Intro/Fitness question.

[AndreBlanks]

Hello, my name is Andre Pawlowski and I'm 22, and planning on joining the Marine Corp. Right now, I'm finishing up the summer living with my friend and finishing up the busy season at work--so I hope...

[jrhd97]

Followed your link there, got a page not found.
To get your run time down combine youre run with sprints. While running pick an object in the distancs and sprint to it, jog when you reach it. Then do it again.
When doing pull - ups do pyramid sets. Do a set of 4, then set of 6, then 10, 6, and 4, or what ever number you can get to if not ten. Try and add reps to each set weekly. Do burn out sets once a week. Do dips and push ups with hands spaced shoulder width and with thumbs and fore fingers forming a triangle.
Crunches, just work on sets of however many you can do. Throw in leg raises, hello dollies, planks and other stomach/core exercises.
Good luck

[AndreBlanks]

Followed your link there, got a page not found.

Thanks for the tips, but this is a copy/paste of the article. It's (supposedly?) some of what the SEALS do (I cut out the running/swimming) so I'm just using it as a rough guide really.

First 9 Weeks: Week 1

Pushups: 4 sets of 15 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 4 sets of 20 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 3 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri Week 2

Pushups: 5 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 20 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 3 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri Week 3

Pushups: 5 sets of 25 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 4 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri Week 4

Pushups: 5 sets of 25 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 5 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 4 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri Weeks 5-6

Pushups: 6 sets of 25 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 2 sets of 8 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri Weeks 7-8

Pushups: 6 sets of 30 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 30 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 2 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri Week 9

Pushups: 6 sets of 30 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 30 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/ar.jpg Second 9 weeks: Week 1 & 2

Pushups: 6 sets of 30 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 6 sets of 35 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 3 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips (javascript:popUp('http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exerpop.php?Name=Bench+Dips')): 3 sets of 20 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri Weeks 3-4

Pushups: 10 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 10 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 4 sets of 10 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 10 sets of 15 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri Week 5

Pushups: 15 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 15 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 4 sets of 12 pullups, Mon/Wed/FriWeek 6 & Beyond

Pushups: 20 sets of 20 pushups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Situps: 20 sets of 25 situps, Mon/Wed/Fri
Pullups: 5 sets of 12 pullups, Mon/Wed/Fri
Dips: 20 sets of 15 dips, Mon/Wed/Fri

[jrhd97]

Looks pretty intense when you get down to week 9 and beyond. I would change the sit up to crunches and other ab work outs. Sit ups are terrible for the back.

[Chumley]

AndreBlanks,

Just keep doing what you're doing. You have to knock a lot of time off of your 3 mile run to get to a 300 PFT. In order to run your fastest at 3 miles, you will need to get stronger than 3 miles. Keep running as jrhd97 suggested, and work on stretching / lengthening your stride. Short strides mean more steps to take. Learn to ralax to control your breathing and get your average mileage up to 5 miles. As you get strong at 5 miles, you'll be able to run faster at 3 miles...it takes a few months, so build up to it within your limits and stretch throughly before and after each run. (PS - get good quality running shoes and wear them to bootcamp...they'll let you run in them - (at least they used to). The strength training you're doing is great...when you get to boot camp, they will push you harder than you've ever imagined, so the harder you work out now the better for you. There is no such thing as too much training, but be sure to balance yourself so that you rest enough to perform at your best and prevent injury. A variety of exercises will keep it interesting, and cross training will keep you in overall good condition. On the days that you don't feel like working out, work out anyways...you'll be glad you did later. There is a TON of PT info all over this site. Seek and you shall find...

Good luck!
C

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

The fitness plan is solid. If you can get through the end of that you'll be fine when you get to boot camp.

[AndreBlanks]

Thanks for the replys--yeah that last week or two gets pretty nuts, but we'll see. I mostly need help with running, so thanks for those tips, I'll work on it!

- Andre