Want to confirm advice given by recruiter.

[Ub3rmike]

As of now, I've been floating between 15-17 pull ups, vs. 0 in August when I first DEPd in. One of the recruiters told me that since I had so much time left (about 4 months), that instead of doing my normal routine of knocking out 5 max sets every other day, I should just do pull ups every day and at every oppertunity to the point where I'm so tired I would only be able to do 1 or 2. Supposedly I would be doing around 500 pull ups by the week. He said I should keep this up until the last month before I ship, keeping pull up activity to a minimum. Supposedly, I'll be shocked and awed by how much I shoot up right before I ship.

I'm willing to go through with this new plan, but I just wanted to see if anyone knows if there won't be any adverse effects from not taking a break from this routine.

[Call me fish]

Sounds like a pretty strong routine, but I wouldn't wait an entire month before boot camp. Just keep doing it up until maybe a week before. A week of no pull-ups will be PLENTY of time for your muscles to heal before boot camp and you will knock out a ton. Good job keep it up.

~fish

[rvillac2]

I agree with the advice of doing them every day. Whatever you routine you're doing, keep it up and keep improving. Your goal isn't met til you hit those max 20. Remember that the pullups and situps should be an easy max 100 points.

Some of us, even at the peak of fitness couldn't do an 18 minute run.

[CadetMSgtScream]

No, No, No, NO!!!

Do NOT do them everyday. Muscles need time to heal and grow, and yes I realize that when your arms are being trained for endurance and not size/strength but the concept is still quite similiar.

Stick to the standards...

Eat right(this depends on your size, lots of protein though), work-out hard, and REST - yes, this includes ATLEAST 8 hours of sleep a night, you can not believe how many people skip that last one...but to get back on topic, stick to every other day, if not even add another day of rest for the next month or so just to spice up your arms and keep them guessing then switch back to fall them into your usual 'grove' which has worked well for you..you really should NEVER work the same bodypart within the same 48 hour period.

[aust10n]

I sent you a PM with a link in it. It is a very good Pull-up routine. It is guaranteed to get someone from 11 pull-ups to 20 in a 4 week time period. Since you are at 15-17 you may be able to bust out 23+. Just stay true to and don't skip any days and you will get an easy 100 on PFT.

[WKranz]

As Scream said, muscles need time to rest etc. That being said, I have a pullup bar in the door to my room and i do a max set or negatives every time i enter and exit my room. I went from 0-6 in 1 month and am now at 12.

It is really whatever works for you though.

[Hussar]

The advice is sound. It's called Synaptic Facilitation. You're basically building stronger "nerve circuits". Here's an excellent link

http://cbass.com/Synaptic.htm

The guy's father in law was US Marine. Also, my neighbor a decorated US Army Ranger and Special Forces Operator said that they had chin up bars in front of the Mess Hall. There was a mandatory five pullups you had to do to get into the Chow Hall. Cadet M.Sgt Scream is wrong. You don't need as much rest as people say you do. While it does help, you have no time to rest if you're deployed. Also with the "Grease the Groove" regimen, you're never working to failure. That's the key. If you're not working it to failure, you don't need to rest.

[Brewer0311]

Yeah we do pull ups everyday and still go up. You plan on having time to heal from a pulled muscle while your on a patrol in Iraq or will you work through the pain? That should tell you if you should train everyday. I recommend the Armstrong pull-up work out. It's on the site somewhere just search for it. A lot of guys lose pull ups while at boot becuase your not working out like you did before. Best thing to do is be strong enough to get more than 20 before you ship and do some during your square away time while you're there. It'll benefit you more by doing 25 on your IST and 20 on your final PFT than doing 19 on your IST and then 14 on your final PFT at boot. I'm saying this becuase I lost a few pull ups by the end of boot camp. Mainly my fault for not hitting the bar when I had the chance to.

[Bim]

Brewer your right my two best friends recently graduated and unfortunatly i could not earn the title with them because im a jackass but anyways they are both really strong and motto one of them was doing 20 before he left and on the final PFT only did 13.... to much time spent writing letters to the broads haha and the other went down a couple as well. you are there for 3 months and obviously i havnt been to boot yet but im not gonna say i will do pull ups every night on free time because theres to much other stuff to square away. mix it up train the biceps with other lifts, you will be suprised i havnt been doing them religiously at the gym every day like i used to but i hopped up today and banged out 26 solid ones. fact.

[JJA1990]

Anyone have some good upper body exercises for someone with virtually no upper body strength. It's not that I am out of shape or anything, I could handle the run and crunches.. I even play two sports, I am just tall and slender.. and lacking any arm muscles. So that being said, where do I even start? I have quite some time to work on it..(I am signing up as a DEP in about two months.)

