A few questions

[Chris24]

Hey,

I posted this here a few days ago, but now I cannot find it. If it was deleted because it violated the rules in some way, then I apologize but I thought I read through them all. I looked through the forums and found similar threads, but I couldn’t find anything that directly related to my questions. First, I have read through the poolee forum and looked at the amount of pull ups that they are doing and was impressed. I am trying to enlist for this summer, but as of this moment I can only manage about 4-5 pull ups (I only recently started doing them because I had a few surgeries on my shoulder over the past few years.) If I show up in boot camp being capable of only 4 pull ups, is it going to really hold up the platoon I am with? In other words, will I be “That guy” who is constantly holding up everyone else. (I am a bigger guy, about 6’3’’ 238 lbs and I do a lot of weightlifting, but not enough weight relative exercises like pull ups.)

Out of curiosity, I have been reading conflicting things about the amount of running to expect in boot camp. I only ask because I run about three miles every other day, but when I run three miles on back to back days I seem to get shin splints. Will I get kicked out if the shin splints cause stress fractures? Thanks for all the help,

[thewookie]

If you can do 4 or 5 of them now, by the summer you should be able to do 10 of them, if not more. "That guy" is the guy who comes unprepared and quits or doesn't try hard enough. Titles like that are earned by how you react and perform when you fail, and you will fail. Just keep working on them, it takes time to build up your upper body strength, especially if you're a big guy who has more weight to pull up.

The running question,, you won't run that much more at boot camp then what you're running right now. The running isn't that difficult, but you are going to be in boots utes and marching everywhere when you're not running, with a rifle and sometime with a day pack. So I'd be more concerned with that, and since you're feeling some pain in your shin splints now, it could be a problem.

How bad do you want it?

[timothyarm]

Lots of recruits (and poolees) get shin splints. However, shin splints is rarely a terminal condition. If you see the doc about it, you could probably get some motrin and water. If you want to minimize the impact, you can wear some cushioned insoles and avoid running on sidewalks (concrete) and the road (asphalt). Both surfaces are rough on your knees/shins; they are two of the hardest surfaces you can run on. However, you will be running on the road at boot camp, so you can't avoid it totally.

4-5 pull-ups is perfectly normal for a poolee. I entered boot camp barely able to squeek out 3, and I finished with 11. Yes, I was one of the weaker recruits when it came to pull-ups, but I was not held back nor did I hold the platoon back.

[UsmcMotorT]

google the armstrong pull-up prgraom. Should get your pullups up in no time.

[Chris24]

Thanks again for all the help, Marines. I will try the Armstrong pullup method. If I follow the Armstrong method until early June (I would hope to ship then, but I still need a waiver for my shoulder), how many pullups do you think I will get by then?