Military Nerds

[CommMarine]

Looking for other military nerds who can help each other keep in check.  I'm an active duty Marine, so I believe in once and always, so it doesn't matter to me if you're a Poolee, Recruit, Active, Reserve, Retired, Spouse, Brat, whatever.  

 

This will give us a venue to complain about how our Unit's PT just isn't quite cutting it for us, how the 1st Sgt still has his head up his butt, and talk royal smack to each other for falling off our goals.

 

I'll start even if there's no interest:

 

Active Duty Marine Sergeant, been in for about 7 1/2 years.  Currently stationed at Parris Island (no, not as a Drill Instructor, though I do have a story about that).  Radio Technician, Deployed to Camp Fallujah 07-08.  Have spent the past 7 1/2 years convincing my fellow Marines that you can be a nerd and a Marine, and be enthusiastic and efficient in both.

 

PFT - 245-ish - 21:00 3-mile, 13 Pull-ups, 100 Crunches

CFT - 298 - 2:55 1/2 Mile, 100+ Ammo Can Press, 2:02 MUF

 

Eligible for promotion this year, and considering the draw down and the fact that I weigh in AT my max weight every time, I figure nows a good time to step up my PT and health game.

 

Links for my 6-Week Challenge and other stuff are in my signature.

 

A little food for thought (NSFW):

 

 

Here's the List:

 

CommMarine - Ranger

Draken273 - Ranger

Kalmar - Ranger

dr3wcifer - Ranger

Gllarso - Ranger

 

I notice a class trend >.<

 

Semper Fidelis

[Draken273]

Active Duty Army here, currently deployed to Afghanistan, just hit my year mark a few months ago. I fix helicopters and stuff, currently working my ass off to make E4 early.

APFT- avg 15:00 2 mile, 50+/- Push ups, 65+/- Sit ups.

Goal-   13:59/less 2mile, 65+ Push ups, 75+ Sit ups

 

Back story- Joined the Army at 19, had to lose roughly 30 pounds, to get in a 215/26% body fat, got out of basic, plateaued at AIT around 195-200, 22-23%body fat. got to my unit around xmas leave, didn't PT, ate a lot, Deployed, recently failed both body fat percent(Passed) and my PT test so that kinda gave me a wake up call and some much needed motivation. Im now under body fat percent but not at my goal weight yet of 170-175. I can pass a PT test,  I just haven't taken one since.

[Kalmar]

Alright, lets do this then. I'm active duty Air Force, about to hit 2 years in July and work as a medical lab tech. Never been deployed, but I'm trying to bother the right people to make it happen. I enlisted right after college, ended up weighing the same at the end of basic as before but without the gut, then I got lazy at tech school. Decided I needed to kick my butt in gear when my brother (who was Army) wouldn't lay off the "Chair Force" comments. Now I'm on an unofficial mission to destroy that image.

 

PT Score: 10:30 1.5mi; 58 sit ups; 67 push ups. 

 

That was 9 months ago, so I have another one coming up. I need to drop my run time to 9:12 to max out everything, so that's my goal.

 

I also lead PT once a week, so if you have any fun suggestions I'm all for them.

[dr3wcifer]

Army O here. Commissioned 2.5 years ago, was enlisted Reserve for 3.5 years before that. Fairly in shape, but recently got into Crossfit, and pushing to see what my limits are.

APFT: 65 push-ups, 72 sit-ups, 13:10 2-mile. And I'm currently at 9 pull-ups (not that the Army cares, haha).

But I'm down for joining a mil team for this. About to start my first 6-week; should be fun. Link in sig.

[Gllarso]

My name is Garrett, I am a 10 year Air Force veteran, three years separated now and just joined the AF Reserves. While I was in the active duty AF, fitness and health were always a struggle for me. Keeping my weight and waist size down was a constant battle that I usually lost. When it came time to do the fitness tests I always squeaked by or failed a couple times, almost killing myself in the process. Things got worse when I separated and I reached an all time high of 250 lbs.

 

Since Thanksgiving, 2011, I have made it down around my pre-enlistment weight of 190 lbs, 187 lbs was the lowest I got. And I will do whatever it takes to not go back there. I want to be able to pass my AF PT test with flying colors and maybe even be able to max it out someday.

 

I have not taken an official PT test in over 3 years now, my first one will be coming up in August with the AF Reserves. But I do like to occasionally test my own fitness level using the AF PT test as a model and here is what I've been able to do the last time I checked:

AF PT score: >12 min / 1.5 miles; ~50 push-ups; ~50 sit-ups; 32.5" abdominal measurement

Not part of the PT test, but I can also do ~10 pull-ups.


Also, is this group listed on the Accountabilibuddies sign-up sheet? I couldn't find it to add my name to the list...

[CommMarine]

I wanted to gauge interest first, and there's interest!  OohRah!

Gunna go update the spreadsheet now.

 

*edit Annnnnd the sheet is updated.  We are technically a multiclass group, even though we are all Rangers >.<

 

Then go to the gym and punish myself for have a Monster Java, BAD MARINE!

[Gllarso]

 

I also lead PT once a week, so if you have any fun suggestions I'm all for them.

 

That is cool, I would like to be able to get into becoming a PT Leader within my new Reserve Squadron and maybe help others improve their fitness levels as well. I imagine it would be fun to have everyone do the Konami Code Workout and see how many of them get the gaming reference.

 

Also if you want a cool tool to help you track your PT testing progress I found the AFTracker app for my iPhone where you can input your times and numbers and it will give you your PT score without you having to pull up one of those charts and do calculations yourself.

[CommMarine]

Oooooh, I got some stuff to lead PT with, works well with a group and you can still slaughter your people.  I'll have to remember to get them up on here

[Gllarso]

  Have spent the past 7 1/2 years convincing my fellow Marines that you can be a nerd and a Marine, and be enthusiastic and efficient in both.

 

As a prior Cryptologic Linguist working in Military Intelligence for 10 years I can tell you that I have seen plenty of nerds in all services, including the Marines. Some of them were very good at excelling at being a nerd and being a Marine, and others might have let themselves get a little lazy on the Marine side. But it can happen!

[dr3wcifer]

So does anyone want to start a team? We're all military, we're all rangers. A team could be fun.  

[CommMarine]

ALready done, slide over to the Cross Guild tab and I put in all of our names, I may have been assuming that we all wanted to play >.<

[dr3wcifer]

Damn right! Next question: Team PvPs?

[CommMarine]

Not fair, The Marines always win

 

Aaaaaaand the conversation turns into a penis measuring contest.

 

I'm down, though I haven't an idea on how divvy us up.

[dr3wcifer]

I meant our team vs. other teams. Lol.

[Gllarso]

That sounds like fun to me, I'm down! What kind of game/challenge with other teams do you have in mind?

[dr3wcifer]

I'll get back to you on that one. Lol.

[PrincessHeather]

Air Force wife here.... and getting ready to PCS to Elmendorf in Alaska!

 

Also, not a ranger... I do some crossfit, but my biggest focus are the powerlifts.

 

Already in another accountability group, but I'll certainly be checking in here every so often.

[jododiddly]

I'm married to Dr3wcifer, so Army wife. Monk class. This is my first 6 week challenge. I went ahead and put myself on the Military Nerd team.

[Gllarso]

Air Force wife here.... and getting ready to PCS to Elmendorf in Alaska!

 

 

I'm married to Dr3wcifer, so Army wife. Monk class. This is my first 6 week challenge. I went ahead and put myself on the Military Nerd team.

 

Welcome to both of you, and my hat goes off to you. Lord knows it isn't easy putting up with military spouses. Good luck to both of you and it looks like we are getting a very well rounded group going here (and more Air Force!!).

[Puppychow]

Active Duty Army here, currently deployed to Afghanistan, just hit my year mark a few months ago. I fix helicopters and stuff, currently working my ass off to make E4 early.

APFT- avg 15:00 2 mile, 50+/- Push ups, 65+/- Sit ups.