P.S. Didn't mean to steal the thread, but some of you guys seemed pretty knowledgable and I thought I might just leech onto this one.

[Motto Poolee]

I disagree with saying not to work the same muscles everday. I work out everyday and work the same muscles over and over again. Your body gets used to it, and you see results quicker. My body can handle it, if your can I suggest you do it too, Not everybody is the same.

[Bim]

i dont know, there is so many theories on body building and gaining muscles, getting stronger its rediculous lol you dont know what to believe or what to do. basically my adivce would be to do what feels besst for you. Dont over train you will end up getting hurt, get on some supplements to help you build muscle and also help your muscles heal faster. fact of the matter is doing pull ups isnt very strenuous on the muscles, welll at least to me. i dont get sore from doing alot of pull ups. lol im done rambling about nothing. just do what you gotta do to get those 20 guys.

[Brewer0311]

aust10n probably sent this link to you in a personal message but I'm going to put it up for those who don't have it.

http://www.4mcd.usmc.mil/AOP/OSOHyattsville/Armstrong%20Pullup%20Program.htm

Very good work out. We had a guy go from 2 to 14 in about 3 weeks with it and working out at the gym. He broke his arm at his elbow so he hadn't been able to PT for a long time.

As far as your two friends Bim that was what I was talking about exactly. Writing the ladies and being able to joke around when your DIs aren't around. My recommendation is one letter a night and make it short. Each night make it to a different person. Then on Sundays you'll get enough time to write everyone that you'd want to. With supplements I don't recommend too many. I wouldn't take creatine right before you go becuase it uses all the water in your system to make your muscles look bigger. You don't have to look big for anyone while in boot so save that for when you get out. Amino acids and multi-vitamins are two things that a lot of guys don't get on and should. It'll help with protein synthesis and generally make you healthier. Healthy = Stronger and better recovery. I can also personally recommend Muscle Milk and GAKIC as two that I know for sure do what they're supposed to. But as with any supplement results vary from person to person so don't message me if you go spend $150 on the stuff and you only get a little stronger. I've seen guys on Muscle Milk that get 5lbs more in muscle mass and then I've got a personal friend (probably really good genes) that went from benching 220lbs and weighing 165lbs to benchin 380lbs and weighing 180lbs.

[Phantom Blooper]

I do a full body workout three (3) X's a week with stretches before lifting for five minutes for a warm up. We have a weight station in the garage and I also do 100 crunches with a 10# weight on my abdomen on a 20" ball,use a 6' wooden closet rod for twists and stretches,a wheel for stretches and 25 push ups. Then I ride a bike for 20 minutes afterward for cardio and to relieve any lactic acid build up in the muscles.On the other two (2) days a minimum of 20 minutes cardio.

I used to do upper body one day and lower body the next and minimum 20 minutes cardio.

This is my basic routine for maintenance and age.Trainer recommended.

When I was in the Marine Corps, time and mission permitting I worked out or ran daily,with no ill effects.Cardio in my opinion after weight training in my opine is key to relieve the lactic acid build up in the muscles.


The cliché Pain Is Weakness Leaving The Body is not necessarily so if you have pain STOP and define and treat, if you have soreness and burn continue to MARCH!

[Brewer0311]

The cliché Pain Is Weakness Leaving The Body is not necessarily so if you have pain STOP and define and treat, if you have soreness and burn continue to MARCH!

Very good point. If your hurt you ARE hurt. If your sore it'll go away. Also SSgt's post reminded me that once you get in the fleet there are personal trainers at the gyms that will help you and give you more advice without having to pay.

[SGT7477]

When I was in The Corp. I ran every day sometimes twice a day once with the platoon and then I would run by myself plus hit the gym everyday when I went home on leave the same workouts don't give your muscles a chance to rest I never did I was benching 400 lbs in the Corp. 10 times in a row and weighing 170 lbs. You will have your breakdown periods which is natural but don't give up.

[Lickdem89]

The Armstrong workout works great ive gone from 10 to 14 in my first week..I just wish I was working on my pullups last year. Always been strength training and I was amazed by how weak my pullups were!

[dutch1291]

So not that i can even do 20 pull-ups yet (im at about 15 on a good set), if you were like really strong, and you're doing the PFT at recruit training do you just do as many as you can or stop at 20...it's just pure curiosity...probably a dumb question.

[Lickdem89]

I believe its as many as you can as long as your still on on the bar and dont touch the deck.

[Brewer0311]

correct. On your IST you'll go with as many until they tell you to stop. A lot of your squad leaders at the beginning will be determined by prior service, ROTC, and the IST. And on your final pft you want to do as many as possible so you can try and get High PFT which you get recognized for at graduation.