Physical Training

Hardcore Troubadour

5-Year Member
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Dec 12, 2013
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As I begin to prepare for USMA, I would appreciate any advice on preparing physically for what's ahead. I have worked out consistently during my high school career, but am curious as to what would be the best training regimen for the four+ months I have left before matriculation. If there is a guide that anyone could point me to, or any additional recommendations, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
I'm a current plebe and if I could recommend one thing, it would be run hills. If you can do that at a decent pace, you won't have a problem with PT. Also practice the APFT, you will take it the second day of beast and most of your classmates fail it. Don't be that person. Your squad leader will be judging you based on your score. But honestly morning PT isn't hard.
 
The best way to improve on pushups is to do pushups.

The best way to improve situps is to do situps (and other ab strengthening exercises.)

The best way to improve your run time is to run.

I'd advise checking out the scores on the APFT and practicing it as mentioned above. The academy expects people to achieve around a 275 or higher. Anything lower will typically put you into a morning workout regimen that starts at 5:30 each morning. New Cadets have a bit of a reprieve coming in since they will be active the entire summer and then test again (for record) on one of their last days of Beast. I'd really just do the above exercises. When I in BCT at Sand Hill, the Brown Rounds encouraged us to do elevated pyramid pushups. (Start at 1 pushup with your feet on an elevated surface, maybe a chair or bed, and then do 2, then 3, 4, 5...all the way to 10. Then Do 10, 9, 8, 7...until you get to 1. This really increased my pushups within a short time period (2 weeks or so.) I was always told in the Army that abs can be worked out everyday. So do that - do as many situps as you can in two minutes for a baseline. Once you have that number, try hitting 30% of your max in 30 seconds. Do that 4 times and then do your 2 minute max as the 5th set. To improve running times - you should run. That's sort of self-explanatory.
 
The best way to improve on pushups is to do pushups.

The best way to improve situps is to do situps (and other ab strengthening exercises.)

The best way to improve your run time is to run.

I'd advise checking out the scores on the APFT and practicing it as mentioned above. The academy expects people to achieve around a 275 or higher. Anything lower will typically put you into a morning workout regimen that starts at 5:30 each morning. New Cadets have a bit of a reprieve coming in since they will be active the entire summer and then test again (for record) on one of their last days of Beast. I'd really just do the above exercises. When I in BCT at Sand Hill, the Brown Rounds encouraged us to do elevated pyramid pushups. (Start at 1 pushup with your feet on an elevated surface, maybe a chair or bed, and then do 2, then 3, 4, 5...all the way to 10. Then Do 10, 9, 8, 7...until you get to 1. This really increased my pushups within a short time period (2 weeks or so.) I was always told in the Army that abs can be worked out everyday. So do that - do as many situps as you can in two minutes for a baseline. Once you have that number, try hitting 30% of your max in 30 seconds. Do that 4 times and then do your 2 minute max as the 5th set. To improve running times - you should run. That's sort of self-explanatory.
To add to that for push-ups you can put 50% body weight on the bar an do max presses in 1 minute, the. Increase as you can. If you can get 40 in a minute at 70% body weight you could easily max pushups


2019 WestPoint class appointee

Recipient of 4 year army rotc scholarship.
 
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