My quest to get back in shape.
Post deployment, I was doing pretty good. Posted my 2nd highest score of my career on my PT test.
After that, the abundance of food I missed took over... I put 10 lbs on, and 3 inches on my waist. That led to me failing my next PT test by nearly 15 points. Thankfully that was just a mid way practice test before the next real one, so no career impacts.
So over the last couple weeks, until my next official test in mid September, I've been tasked with 4 work outs a week.
Each session a week is with a differant trainer. Last week I started out with circuit training. We ran 5 laps on an indoor track, which was just over a quarter mile, then would do two minutes of calisthenics, like push-ups, flutter kicks, and the like. We did 8 full circuits of that, and you were feeling pretty dead by the end.
The next session I did another PT test, were we ran through every segment of the test, just trying to push myself a little further on each one. Afterwards I was sent to do another 30 minute workout on my own, in which I did a 10 minute fast paced walk to cool down after the test, then spent the last 20 minutes doing a softer type of circuit training like I listed above.
Next was some cross training. 35 minutes on a stair climber. We spent the first 20 minutes increasing difficulty, and I went up to 13 out of 20. He then had me back it down to 11 for the last 10 minutes, then the cool down. Afterwards we went and did some push up training, since that's a particular weak point of mine on the test.
My final session of the week was probably the easiest. Started out doing calisthenics. Did some push-ups, flutter kicks, and lunges. We then ran a mile and a half, pushing ourself to run at our fastest pace.
Throughout the week I was noticing my muscles have been strengthening themselves, with my "recovery time" between each session becoming better and better.
Today was my first session of this week. We did interval running. Started out doing a half mile jog to warm up, then I stretched out a bit. From there we ran a good paced quarter mile, which I did in 1:37. We'd take a two minute break, and then run another, which I did in 1:35. After another break, we did our last run, which I did in 1:32. Took a few minutes to recover, and we did a three quarter mile cool down. After we were done running we went into the gym and did some more push up training.
Tomorrow I have another circuit training session like last weeks. He'll probably push us a bit harder then last week.
So far, I've noticed some good returns. My runs have been getting faster, and I've been noticing some strengthening of my muscles, allowing my to do a few more push-ups now then I was able to do before.
I've got about 5 weeks until my next test, so if I keep improving like this, it's very likely I'll be hitting my best score ever.