I just got back from PLC Jr's. While not quite as rigorous as Sr's, its still very challenging for those who failed to get in shape prior to shipping out. Those who scored below the minimum 225, where not sent home, but put on physical probation. The staff keeps watch on you at every PT session. If you continue to struggle with PT, you will probably be sent home.
Stress fractures are very serious at OCS. We had a candidate in our platoon who was doing great up till the 4th week. He told the doc his shins were giving him problems. Doc directed him to medical, medical took x-rays of his legs and found a fracture. They told him his leg could break on him just walking, let alone running. Sent him home the same day.
Blisters; take care of your feet. Everybody has heard this, but I cannot stress the importance of taking care of your feet and blisters properly. So many people neglected to do so and would rather sleep an extra 20 minutes even after being told to do so several times. 5-20 minutes is all it takes after TAPS to put some foot powder on, moleskin, or whatever to help you feet out. I was one of those who started to get blisters the 4th week. However, I opted to get sleep thinking, "I can take care of this in the morning or later at night. Nope, you won't. You'll oversleep, or you will wake up at reville with no time to do some because the instructors are yelling at you. It does affect PT, especially when you run on them, be it the O-course, endurance course, or log race. Hell, even drill.
Its also been said that most everyones pullups go down at the end and everyones run time gets better. I would agree with that for the most part. I came to OCS being able to do 22 pullups. I left being able to do 25. Maybe its because I lost 10 lbs? lol. In any case, everybody is a little different as far as that goes.
Just like Taxman and Farkle said, everybody is different and responds differently to physical training. Being I did only 6 weeks, my opinions may differ from one who does 10 weeks. 10 weeks you are subjected to more physical stress as opposed to 6 weeks. Stretch before you go to bed or whenever it is appropriate. Hmm, trying to think of other stuff. Just an observation, but the meatheads had just as much trouble at OCS as the skinny guys if not more. There were a bunch of candidates who probably couldn't bench their weight once, but busted out 17-20 pullups & ran less than 19 minutes. Its true, your better off at OCS being able to do 35 pushups and run 18 minutes than the guy doing 75 pushups but runs 24 minutes. Sorry for the ramblin' on. Congrats to those who graduated this summer and those going in the future.
