Tips For Maxing Out My PFT?

[FacFortia]

Hello Marines,

I am not officially a poolee yet (I signed my paperwork for DEP already, but I go to MEPS on 20160705), but I have been working closely with my recruiter for the past few months to get squared away so I'll be as prepared as possible before I go to boot camp (most likely the beginning of June 2017).

After talking with my recruiter and exploring my options, I've set my mind on being an 0321 (wow, shocker) and getting an HZ/Recon contract. My recruiter said that he would give me the HZ contract, IF I prove to the Gunny that I'm in great enough shape to successfully complete BRC.

I took an IST this morning, and my results were:

1.5-mile run - 11:17
Pull-ups - 6
Crunches - 50

He said I did great for my first IST, but I'm really striving for a first class score; I'm not satisfied with my status quo. Can any of you Marines give me tips or things I can do to taper down my run time and increase my pull-ups and crunches? I'm not looking for an easy way, just the one that's going to work. Also, with those scores, if I were to go to boot camp tomorrow, how would I fare?

Perhaps I'm putting the cart before the horse and I should be thinking about graduating from boot camp first, but I really want to be as squared away as I can and ready for anything.

Regards,

Dan

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[Tennessee Top]

You're heading in the right direction and you're right to be focusing on the IST at this point (because that will be your first challenge).

But. You should also keep in mind. To successfully complete BRC, physical fitness is only half the equation. The other half is swimming fitness. More candidates are dropped from BRC because of the pool than their physical fitness. At some point, you will need to be spending just as much time in the water as you are on physical conditioning. This includes as much time as you can with swim fins. One of the exercises candidates at BRC must pass is going up and down ladders with swim fins on (to simulate boarding a ship). All RECON Marines are scuba and jump qualified. Not saying to get qualified before you go, but you may want to at least have some SCUBA experience under your belt so it's not all new to you and you'll be more confident with it. These are RECON Marines on training missions:

[FacFortia]

Thank you for the insight, Top; I had not yet even thought of the swimming portion of BRC. I'm not a stud swimmer (read: I'm a very poor swimmer), so should I start working out in the pool every day now? My father is a PADI-certified diver, so would it be wise to get SCUBA-certified if it's made readily available to me? Also, do you know of any RECON Marines on Leatherneck that could coach/mentor me in the green-side style of swimming? Or possibly any books I could read on the subject?

[Tennessee Top]

Baby steps. Over training oftentimes results in overuse injuries which will only set you back. So no, you should not be in the pool every day now. But, since you're a poor swimmer, you need to make becoming a stronger swimmer at least important at this point and build on that progress as you go along. I suggest talking to your recruiter and coming up with some kind of plan on how to improve both your physical and swimming fitness. This will also help you with swim qualification in bootcamp.

You should definitely take advantage of your dad being PADI certified. Getting SCUBA qualified cannot hurt. Understand, the USMC is going to do some things differently but the basic concepts are the same. Just like with basic marksmanship. The principles are the same, but the USMC has it's unique style of teaching those principles.

Don't know of any RECON Marines here (RECON is a very small community). Maybe your recruiter knows one. Don't know of any books either but you could do a search for those.

Swim week in bootcamp: