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Hey guys im really in need of advice.

im thinking of applying for the marines sometime after christmas but my fitness is really pathetic.

for some reason i cant seem to get over 20 pressups i can do about 4/5 pullups and 50-60 situps.

as far as my running goes it takes me about 25mins to run 3miles, am i goin about my training the wrong way. I just go out and run 3 miles all the time should i rack up a lot of miles every week to build my stamina and tackle 3 miles at a fast pace later on.

can someone help me with my pressups and running particulary.

many thanks

It's all in the mind.. you can do more then that, but you are just phasing yourself out.

The only way to improve it is to keep at it, dont give up.

Keep switching it up, go ball's to the wall and stick at it, it will come. Patience is a virtue.

Stokey

I think consistancy is the most important thing, doing one running a week and killing yourself wont do all that much to affect your overall fitness but doing 3 runs a week with moderate intensity will.
As for the pullups you could always buy a pull up bar from Argos ( £8 ) and just do press ups, pull ups and situps before you go to bed or when you wake up.
With the press ups remember to do them with your elbows tucked marine style!
And instead of doing sets of sit ups try doing as many as you can in 2 minutes and then beating that next time.

Got to go back to basics by the sounds of it mate

Work out time frame and goals, you really should be aiming way above the PRMC minimums. Reach for the stars and you may just touch the sky.

Running I would get into interval training but over longer durations.
4 mins jog into 2 mins fast 4 mins jog 1 min sprint x 3

Good framework for increasing fitness and easy to manipulate when you get fitter. Remember to run to time not distance, that way you're still getting the same duration of workout as your fitness increases which is for the best IMO

To increase all bodyweight exercises quickly there is a system called 'grease the groove' where by you do 50% of your max reps for 3 sets, 5 times daily

For example I can do 75 press ups max, therefore I would do 37.5 (LOL) then 50% of my max sit ups, 50% of my max pull ups. Rest for 2 mins then repeat x 3

Once weekly you can do max tests to see the improvements and regardless of what people say you will not overtrain this way unless your diet is pathetic.

Which brings me nicely onto food intake, think AJtotheMax wrote a good article on it so don't need to regurgitate that but again basics for now. 4/5 good balanced meals a day and cut out all the crap and the increase in performance will be dramatic!

Lastly and I'm about to write a post on this when I get a chance

HYDRATION!

The most important aspect IMO. 1% dehydrated = 10% drop in performance. Doing the amount of CV you will be building up to over the next few months a gallon per day of water is not an exaggeration.

Drink, drink and drink some more.

Best of luck with it all, hope you learn to love training as much as I do

Oh aye before I forget, keep a training log. Detailed with the important bits to monitor progress

Hey mate.

I was told by my AFCO, to not only do 3 milers, once or twice a week you should do a 6 miler (or longer if possible) for example. Do a 6 miler on Tueday and one on Friday and 3 milers in between.

Helped me quite a lot!

In terms of upper body strength...sounds like your not doing to bad there...pyramid pushups are good as I think someone mentioned!
If you go to the gym, work on your triceps alot. That helped me with pushups!

Best of luck!

http://www.mfat.co.uk/forums/viewtopic. ... highlight=


I may be blowing my own trumpet here but this is a post a wrote a while back (tis long!) that I think you may find useful (maybe not, hope so!)

Also speaks about hydration etc....

All the best

Stokey