Female Trying to Gain Weight

[Lisa 23]

Yeah, my recruiters mentioned something about double portions. I have yet to have my first official POOLEE Function. When I was doing Physical Tests for the USAF I did pretty well, although their standards are different. During PT the other day this is how I scored: 72 crunches in 2 min. 22 sec. arm hang. 22:00 min. 3-mile run. But I am seriously lacking on my push-ups.

Female Marines don't do push-ups as part of their initial IST or their full PFT, just the crunches, flex arm hang and run.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marin...lfitfemale.htm

[Roop]

Female Marines don't do push-ups as part of their initial IST or their full PFT, just the crunches, flex arm hang and run.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/marin...lfitfemale.htm

Thank you. Although, I am aware that push-ups aren't a part of the initial IST or PFT. Hence why I didn't post my push-up count. Just stating that my strength needs to be much better.

[NoRemorse]

Thank you. Although, I am aware that push-ups aren't a part of the initial IST or PFT. Hence why I didn't post my push-up count. Just stating that my strength needs to be much better.

That would have been an "Aye aye, ma'am" instead of all this wordiness.

You can push for each letter of your response.

Females also have the option to execute pull ups.

[Zulu 36]

Yeah, my recruiters mentioned something about double portions. I have yet to have my first official POOLEE Function. When I was doing Physical Tests for the USAF I did pretty well, although their standards are different. During PT the other day this is how I scored: 72 crunches in 2 min. 22 sec. arm hang. 22:00 min. 3-mile run. But I am seriously lacking on my push-ups.

Haha, and I definitely don't want to be growing a beard. I ate a big bowl of pasta for lunch today and ran to the store and grabbed some Ensure Plus, I have yet to crack it open and try it, so we shall see. Thanks for the good advice.

OK, you're doing well above minimum for the run, not terribly far off for crunches, but that dead arm hang needs work. But you have time.

Pushups are good, plus do as many pullups as well. Pullups are harder for women because of physical build, but they can be done. The more you can do, the better your dead arm hang time will be.

It isn't the beard part thats so bad, it's when they start talking about transferring you to one of the other battalions. THEN you have a hormone problem.

[BR34]

Yeah, my recruiters mentioned something about double portions. I have yet to have my first official POOLEE Function. When I was doing Physical Tests for the USAF I did pretty well, although their standards are different. During PT the other day this is how I scored: 72 crunches in 2 min. 22 sec. arm hang. 22:00 min. 3-mile run. But I am seriously lacking on my push-ups.

Haha, and I definitely don't want to be growing a beard. I ate a big bowl of pasta for lunch today and ran to the store and grabbed some Ensure Plus, I have yet to crack it open and try it, so we shall see. Thanks for the good advice.

22 min is a pretty good run time. I think that's like 95 points. You can afford to run less for sure.

[Roop]

OK, you're doing well above minimum for the run, not terribly far off for crunches, but that dead arm hang needs work. But you have time.

Pushups are good, plus do as many pullups as well. Pullups are harder for women because of physical build, but they can be done. The more you can do, the better your dead arm hang time will be.

It isn't the beard part thats so bad, it's when they start talking about transferring you to one of the other battalions. THEN you have a hormone problem.

Thank you Sir for the tips. I've tripled my push-up count in only two months. But pull-ups are so difficult for me. I've been doing planks and lifting but I'm not sure how much it is helping. Any tips on that?

And haha, yeah that would scary for sure. I'll try to keep my female attributes as best as possible.

[Zulu 36]

Thank you Sir for the tips. I've tripled my push-up count in only two months. But pull-ups are so difficult for me. I've been doing planks and lifting but I'm not sure how much it is helping. Any tips on that?

And haha, yeah that would scary for sure. I'll try to keep my female attributes as best as possible.

For the arm work, I'd contact either LASWMarine, Commdog7 or Tegan on the PM to get tips. Getting a female up to speed for arm hangs is a little out of my area.

Commdog7 and Tegan are both active duty Sergeants (who happen to be females).

I don't have the info handy, but I'd say you are pretty close to being good to go on the IST. You can look it up, its all on-line.

[Lisa 23]

Before I left for boot camp 21 years ago, my flex arm hang was in the 25-30 second area, didn't have a problem with sit-ups then, not crunches, or my run. Same went for my initial PFT at boot camp on the flex arm hang. From the daily PT and everything else, I was maxing out the flex arm hang in no time. For my final PFT, I maxed the sit-ups, the flex arm hang, and back then.....we did the mile and a half run, not the 3 miles like today, and I just missed maxing the run out by 6 seconds. I needed to come under 10 minutes for the run and I had a run time of 10:06. My final PFT score was a 294 out of 300.
My point is, you'll build yourself up while you're at boot camp. Keep working on your flex arm hang, crunches and run times, but don't stress yourself out over it now.

