadianblue]

Out of curiosity what are you like now in term's of physical fitness. I take it that you can do the 19 pushups, situps, and 2.4 km run, but what would you like to improve specifically in term's of physical fitness.

 

[jamesj]

Thanks for your replies. I would like to improve the number of pushups I can do, and I would like to improve my endurance. My goal is to be able to double the basic requirements. I have no problem at all with situps ( I can do at least 50, if not more). Is going from 2.4 km to being able to do 5 km in 4 months pretty feasible? Am I setting reasonable/realistic goals? Thanks,
JamesJ

 

[canadianblue]

For myself, what I have started to do is not necessarily a workout plan, but whenever I'm bored I do 40 pushups. So somedays I'll do 40 pushups in the morning, then maybe two sets of 40 or 50 in the evening. As well I do some situps as well but not as many, not a big fan. For the running, what I'd say is that each new week add on maybe half a km or a km, you don't want to push yourself too much or else you'll get shin splints. Trust me, shin splint's suck big time, especially when you really get into running.

PS: I'm not sure how many pushups you can do, but if you even do 20 throughout your day while you don't have much to do is a good start. Another tip I heard is that if your watching TV or waiting for a game to load, then do some pushups during that time.

Good luck

 

[Wils21]

What everyone said is dead on.  You can do it.  Every time you workout just push yourself a little further than last time.  Just so ya know Im going to be joining the reserves as well.  Probably the same time as yourself.  Im 26 and today I chose to test myself on my 2.5k.  I did it in 7 min 45 sec.  I nearly died seeing as Ive been smokin for 8 or so years.  So if I can do it, i believe 100% that you can do it too and probably better.   Good Luck and train hard.

 

[FITSUMO]

1st off a 7:45 2.5k is competitive speed, good on ya.
as futuretrooper said, doing push ups during commercials is great, think about it,  there are about 5 commercials during a 30 min show, even if you are doing ten at a time, the numbers add up, when playing vid games, every time I die in the game I bang out ten.  About 3 months ago I screwed up my shoulder boxing and I could do no pushups, I am now doing about 120/day....A good routine to try is, during the commercials i do 10-20 PU, 20 squats, 20 situps, 20 lunges, ya look like a dumb a$%$ but it works.  As with the running as others have stated many times, start off slow and build slow, injuries do suck allota a#$.  I started not being to run at all, so I did the telephone poll thing, run one, walk one and I built from there, now training for a ultramarathon( slow and steady(increases) will get you there)

the best of luck....

cheers

 

[jamesj]

Great suggestions guys!!! I especially like the commercial-exercise idea. I've also been using the telephone pole method, and it has worked quite well. So I'll train this summer, and kick *** next fall on the test. Thanks,
JamesJ 

 

[LordOsborne]

the situps during commercials work wonders. i could barely string 15 together when i started training and now i'm up to 28 no sweat. just be sure to take a day off PU's every so often so you don't really strain your muscles. it's also a good idea to take the day before your test off too

 

[USSRsovietsnake]

Is the 2.4km usually what people underestimate or are there people who really struggle to do 19 push ups?

 

[LordOsborne]

lots of people underestimate both of them!

 

[ReadyAyeReady]

Just out of curiousity.  As far as the Physical Test goes, is it based on a pass/fail system, or is it based on how much you can do?

So for example, someone does the minimum but still passes, and another person does way more push ups and sit ups and passes, are they graded equally?  Or do the recuriters go: "Okay this guy here did 50 push ups and this guy only did 19...so we're going to take the first guy over the second guy."

Do recruiters see how you performed or are they simply told: "This guy passed."

 

[FITSUMO]

the underestimating thing is funny, I can bench 315 for reps, so I thought no worries, then I was shown how to do the army push ups ( correctly)and lets just say I sucked, have fixed that and am ok, but still working hard at it.  And I have a mate that thought the 12:26 was no trouble for the 2.4k and he talked alot of slag, then we went for a run and he sucked, so moral of the story, train for the thing you are going to do and make no assumtions. 

cheers

 

[LordOsborne]

Just out of curiousity.   As far as the Physical Test goes, is it based on a pass/fail system, or is it based on how much you can do?

So for example, someone does the minimum but still passes, and another person does way more push ups and sit ups and passes, are they graded equally?   Or do the recuriters go: "Okay this guy here did 50 push ups and this guy only did 19...so we're going to take the first guy over the second guy."

Do recruiters see how you performed or are they simply told: "This guy passed."

it's based on pass/fail, from what i found out. everything i did in the test was better than the minimum standard, but because i was 6 short for pushups, i failed the test in its entirety.