Need Some Advice On Training For BCT (ARMY).

[SoggyMilk]

I just got done doing some training today, and I gotta say, I'm highly dissapointed in myself...


I did 30 out of 40 pushups, 20-35 out of 40 situps, and my back spasm-ed up during the second lap of my mile run. What I'm trying to say is this...

What can I do to get better? I don't want to do 40, I want to surpass that and end up doing 70 pushups, and situps, and be able to run a mile in 7-8 minutes.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Also, how do I get over the problems that plagued me during the workout?

1) Muscles getting weaker, and weaker, to the point where I couldn't hold myself up anymore.
2) Lungs feeling as if they were burning while running.
3) Stomach feeling as if it was going to hurl up everything I ate from last year to now.
4) Coughing up a storm after the run, and feeling like there was nothing but mucus in my trachea.
5) Light headache which included pressure in my nose.

Any tip would be appreciated... Greatly!


By the by, I leave for BCT on the 10th of July. What can I do to get ready by then?

[Z3CH]

Originally Posted by SoggyMilk

1) Muscles getting weaker, and weaker, to the point where I couldn't hold myself up anymore.
2) Lungs feeling as if they were burning while running.
3) Stomach feeling as if it was going to hurl up everything I ate from last year to now.
4) Coughing up a storm after the run, and feeling like there was nothing but mucus in my trachea.
5) Light headache which included pressure in my nose.

Really the only way to get better is obviously practicing (working out). But whatever.

1) Build up your endurance, do things like arm circles and endurance-based workouts.
2) All I can really say here is run more, IMO the best way to get better lungs is to run until you physically can't run anymore.
3) Eh isn't that normal after a tough workout?
4) Do you smoke? If not and you have this problem then you might not be running enough.
5) Ya got me there

That advice sucked I'm sure but really it sounds like you have to run more often and get more endurance. Get used to working out everything at the same time.

[SoggyMilk]

Originally Posted by Z3CH

Really the only way to get better is obviously practicing (working out). But whatever.

1) Build up your endurance, do things like arm circles and endurance-based workouts.
2) All I can really say here is run more, IMO the best way to get better lungs is to run until you physically can't run anymore.
3) Eh isn't that normal after a tough workout?
4) Do you smoke? If not and you have this problem then you might not be running enough.
5) Ya got me there

That advice sucked I'm sure but really it sounds like you have to run more often and get more endurance. Get used to working out everything at the same time.

1) What kind of endurance workouts?
2) Yeah, I'm planning on doing that tomorrow, training starts yet again!
3) I don't know, I used to ONLY lift weights, I never did any cardio.
4) Yeah, I stopped like.... 2 weeks ago.
5) I mean... Should I eat before the workout? Should I not eat before it? Should I drink water before? Or no? I mean, there's gotta be something someone knows about.

[Cylon]

Originally Posted by SoggyMilk

5) I mean... Should I eat before the workout? Should I not eat before it? Should I drink water before? Or no? I mean, there's gotta be something someone knows about.

Of course you should eat before the workout. If you don't eat before your workout, your body has no energy supply. You don't want to eat a huge meal, just a balanced meal that contains a mix of carbohydrates and protein, in order to provide your body with enough energy to get you through your activity.

The only time I would advise someone not to eat before a run is if they are trying to lose weight. The best way to lose weight with running is to run a few minutes after you get up in the morning, before eating breakfast. You are able to burn the most fat calories then, since you have no prior food in your stomach for your body to use, so it utilizes the stored fat.

Did you eat before your first workout that you explained? If you didn't, that could be one of the contributing factors of the way you felt afterwards.

[Go Pre]

Keeping in mind that endurance training was my life for four years in high school and strength training has been my life after graduating high school, I hope you take the advice I have to give you.

For starters, here is the Teknic workout. He pm'd this to me a while back and I have done it every now and then as a supplemental workout and I think it's phenomenal.

Originally Posted by TEKNIC

Start with 100 jumping jacks, then maybe 50 sun gods, then then 25 8-counts, then 50 leg scissors, then 50 more sun gods, then 50 bicycle crunches, then 25 more 8-counts. In between each of those excercises, do 50 pushups and 50 situps. Then run 3 or 4 miles at a medium pace as a cooldown. I never lifted a single weight while I was in the Navy.

Sun gods are easy; you've undoubtedly done them before. I never know which of the many names I've heard for them to call them. They're probably more well known as simply "arm circles," where you extend your arms to your side and move them in circles about 4 inches in diameter. Four cirlces count as 1 rep. We would do 10 reps to the side, 10 straight out in front, 10 at a 45 degree angle up in front, 10 straight up in the air, then 10 more back to the sides to complete the 50 reps for a total of 200 arm rotations. A few of us would bring ankle weights to the workout field and we would hold them in our hands while we did these.

