Running and Fitness

[Irish Rover]

Like some other people here i guess ive one eye on the christmas and one on getting fit after. Anyone any training plans they want to share for getting to your peak in 2006. Myself personally am giving myself a few months to get fit for army/police.

Have a plan to get up to lifting about 80s-100s kilos on the bench and squat and to increase my biceps and shoulders. Also plan to run 4 times a week and get my times down for all distances. And to try and go back boxing at least once a week and footie of a sunday. Anyone else got plans or even links to a fitness regime? Remember sharing is caring

[Tom_running16]

Hey, Well at the moment my training plan consists of a daily 3-5 mile run. I seem to try and find different routes and I find alternating makes the run more interesting. For example I do a few miles on the road then see if I can cut into a forest. I also try and find steeper hills etc to give myself a bit of a challange. I hear its also good stamina building.

Im also working on my upper body, different sets of push up's, pull ups, sit ups. I also do sets of weights although my main aim for the new year is to increase my running distance and get myself signed up for a gym.

Have a good xmas and hope it all goes well.

T

[chris78290]

Myself personally am giving myself a few months to get fit for army/police.

mate on another thread very recently you were talking about officer applications, you want to get focused, you cant be vaguely aiming for army/police and expect to pass the interview phase at the AFCO... not a dig mate, but i've known people go in a bit sorta up in the air about things and they got chewed out and told to start thinking straight before coming back!

[longrifle]

Currently running Mondays and Thursdays, swimming Tuesdays and Fridays. Rest Wednesdays and weekends or maybe do an alternate activity like a snowshoe hike on the weekend.

Some calistenics every weekday, although not always a lot.

I intend to work on a few bodyweight strength moves in 2006, one arm pushups and one arm lockoffs from a pullup bar. Currently I can't do the lockoff with out assistance from the other arm. It's a popular exercise with rock climbers.

[Greenronnie]

Just get yourself out doing some decent running. If you can find someone who will go with you, who is fitter than you and can push you, it will help a lot. As for upper body strength, pressups, dips and chinups will be sufficient. The Army doesn't need weight lifters.

[Sarastro]

If you are starting running after having taken a large break, mix it up with some other cardio (swimming, cycling), as running is pretty high impact so easy to injure yourself if your muscles aren't ready. Once you have built up fitness and leg muscles with low-impact stuff, you will find doing large amounts of running much easier, and be less injury-prone. Also check out your running technique, it makes a huge difference.

As for strength buildup, I found that several months of the circuits suggested by the RM program on MFAT was plenty to take me from absolutely 0 strength at all to a decent level (maxed about 30 pressups, but could bash out sets of 30 with little downtime, and still increasing strength). I did, by the end:

10 Pyramid Punches x 3
25 Pressups x 3
35 Woman pressups x 3
30 Crunches x 3
25 Tricep dips x 3
25 Incline Pullups x 3

In that order, whole routine took about 30 mins, so was doing one circuit in 10 mins approx. Start at a number of each exercise you can do, and try to increase that number by about 5 each fortnight. Crunches I found to be better than situps as they work only abdominals, and you will be able to do the same or more number of situps as you can do crunches. Did this routine 5 days a week along with a lot of swimming etc, and in about 4 months I went from nothing (literally, barely able to do a pressup, quite pathetic) to a pretty decent level of muscle fitness and strength.

Bear in mind that muscle strength & bulk is the hardest thing to build up, and will take the longest. After you have built it, however, it will stick around for quite a while even if you aren't training, you will just have to build up muscle fitness again, which is a much quicker process. If you lack strength though, you need to get started right now to build up muscle, it takes months to build and notice a real difference.

PS As greenronnie said, it isn't about being a weightlifter, the above should just get you to the position where you can haul your own bodyweight around with ease over long days, without carrying extra pounds of muscle around with you.

[Greenronnie]

Good advice from Sarastro there ref avoiding injuries. However if you are seriously thinking of joining the Army soon, then you should not be on a break, even at Xmas. And believe me, the only thing that you will need to get a grip of is your running. You will need to really push yourself.