Warrior’s tools - step one
The toolbox of the soldier is beautiful for its simplicity. There are only three tools that a warrior may count upon at all times: Skills, mind, and body. I have heard several pings of those interested in developing a warriors work out, a soldiers program to physical fitness. Trying to develop it has been quite a bit more challenging then I suspected. I am in very good shape according to Army standards, I rely upon my body to perform task and am very rarely disappointed. However, as I tried to make the transition from the PT officer of my company to an individual trainer, I’ve run into some startling road blocks that have left me uncertain how to ‘soften’ the Army style training into a civilian individual health benefits.
Ultimately, I have realized this is not the way to go about it at all. I’ve realized recently that the reason the Army is so good at developing the tool of the body, is because it also develops the other tools at the same time. Physical training is mixed with leadership reaction courses, is mixed with controlled environmental stimuli, is mixed with group mentality training and punishment, is grouped with classes and lectures- these things not just complementary to one another, but dependent on the strains each offers to develop the others. I doubt very highly that any who have not been there can understand the struggle for consciousness in a three hour long block of instruction in an air-conditioned room with low lights, after four grueling days of intense physical activity and limited sleep. It is a domain of especially creative punishments.
The Army and my records would tell you a lie. My raw scores and performance are all indicative of a twenty year old with high PT motivation, not a twenty seven year old with a love of cakes. The lessons of my previous testing have shown me one thing above all, motivation is key. Mental toughness is six ninths of the whole. The last portion is two thirds physical, and one-third technique. Don’t kid yourself; in the struggle of the long distance run or even the two-minute push up drill, technique is a significant contributing factor. You may decide your own break down of effort and I won’t argue against it.
So, you want the fitness of a soldier?
Toughen up. We’ll focus on the physical later, for now we will USE the physical as a tool. I believe quite emphatically that mental toughness is key, and I am finally allowing this aspect of my understanding of my own performance to enter into my suggested training. This is something the soldiers who line up in front of me already have inside of them from basic training and AIT. I can in no way supplement that training to others (shy of running an actual boot camp) but perhaps I can help lessen that gap.
Step one: Death and hunger.
When I get to Hell
Satan’s goanna say
How’d you earn your living boy?
How’d you earn your pay?
And I’ll reply with a knife through his face;
“Earned my living laying souls to waste”
Life and the body are, understandably, linked and directly related. I am in no way advocating the abuse or destruction of the body save for controlled and limited purposeful interims in the ongoing training- most notably when one hits the natural walls or plateaus. Pushing threw, as well see again and again, is what makes the soldier fit in the soldier’s way.
Why is this the first step? Because discipline without purpose is needless suffering without gain or merit. To attain these things, is to define them in a goal. Your goal, when approaching this regiment, is to transform your figure and mind into one that is capable of killing another human being, with hopes and dreams and family, if forced to do so. Light willing, you will never be put in that situation, and prayers before and after training to these effect in no way lessen you or any true soldiers opinion of you. However, the way to gain the soldiers form is to first and foremost have the soldier’s mentality. You are not doing these things because they are good for you (frankly, most of the Army work outs are only 70 to 80 percent effective on the muscle group being trained, but they harden you in other ways as we’ll see) you are doing these things in preparation for the time you might be called upon. Be it to struggle against the elements, yourself, or combative opposition, the intent of this training is to provide you with a somewhat more honed tool - the body- to handle that situation with no regrets or lacking. Imagine yourself in the worse possible scenario that could reasonably (or even unreasonably) happen to you. Make your fears and death your motivation; it makes being cruel to your body bearable. Second place in the jungle is dinner; don’t let that be you.
Hunger
The body is so quick to be placated. Frankly, it’s a little terrifying how easy it is to lull the physical frame into comfort. This is in no way a bad thing! I do not advocate you be in pain the entire time you are training. However, there is a very different response from a body that is hungry then a body that has not been hungry for a time - it is why we perform all our testing in the early morning before breakfast. At no time in this program will you reduce what you eat (change, even increase, but not reduce) but there is a very solid preparation for the body to help you with the discomfort that you will have to push threw. When your body is active enough, working on itself, overhauling itself, you will shoot threw food faster and in greater quantities then you would believe. You will be hungry, most if not all of the time. You’ll need to become comfortable with it. Here’s a great way to prep yourself- starting before you ever do a single push up (and continuing as long as you may). Eat your dinner early- five, six at the latest, go to sleep around nine, ten at the latest. This won’t seem like much now, in prep, but as you begin to work out more, you’ll notice that by the time you go to crash, you’ll be hungry.
Do. Not. Eat. After. Dinner.
Drink water. Drink as much water as you want. Stay away from dairy after noon- drink water. Ultimately, the goal will be that just before you go to sleep, you will drink a large glass of water (or two) before hitting the sack. Don’t stay up to read, just hit the sack. As your body eases into sleep (and it may take a while from the aches) the water will pass down into your system, and you’ll slowly become more and more hungry, even as you become more and more comfortable, sleepy- warm- relaxed. The sensation of hunger will be there, possibly even sharply, but you won’t care. In this way, you accept the hunger of your body. Added benefits are re-hydration of the body, and ease of waking the next morning. Nothing gets a trooper moving at 5 AM like a full bladder.
Your up! Your hungry, but your stomach is too tight to really send any registration to your brain that “man, I’m hungry!" - not yet. Within 30 minutes of waking, start running. Keep your pace at or under a nine-minute mile, run for distance. Starting at a mile, add a half-mile to this early morning run every week until you’re up to five miles. Once you’re doing five,back down the run portion of the work out until every other morning instead of every morning. Talk to me when you reach this point, as it will be time to do a PT test to see where you stand. Being able to breath is critical to every other workout, so we always start with the run.
Shower before you eat. Do complete all personnel hygiene. Dress- put on your shoes, get everything ready you need to start the day. This lets you cool down and calm down before stuffing your face, but also gives you the added benefit of a leisurely breakfast mentally. Your only concern about breakfast is now time. Must finish eating by this time- once you do, pick up your bag and start your day. None of these little voices of ‘you must do me before you can leave the house’ interrupting you while cutting your eggs.
Remove sugar from your breakfast. Caveat- a single cup of coffee fixed as sweet and creamy as you want it won’t kill you, but if you an make the transition from that to orange juice? You’ll be running on all six by lunch. Try to get a full tall glass of milk in your system (prevents shin splints) and take as much meat and eggs as you want.
Stay active!
For the start up of this regime, I must with great disdain surrender a great deal to practicality. In the face of the demands of life, we will focus on the pushup. Do them. Every hour on the hour. Pick a number, even be it as low as five, but probably not more then twenty- and every hour on the hour (or as close to it as you can) do push ups. It’s a small discipline, a preparatory for muscle failure work outs later, and a GREAT motivator to come home knowing you knocked out 50 pushups over the course of the day, or a thousand over the course of a week. Try to fit 10 repetitions in a day, but make sure to get 6 at the very least.