On my way

[Motarded]

Good evening Marines,
Not too sure where to post this and decided this would be the most acceptable place. I first walked into a USMC recruiting station around a year ago. Filled out all my paper work, pt everyday, and soon came the day to go to M.E.P.S. and get dep'd in. On my way to meps I was expecting to leave sworn in. It didn't turn out that way.
When I first talked to my recruiter he asked if I had any allergies, and I told him I was allergic to Crab. He said it was no big deal and I didnt have to put it on my paperwork, they only wanted to know serious allergies. When I was at meps they also asked, and I told them I was allergic and seconds later I was disqualified! After talking to my recruiter and another Marine at meps, I was told I can write a letter explaining my situation, how my allergies were not serious, and can possibly get a waiver. After doing so on my way home from meps my recruiter said it can take months to hear anything, and most people get denied so to start looking for a different future.
That was around 4 months ago, and about a month ago the same recruiter came out of no where and told me I was accepted! I havn't worked out in a while, and all the progress I made before meps has gone to nothing. Need to lose around 20 lbs(saw a thread about a poolee before and after and saw that as great motivation, but have no idea how to diet like that), and need help on my pull-ups. Im at 0 and see no progress! I've been lifting weights, and doing push-ups but dont see improvment. I started doing negatives yesterday, I heard thats suppose to help.
Well this was just me telling my story and letting you Marines know i'm on my way to earn the title! I've read through some threads on here and see you Marines really try to reach out and help out poolees and wannabes like myself. So if you have any diet, or pull up advice it would really help. Thanks in advance!

-Wannabe Amarillas

[Yonkers]

Thread moved. There has been countless threads on this subject, but maybe some Marines have some extra help they can give.

What I did personally was do pyramids, but it doesn't apply to your situation. Try and build muscle and burn the fat.. proper diet and all that obviously, but you have to basically train your body to pick itself up. Lifting would probably help, as well as a lot of cardio to burn fat.

Best of luck to you,
LCpl Yonkers

[Radiofantry]

Lose as much weight as you can, every pound you drop is one less pound you've got to lift, and do negatives. Before I went to boot camp I could barely do 1 pull up, by the time I shipped I was doing 7 or 8 and then when I got out of boot camp and into MOS school I was doing 20.

Use the Armstrong Pullup Program, modify it to work with negatives, and do the negatives until you can start doing real pullups.

Do you have access to a gym? If so, see if there is an assisted pullup machine. It will be a machine that uses weights and pulleys to subtract weight from your body weight but still allow you to do the correct pullup motions.

edit:

Also do lat pulldowns.

[Motarded]

I'm going to burn as much fat as I can and I'll look into the Armstrong program, but no I don't have access to a gym. I do have a total gym 1100, been using that. Also need to look into dieting properly, I know I need to burn more calories than I eat but that's it. Thanks for the help Marines. I'll keep you posted

[Motarded]

Question about the Armstrong program; Do you think it makes a difference if I do the 3 sets of max push ups at night instead of in the morning? Reason being I pt in the morning and it says I need to do the push ups atleast 3 hours before I do my pull ups, and the way my schedule is right now I cant do that. Thanks for the help!

[Radiofantry]

It shouldn't really matter but I made sure to follow the instructions and just would do one Max set when I first woke up, then brush my teeth and stuff, then do another max set, then grab all my clothes and whatever else I needed to shower, then do one last set and get in the shower.

I was in college before I enlisted though, so my schedule was very conducive to working out a lot.

Your single best exercise you can do to both lose weight and build the muscles you need for pullups is swimming. If you have a pool near you definitely start swimming every day.

[Motarded]

Im not the best swimmer either so ill definitly look into this. Thanks Marine!

[Tennessee Top]

Stay motivated and good luck. You can do this. Set manageable goals for yourself and work to attain them. Then, set your sights a little higher until you attain those. If you never accomplish anything it's a lot easier to get disheartened and stop trying.

It will never be easy. If it were, it would not be the USMC! Easy is for the other services. It will always be hard...and you will never want it any other way.

[Motarded]

Thanks for the advice and motivation Tennessee! I have my goals set and cant wait to achieve them!

[Motarded]

Quick update: Did my first chin up today! I was so motivated after I ran my ass to the ground! After only two weeks of negatives I did one. I cant wait to see where i'm at in 2 months! Stay Motivated!!