Pic courtesy of “MGunz” Paul J Roarke of ‘Corps Strength’. See PMCI Issue 6
Richard S (UK)
When we leave the military and head straight out on to contracts
in hostile environments, you already have a high standard of
fitness. The problem is keeping and maintaining that standard of
fitness when operational and working long days.
Another problem, which I am sure everyone has experienced
it, is the location you are operating from. When you’re out in the
middle of an Iraqi oil field or stuck in the middle of a city, it’s hard
to maintain you cardio. Some time the only thing that is available
is a running machine and a set of weights. Being a runner back
home I don’t particularly like throwing weights about; on one
occasion my team was operating from the centre of Basra city
with a 30 x 20 meter patch of grass. Going back to my military
roots I downloaded the bleep test from iTunes, marked the set
distances out on the grass and I religiously did a bleep test every
night.
Again facilities can change depending on contract type.
For instance if you’re working DoD, I was working from a FOB
in Wardak province. The FOB had a 3 mile perimeter and was
situated on the side of a mountain. It was also situated at 8,000
ft, which again added to the training you committed to. The gym
was awesome and had every weights machine you could think of.
If you’re a fitness monster you’re probably going to hate
commercial contracts. Long days, horrendous food, and hard to
get your hands on protein powders. There are ways to get around
this, some guys use to bring protein back from leave or DHL
parcels to a local collection.
Be prepared to conduct some form of fitness test. When I
left the military and pushed out on my first contract in Iraq the
company I was contracted to required you to complete a 2-mile
run in full equipment carrying weapon systems. I also had to
complete a mile and a half weighted stretcher run wearing full
kit. Some companies standards are higher than others, the way I
looked at it, the higher the standards the better the contract was.
Overall if there is a bunch of squaddies or veterans bunched
up together in one spot, be sure there is gym equipment or a
fitness regime.
bags, kids etc work here) Start your long extended stepping
lunges and go for a walk, you will automatically take shorter and
shorter steps as you progress towards that one hundred and most
times along the way you will hit a point you can’t do another,
ditch the weights and keep going but always keep your form
proper. You may do all one hundred in which case next time use
more weight, baggage or kids. These two alone are more than
enough exercise to keep fit for work but some may desire a tad
more, to these we simple add in tradition weighted dead hand
pull-ups and overhead military press-ups. Again I do each 20x10
style but a max of 4 sets on these. At this point I may have only
worked out for 10 to 20 min max. But that is all it takes. My
lungs feel like they want to burst and my body will ache. I will do
this 4 exercise routine about two and max three times a week to
get fit and one or max two times a week to keep fit. Once I am
at my job or if my own schedule requires it, I do only one of the
exercises a day and take one day off from them every four days.
It works. How long can you keep this up? Don’t we need variance
to keep progressing and such? How long? Well I have clients who
have done this for over ten years with no injuries and have gotten
super fit and maintained it. This isn’t a program for a croxxf*t
competitor or a bodybuilder, or even a distance runner. But it is a
base fitness system for a mil contractor or human being.
Flexibility, range of motion and movement; I’m older yet I can
easily touch my toes and such. That is pretty normal flexibility is
a fit person no matter the age. Although I can get 90% into splits
as well they are not required by most for ideal flexibility. Again
people make getting that extreme flexibility a massive goal and
usually rush or force the process and get injured. You need to
accept your bodys real ideal range of motion, sadly most never
work up to it so they don’t know what it is or they force it and
get injured damaging their ability. I prefer the old style stretching
after a hard workout and only the muscles worked. Simple get
into a stretch then do contact and relax into the stretch contrast
style. Maybe stretching each movement for a minute or two total.
It works for me and allows me to maintain my range of motion
and for my clients allows them to get into theirs over time.
What about movement and posture. This is the only more
complex area of working out I use. I’ll tell you what I do, but this
is a case you should buy the books, videos and take a class or
two. I prefer the awareness through movement techniques like
Alexander and Feldenkrais styles. But other moving meditation
like advanced Tai Chi and such can be great too. What is the
number one complaint physically I hear on assignments that
require long standing or vehicle hours, back aches. These moving
programs virtually eliminate those issues and improve your work
endurance by leaps and bounds. Not to mention when you do
work in a suit you look healthy with that good posture.
So what do I do for physical prep before my work details?
I keep it simple. You may be unfit, unhealthy, overweight or
injured. I suggest caring for those first. After that just don’t get
injured!
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