Goal-   13:59/less 2mile, 65+ Push ups, 75+ Sit ups

 

Back story- Joined the Army at 19, had to lose roughly 30 pounds, to get in a 215/26% body fat, got out of basic, plateaued at AIT around 195-200, 22-23%body fat. got to my unit around xmas leave, didn't PT, ate a lot, Deployed, recently failed both body fat percent(Passed) and my PT test so that kinda gave me a wake up call and some much needed motivation. Im now under body fat percent but not at my goal weight yet of 170-175. I can pass a PT test,  I just haven't taken one since.

My boy is currently deployed @ Kandahar. He's been thinking about starting up on here. He'd love the support if you're anywhere near by! Thanks for serving

[CommMarine]

Welcome to both of you, and my hat goes off to you. Lord knows it isn't easy putting up with military spouses. Good luck to both of you and it looks like we are getting a very well rounded group going here (and more Air Force!!).

 

This line made me LOL, sounds like you're saying that the spouses aren't easy to put up with!

[CommMarine]

Kicked out Tri workout today, and I'm going to share a PT session you can slay your unit with.

 

I call them "Sheehan Intervals" after my SSgt (now CWO2) who destroyed us with them, and brought my 3-mile down from 21 to 19.

 

First, divvy up your group into ability groups.  For Marines, the gauge I use is 3-Mile run time.  My groups look like this:

 

Rabbits: 18 - 21 Min

Turtles: 21 - 24 Min

Slugs: 24+

 

Now, this is where the unit leader needs to do some work before hand.  The goal is to have the intervals be at the fastest pace in the group.  So, for the rabbits, you want to have these time limits:

 

When using a 400M track:

 

1/2 Lap is approx 1/8 Mile, so 1/8 of a mile at a 6 Min Mile pace is 45secs.

1 Lap ~ 1/4 Mile = 1:30 Min

1 1/2 Lap ~ 3/8 Mile = 2:15 Min

2 Lap ~ 1/2 Mile = 3 Min

 

Now, do the math for the rest of the groups at the various intervals.  Now, you can time everyone, or designate the fastest in each group to be the time man.  The goal is to come in at your groups goal time, and each person that comes in behind that time adds 1 point.  These points are added up for the whole unit for some fun later >.<

 

Interval Overview:

 

Warm-Up - 1 Lap Jog

Sprint 1 - 1/2 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

Sprint 2 - 1 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

Sprint 3 - 1 1/2 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

Sprint 4 - 2 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

Sprint 5 - 1 1/2 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

Sprint 6 - 1 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

Sprint 7 - 1/2 Lap

Rest - 1/2 Lap Walk/Jog

 

Now, this works out to 3.125 Miles-ish, but no sprint is more than a 1/2 Mile.  After everyone's done, tally up the number of times your people came in behind the goal time, and do something that number of times.  If I have the resource, I usually make them run up stadium stairs that number of times (Up and Down is 1).  Squats/Lunges/Burpees/Starjumpers are all viable options as well.

 

I love intervals, and for me this brought my 21 Minute 3 mile down to 19, I even saw 18:54 once, but then I got lazy >.<  Plus, with ability groups everyone gets a challenge and has an opportunity to shine.

[Gllarso]

This line made me LOL, sounds like you're saying that the spouses aren't easy to put up with!

LMAO, that is exactly what I said, though it's supposed to mean the spouses that are in the military. Listen to what I mean, not what I say!! Marines! j/k. It's not easy being married to a military member.

[a_klodt]

Hey guys!

Reg force army here as well. I am in the Canadian Forces as a Combat Engineer. I have been serving for 4 years now, am due for my Cpls any day now, and just signed away another 25 years of my life. Have always been of an average fitness level, and last year began CrossFitting regularly to try and up my intensity. I am still lacking in upper body strength ( I can only do 2 pull-ups) and my running needs a lot of work. Have never failed a PT test or not been able to fulfill the physical requirements of my job, but also don't like to settle for being average. This challenge for me has a huge focus on pull-ups and running because I can't stand having noticeable weaknesses.

Do you still have room for one more in your group?

Cheers

[Draken273]

I think theres always room around here. But 25 years eh? that sounds like a sick form of personal punishment lol.