Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
Okay, I'm a bit ashamed of this, but I failed my pre-OCS PRT run last week despite being able to nearly max pushups and not having any trouble with situps, either. Combination of lack of training with feeling like shit. But, with the help of the running program the coordinator gave me + some of my own tweaks, I brought my time down over a minute in a week. A lot of these exercises are supposedly stuff we'll do at OCS, so he told me to practice now. I'll get to run through it once more before OCS, hopefully with similar results. I'm going to share it here so anyone else with trouble running can benefit from it (apparently there were many like me in my district). And if you're just starting to get into shape for the military, this isn't a bad way to start, either.
First things first: If you're diet isn't good, now's the time to fix it. The biggest thing: NO CAFFEINE. No coffee/soda at OCS, so you might as well get yourself off it now. Other than that, just avoid generally high fat foods and anything that might inhibit you from working out the next day (ie don't drink yourself under the table).
The routine (you can do these days in any order that fits your schedule):
*it goes without saying to properly stretch before and after every workout day
**I threw biking in there as a way to build leg strength and get a decent cardio workout on days that I wasn't running. You don't have to go nuts on the biking, but you should be building up a bit of a sweat. You can do any similar low-impact workout you like instead.
Monday:
Back/bicep weight workout
bike 5 miles
Tuesday:
"PRT practice day"
0.5 mi warmup jog
Repeat the following at 1:00, 45 sec, 30 sec, and 15 sec
-Max situps
-Max pushups
-30 sec rest
1.5 mi run on a track or pathway, as fast as you can do it
Wed:
Chest/Tricep weight workout
bike 5 miles
Thurs:
leg lift workout (do these all in succession once or twice without stopping, increase reps if too easy)
-10 butterfly kicks, 4 count to a rep
-10 scissor motion with legs (forgot the name), 4 count to a rep
-10 leg lifts, 4 count to a rep
-20 reps of circle leg motions - 10 inward, 10 outward.
shoulder PT workout - all exercises except last done with arms extended, repeat all exercises in succession once without stopping
-extend arms away from side of torso, 10 4-count reps of circles forward followed by 10 4-count reps backward
-extend arms in front of torso, 10 4-count reps of circles inward, 10 4-count reps outward
-extend arms above head, 10 4-count reps of circles inward, 10 4-count reps outward
-Follow this with "POWs" -- basically, pretend you are doing dumbell shoulder press. 10 4-count reps.
40 minute jog (should be 3-4 miles). Basically, just put on an mp3 player and jog around town for 40 minutes.
Friday:
Shoulder/legs weight workout (I don't like doing legs because of all the running, so that's up to you)
5 mi on bike
Saturday:
"Deck of Cards"
-Grab a deck of cards, assign an exercise to each suit. For example: hearts = pushups, diamonds = diamond pushups, spades = situps, clubs = butterfly kicks. Modify to whatever you like. What you do is take the deck, shuffle it. Turn the card over, and do the exercise of the suit with the amount of reps on the face of the card. Eg: 8 of diamonds = 8 diamond pushups. Aces = 15 reps, jokers = 25 reps. Do the deck as quickly as possible, but above all else GET THROUGH THE DECK. If you need to take a 5 minute rest toward the end before you do another set, then take a 5 minute rest.
Run: Track workout. Sprint 1/4 mile at goal pace, 1/8 mile walk. Do sprints up to 2 miles or until you physically cannot reach anywhere near your goal pace. Your first sprint should be your lowest. Eg, if you want to run a 1:45 lap pace, you should run 1:48, then 1:46, 1:44, etc.
Sunday:
-3 mile run as fast as you can.
First things first: If you're diet isn't good, now's the time to fix it. The biggest thing: NO CAFFEINE. No coffee/soda at OCS, so you might as well get yourself off it now. Other than that, just avoid generally high fat foods and anything that might inhibit you from working out the next day (ie don't drink yourself under the table).
The routine (you can do these days in any order that fits your schedule):
*it goes without saying to properly stretch before and after every workout day
**I threw biking in there as a way to build leg strength and get a decent cardio workout on days that I wasn't running. You don't have to go nuts on the biking, but you should be building up a bit of a sweat. You can do any similar low-impact workout you like instead.
Monday:
Back/bicep weight workout
bike 5 miles
Tuesday:
"PRT practice day"
0.5 mi warmup jog
Repeat the following at 1:00, 45 sec, 30 sec, and 15 sec
-Max situps
-Max pushups
-30 sec rest
1.5 mi run on a track or pathway, as fast as you can do it
Wed:
Chest/Tricep weight workout
bike 5 miles
Thurs:
leg lift workout (do these all in succession once or twice without stopping, increase reps if too easy)
-10 butterfly kicks, 4 count to a rep
-10 scissor motion with legs (forgot the name), 4 count to a rep
-10 leg lifts, 4 count to a rep
-20 reps of circle leg motions - 10 inward, 10 outward.
shoulder PT workout - all exercises except last done with arms extended, repeat all exercises in succession once without stopping
-extend arms away from side of torso, 10 4-count reps of circles forward followed by 10 4-count reps backward
-extend arms in front of torso, 10 4-count reps of circles inward, 10 4-count reps outward
-extend arms above head, 10 4-count reps of circles inward, 10 4-count reps outward
-Follow this with "POWs" -- basically, pretend you are doing dumbell shoulder press. 10 4-count reps.
40 minute jog (should be 3-4 miles). Basically, just put on an mp3 player and jog around town for 40 minutes.
Friday:
Shoulder/legs weight workout (I don't like doing legs because of all the running, so that's up to you)
5 mi on bike
Saturday:
"Deck of Cards"
-Grab a deck of cards, assign an exercise to each suit. For example: hearts = pushups, diamonds = diamond pushups, spades = situps, clubs = butterfly kicks. Modify to whatever you like. What you do is take the deck, shuffle it. Turn the card over, and do the exercise of the suit with the amount of reps on the face of the card. Eg: 8 of diamonds = 8 diamond pushups. Aces = 15 reps, jokers = 25 reps. Do the deck as quickly as possible, but above all else GET THROUGH THE DECK. If you need to take a 5 minute rest toward the end before you do another set, then take a 5 minute rest.
Run: Track workout. Sprint 1/4 mile at goal pace, 1/8 mile walk. Do sprints up to 2 miles or until you physically cannot reach anywhere near your goal pace. Your first sprint should be your lowest. Eg, if you want to run a 1:45 lap pace, you should run 1:48, then 1:46, 1:44, etc.
Sunday:
-3 mile run as fast as you can.