Military Training

This isn’t exactly the most thrilling sight, but the good news is that true military training isn’t quite this bleak a picture. Rather, military training more closely resembles a full body-and-mind workout.

The rise in people wanting to take part in military-style workouts came as a result, perhaps not surprisingly, after a blockbuster film.

“It’s become popular in the last three to four years, mainly through media. [After] the movie 300, we saw huge surges,” said Pro(Ag)gressive Fitness Centre’s Chris McDole.

The true benefit, McDole adds, was that the enthusiasts wanted to get back to the basics of working out–basic movements like chin-ups, push-ups, calisthenics, etc.

But the movie, in large part, didn’t inspire the average Joe who wanted to build up to doing impressive rep numbers. Rather, those who were populating the fitness centre were primarily fire and military trainees, who came to prepare for their careers.

“For a lot of those guys, it’s a means to an end. It’s not, ‘I want to go and do 1,000 push-ups.’ It was more of a survival thing at the end of the day,” McDole says.

The true challenge that lay ahead for these trainees was not being able to survive the gruelling pace of doing hundreds upon hundreds of reps–it lay in their ability to go through that physical challenge and maintain their mental alertness.

“You can be an outstanding athlete and pass tests with flying colours, but that would take a lot away from making decisions when you’re tired,” McDole explains. “Doing a whole bunch of pull-ups isn’t really related to scaling a wall while someone’s trying to blow your head off and you have to make a key decision; so there’s a lot of tasks that come into play.”

“We do a lot of work on making decisions while in a state of fatigue–that’s the biggest key,” Chris adds. “If they’re tired and they can’t make a decision when they’re tired, then you don’t have a good soldier at the end of the day.”

FOCUS

McDole points out that while a lot of the workouts will concentrate on increasing a participant’s strength and power, there are parts that also focus on agility, as well as the always important endurance.

But the reality of military training is that pushing oneself harder at the local fitness facility won’t give you the type of workout to succeed. McDole points out that it isn’t as simple as strapping on extra weight to your body during a workout.

“There’s a lot that people try to replicate in the gym like running on a treadmill, but that’s not going to cover it when you’ve got full gear on and you have to run outside and get acclimatized to the heat in Afghanistan or something like that,” he says. “There are certain things we go through. For example, if they have to do a bunch of pull-ups with 40 kilos around their waist, that’s a lot different than 40 kilos of gear on because the centre of gravity changes. You have to just do it at the end of the day–you have to change it up and work with more ropes and those kinds of things, because that’s a lot more than just having a stable bar to do pull-ups on.”

By expanding your workout beyond the normal gym rotations, you will push your body to new levels and be prepared for anything thrown at you, just like our brave brothers and sisters in the military.

Grip Exercise 1

Purpose—Military life unfortunately can mean carrying a fellow soldier away from harm. Get a more realistic feel for carrying or dragging a body by using these techniques. You can also replicate a body carry by using a sand or heavy bag. To accomplish this, try doing lunges (pictured) or walks with the bag over one or both shoulders.

Grip Exercise 2

Steps—For weight reps, do a sled pull using a rope to pull the weighted apparatus rather than a steel bar (as pictured). Use towels or similar cloths for lifts and pulls instead of the standard metal rods.

Grip Exercise 3

To replicate a shifting body, place a heavybag or large sandbag in front of you, lifting it to your chest, holding and then lowering.  Remember proper lifting techniques to avoid injury.

Mind Excercises

Purpose—Prep your mind for peak decision- making on the battlefield to push your brain past the body’s exhaustion. Steps—After a couple hours of circuit training, do some mind activities. These exercises can be as simple as picking out colours and shapes. As illustrated, lay out a series of coloured discs. Have someone call out a colour to you and time your reaction. For a bigger challenge, try the tried and tested “Simon” style game by following sequences as they are called out.