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Developing strength for the army will mostly come down to the ability to be able to use your body easily on any plain of movement. Occasionally you will need to lift heavy objects like motor base plates, ammo boxes, different calibers of machines guns and of course in the worst case scenario, people. Seldom do exercises like bench presses serve a purpose. Bodyweight movements like chins and dips or better yet muscle ups that will help you lift yourself up over something are more what you need.
When we’d go on exercise out in the field there was always something that would come up where strength played a key roll in getting the job done. It could be as simple as having enough grip and back strength to free a stuck cocking handle on your C6 GPMG. You never know when you will need to help re-track a M113 or move some tires for a LAV and that’s just to start. Computer-generated scenarios of an invasion of Western Europe have had artillerymen loading from 300 to 500, 155mm-howitzer rounds at 95-lb pounds a piece while moving from 6 to 10 times each day over 8 to 12 days.
So how do you build up to carrying loads exceeding 100 pounds over great distances? Because it’s one thing to be strong so you can do the job, it is a completely different thing when the results of your physical training could be the determining factor in if you survive a situation or not.
Five traditional weight training exercises that you will find handy in multiple real life scenarios are Lunges, Clean and presses, Dips, Chin ups and Deadlifts.
Lunges. You’ll find yourself stepping over and stumbling with more than bodyweight quite frequently. The lunges will prepare you for this. Most people just starting to gear up in fitness level will do just fine with bodyweight. Once you can do 3 sets of 12 with your bodyweight you are ready for more advance stuff.
Clean And Presses – These are a wicked weight training exercise but what do you do if you do not have access to heavy enough weights for it? Combine a headstand leg raise with a head stand shoulder press. Hard yes. Awesome, totally.
Deadlifts. These are basically the bottom of the clean and press except usually done a lot heavier because you do not have to get it to your shoulders and then over head. You’re basically picking it off the floor and standing up. That’s all. All rep ranges should be covered with this exercise in training so that everything from loading 50 ammo cans to picking up the 50 cal will be within you ability level.
What do you do if you do not have 300 pounds of weights? Lift the back end of a car if it has a metal bumper. If not then it’s back to bodyweight. Just like with clean and presses, you can do the head stand leg raise. To make it heavier, you can strap a light weight to your feet. With the huge lever of your legs, it gets heavy very quick.
Dips and Chin Ups – These two together will cover 90% of upper body pushing and pulling. When you can easily do 5 sets of 5 reps or 4 sets of 6 reps (another favorite of mine) then its time to either pick a more challenging variation like one arm chins or to add more weight. Traditionally people added weight with a dipping/chinning belt that goes around the waist. For myself, I don’t like the weight around my waist because it pulls you out of the groove. Because of this I prefer heavy chain if it’s around or using rope with plates tied to each end. Then I can just pick it up and put it around my neck. Now I can jump up to the bar as well.
Today we covered muscular strength but you will also require muscular endurance. We’ll cover that in the next session. You may also want to check out http://buildingbodies.ca/army-fitness-training-strength-building/
Getting in shape for the army doesn’t require a gym membership or any expensive exercise equipment. Just busting your butt. I put together a work out you can do on your own time and schedule right here http://www.commandocardio.com/Free-Report.html