8-counts are a type of pushup with 8 stages:
1) Bend knees and reach for the ground. (squat)
2) kick your legs out from underneath you so that your in pushup position
3) down
4) up
5) kick your legs up into the air and spread them apart so that they land as wide as you can get them
6) kickem back up and bring em back together
7) kick back up into squat position
8 ) stand up

Hold each count for a good second or so.

That's good endurance work there. As far as strength is concerned, the army is going to care how much you can bench or dead lift or anything like that. They are going to care (as you have more or less implied in your posts) how many pushups, pull ups and sit ups you can do. All you can do, is dedicate yourself to doing calisthenics like those mentioned above at a pretty high intensity every other day to avoid any strains, pulls or possible tendinitis from occurring.

[shadow1768]

It may seem obvious but when you run always and only breathe in through your nose, you may think your too tired and start breathing through your mouth, but in reality breathing through your mouth will make you much more tired quicker and make you feel like throwing up, sometimes it speeds up that blood in your throat taste. When I run, I try to keep pacing my breathing and controlling it. First step, breathe in, next step breathe in again, third exhale through your mouth, repeat the process. That works out great for me and thats how I usually run a mile (8 minutes and 43 seconds last I checked was my time). Over time it will be easier, start by running half a mile then increasing to a mile once you have your breathing down pact.

As for situps and pushups, when I get bored I grab my deck of cards, shuffle, all reds are pushups, all black are situps/crunches w.e you want them to be. Pull cards from top to bottom (Aces- 14, J-11, etc).

[Go Pre]

Originally Posted by shadow1768

It may seem obvious but when you run always and only breathe in through your nose, you may think your too tired and start breathing through your mouth, but in reality breathing through your mouth will make you much more tired quicker and make you feel like throwing up, sometimes it speeds up that blood in your throat taste. When I run, I try to keep pacing my breathing and controlling it. First step, breathe in, next step breathe in again, third exhale through your mouth, repeat the process. That works out great for me and thats how I usually run a mile (8 minutes and 43 seconds last I checked was my time). Over time it will be easier, start by running half a mile then increasing to a mile once you have your breathing down pact.

As for situps and pushups, when I get bored I grab my deck of cards, shuffle, all reds are pushups, all black are situps/crunches w.e you want them to be. Pull cards from top to bottom (Aces- 14, J-11, etc).

No offense but your mile time isn't very good and your breathing is probably holding you back. Nobody should inhale and exhale that quickly. That in itself is going to make you tired because of the effort being put forth by your abs. A good breathing technique that should be used as a gauge for how tired you are is the four second rule. Inhale for four seconds and exhale for four seconds. If you can maintain such a rhythm then you're doing fine. If that sort of rhythm is difficult then the pace you are running at is going to be difficult to maintain for an extended period of time.

The prison pushups (using the deck of cards) are always fun though.

[SoggyMilk]

Quick question: what are some good running shoes? I ask because I have some sneakers that really take a toll on my feet after I run. The heel of my feet, as well as the soles feel like someone took a sledgehammer to them, affecting the way I walk, kind of.

Any suggestions?

[shadow1768]

Originally Posted by Go Pre

No offense but your mile time isn't very good and your breathing is probably holding you back. Nobody should inhale and exhale that quickly. That in itself is going to make you tired because of the effort being put forth by your abs. A good breathing technique that should be used as a gauge for how tired you are is the four second rule. Inhale for four seconds and exhale for four seconds. If you can maintain such a rhythm then you're doing fine. If that sort of rhythm is difficult then the pace you are running at is going to be difficult to maintain for an extended period of time.

The prison pushups (using the deck of cards) are always fun though.

I'll try that as soon as I start running in a couple days. But I dont think my time is that bad seeing as half of the people my age (15) would stop jogging by half to 3/4 of a mile. According to the city I should be able to run a mile in under 10 minutes so am happy but won't hurt to make it faster. That might explain the cramps that I get while I run but I just run it off. Thanks for the 4 second rule, thats my new goal knowing full well I cant do it now. Maybe by the end of the summer

Oh yea and Soggy try jump roping, works wonders, buy the weighted ropes (2 lbs, 4lbs etc). I forgot where I read it but if they weren't lying to me then jump roping at a moderate pace for about 12 minutes is equivilent to running a mile (if they didnt lie to me)

[Go Pre]

My shoe of choice back in the day was the Nike Air Pegasus. I don't know if they still make them (seeing as I have stopped running competitively in recent years) but if they do, get a pair of those bad boys. They are amazing.