[Roop]

Before I left for boot camp 21 years ago, my flex arm hang was in the 25-30 second area, didn't have a problem with sit-ups then, not crunches, or my run. Same went for my initial PFT at boot camp on the flex arm hang. From the daily PT and everything else, I was maxing out the flex arm hang in no time. For my final PFT, I maxed the sit-ups, the flex arm hang, and back then.....we did the mile and a half run, not the 3 miles like today, and I just missed maxing the run out by 6 seconds. My final PFT score was a 294 out of 300.
My point is, you'll build yourself up while you're at boot camp. Keep working on your flex arm hang, crunches and run times, but don't stress yourself out over it now.

Wow! Props on the great score. Thank you Ma'am for the encouraging words. It's always good to hear other's success stories.

Right now I have the mind-set of, "I WILL complete recruit training." Let's hope I can keep it up once I get to Parris Island. My recruiters are doing their job well, which also helps my case.

[Lisa 23]

For the arm work, I'd contact either LASWMarine, Commdog7 or Tegan on the PM to get tips. Getting a female up to speed for arm hangs is a little out of my area.

Commdog7 and Tegan are both active duty Sergeants (who happen to be females).

I don't have the info handy, but I'd say you are pretty close to being good to go on the IST. You can look it up, its all on-line.

I'm not sure what advice to give on the arm hang. My bunkie, (who already had the flex arm hang maxed well before I did), and myself, got permission from our Senior Drill Instructor to do off the wall push-ups during our free time at night, and for me, that's what got me maxing the flex arm hang in no time. We did that just about every night for about 15 minutes each night. I have my bunkie to thank for helping me max my flex arm hang time!
21 years ago, we didn't have any type of exercise equipment in our squad bay. Don't know if they have any of that today, but if they do, take advantage of it.

[Roop]

I'm not sure what advice to give on the arm hang. My bunkie, (who already had the flex arm hang maxed well before I did), and myself, got permission from our Senior Drill Instructor to do off the wall push-ups during our free time at night, and for me, that's what got me maxing the flex arm hang in no time. We did that just about every night for about 15 minutes each night. I have my bunkie to thank for helping me max my flex arm hang time!
21 years ago, we didn't have any type of exercise equipment in our squad bay. Don't know if they have any of that today, but if they do, take advantage of it.

Good idea. I can do off the wall push-ups before bed and in the mornings. A friend of mine also recommended 5 push-ups at every entryway or doorway I come across throughout my day. It's working for the push-ups thus far.

[commdog7]

First off, let me correct something I read at the begining of this page. Females DO NOT have the option to do pull-ups instead of the flexed arm hang. It doesn't matter how many pull-ups or one handed pull-ups a female can do, only the arm hang counts for the PFT.

Second, when I went through PI about 4 years ago, we had some exercise equipment in the squadbay. I know for sure we had the pull-up bar, but I don't remember what else we had. I think we had a structure for ab-workout, but that was about it. You can do crunches in your rank during lights out, I think all DI's encourage it. If you want an extra workout before the day ends, remember, you can always p!ss off the DI and they will quarterdeck you- that'll get you in shape.

[Petz]

No, I didn't. Maybe she's got a high metabolism that she burns everything off without gaining weight.
I just wanted to know why she's saying that she's in the DEP and doesn't have a shipdate in her profile, that's all. I did ask her to post here why she doesn't have a shipdate and why she's not in the DEP yet, but she didn't.

She must be the Average Americans worst enemy. I can hear the curses now...

she's probably saying it 'cause she's not sure of the whole system. I hate saying this but it's possible the recruiters are treating her with kid gloves or she's got a new recruiter right out of school.

[Petz]

I also want to stress that you focus on the two things that will hurt you shipping since your run time is freaking awesome.

flex-arm-hang and crunches. Everything else is a waste of time (exercises to help improve those two are NOT). Also, I was thinking, maybe you ought to eat lots of food just before you goto bed. That'll be good for about 4-5 pounds this month.

[MarineNCurls]

I've always had a very high PFT. Back in February, I got into something that jacked up my elbow really bad. After 6 weeks of trying to recover, I went to the pull-up bar to try my hang...couldn't hold on for more than 5 seconds. I was disgusted, and the pain was excruciating. HOWEVER, every other day after that I went on a run and went back into the gym and did 3 sets of my max. The first week sucked because I could only hang for about 12-18 seconds, but in a month I was able to max it with much ease.

Just practice. And it's ok if you're not there before boot camp...the DI's will get you there.