View Full Version : Strength and Honor
So here it is, my journey. I have been sitting in front of the computer for an hour composing this shit and the title still doesn't fit my style. I am 23 years old and looking to join the armed forces. I currently way 322lbs at 6'4 and I have about 33% bodyfat. I have been active in sports and recently graduated college. All my life I wanted to do something that counted, something that impacted people, and something that wasn't all about me. Of course I had dreams of going to the NFL and being rich. But now that life slapped the shit out of me and put me in a state of nowhere, I have become more realistic and re-evaluated what I want out of life. I know I'm young, I haven't had any real jobs, I haven't done a whole lot but I aspire to do great things. The Army recruiter told me I needed to lose about 30-40lbs before I could enlist. I know that's what they expect but I have set my goals a lot higher. I want to join with about 50-70lbs lost because I'm not just doing this to get by I'm doing this as a career. My mind is set and my direction is full speed ahead.
In this journey you'll get a glimpse at my daily life, training, diet, and be along for the ride of a lifetime as I pursue my goal of not only getting into great shape but entering the military. The entire process will be posted in this journey for future reference and all out fun. It's going to be tough, it's going to be long, and it's going to be extremely rewarding. The journey starts now, join up.
C.Coronato
09-16-10, 9:42 am
In for the ride my man. Interested to see your course of action. Are you planning on going to apply to OCS?
Talk about motivation for the gym, the California DMV is the biggest nightmare in the world. Had an appointment, still waited 2 hours, then got rear ended in the parking lot. Ridiculous.
The workout went well though, shoulders/traps today, my favorite body part to workout. Mixed up the style of training, with the seated presses I took 5 full reps both arms, then 5 individual reps on each arm. Same thing with the front and lateral raises. Went heavy on shrugs all the way up to 405, that's my limit for now since I don't want to sacrifice any form or anything. The burn is just a little more intense and I also feel like I use a lot more of the total shoulder. Got in 25min of cardio after the workout for some reason all that DMV tension just kept me in the gym because after a start of a day like that I just wanted to kill someone. At the end of the workout I always take 10-20min and just relax in the sauna, do some stretching, just calm my mind back down so I can carry out the rest of my day.
Yeah I'm planning on trying for OCS, the recruiter told me its more of a selection process now, I didn't have the greatest college GPA (2.8). I was extremely caught up in football and then the party life afterwards, so school definitely took a back seat. We'll see how it goes all I'm really focused on is getting in the best shape possible.
So it's sunday and all I do is recover. I did some yard work and some bs chores, hardly call that training. Quick statement for the people following this journey. I like food, there's a bunch of great stuff to enjoy, if your diet is strict and your training is hard, go ahead and indulge once in awhile it won't kill you. So today I had some fried chicken and a can of pepsi, it's completely against what I'm trying to do, but out of about 28 whole food meals, I think I owe it to myself to actually enjoy one of em.
On another note I'm pissed the cowboys are 0-2. All that superbowl talk, it's too early for that shit focus on the week at hand. However, I am 2-0 in my fantasy league and there's no looks of slowing, gotta love that.
Back to training tomorrow, gonna hit chest/triceps instead of chest and back. Gotta get rid of this back pain. Keep grindin' brothers, keep grindin'
Lonestar
09-19-10, 9:50 pm
Subbed brother.
Welcome to the ride, only legit shit here.
Maiden69
09-20-10, 1:59 pm
Good luck bro! The magic number for you right now is 26... you can enlist with 26% bf, no matter what your weight is. The problem is that all the services use a different way to calculate the bf. The army uses a measurement of the neck and waist against a height table, while the Navy uses wrist and waist against height... big difference in both percentages! There are a lot of ways to get into OCS, from when I thought about joining we had to be SGT or above with 110 credits and finish the BA before getting MAJ (or CAP) promotion. I never seen a new recruit go straight to OCS, but that might had changed. The sure bet was to do the last 2 yrs of ROTC, but since you are done, well, that is out of the question.
The start of a new week, chest and tricep training today. Workout was good, damn commercial gyms have so many people just bullshittin around. This dude took up the only incline bench and sat there texting or tweeting or whatever. Pissed me off since I like to do my incline bench right after my db bench but I adjusted and went on with flyes. Here's the breakdown;
DB Bench (95s) 3 x 8
Incline Bench (185/205/225) 3 x 8
DB Flye (45s) 3 x 12
Reverse grip Bench (225) 3 x 10
Rope Pushdown (95) 3 x 15
Close Grip Bench (135) 3 x 10
Diamond Push Ups (Bodyweight) 3 x 15
Dips (Bodyweight) 3 x 10
After the workout I did 20min of HIIT on the stationary bike, I know it's not a cardio day but I feel like with the amount of weight I'm lookin to lose (85-100lbs if you didn't know) a little bit of cardio everyday helps me stay on track and focused. Finally, sat in the sauna for about 12-15min always do, it's a nice little escape, unless it's crowded as hell which is weird for a bunch of dudes all sweating sittin shoulder to shoulder.
Thanks for the info Maiden69, the whole OCS thing I don't really know how it works I figured since I would go in as a Corporal, I'd put in a couple years then apply for OCS because like you said I doubt anyone with zero experience can have that much responsibility, thanks for the motivation on the thread brothers keep it up because we all stray from the path!
Tuesdays workout went okay, I'm still trying to figure out the best time to go so a bunch of old people and douche bags aren't in the way. Hit back and biceps today, here's the breakdown;
Deadlifts
Bent Rows
T Bar Rows
Seated Rows
Pulldowns
Hammer Curl
DB Curl
BB Curl
Preacher Curl
Did 10min of HIIT at the end, it's hard to be motivated for cardio when I know the following day is all cardio so I kept it light. 2 days down brothers, a whole lifetime to go.
Today was an off day, completely off, so I will be doing 2 hours of cardio on saturday and then again on sunday. Rough to go back to back but that's what happens, schedules change. On another note I went and watched "Devil" in theaters today, no relation. It was good Shamylan came through with a decent flick. Not scary at all and of course the PG-13 rating kept a lot of the crazy out of it, but I recommend it, and if you haven't seen The Town, go to that too. Keep grindin.
So its the weekend and I missed a day in the weight room. But after errands and shit I picked up the new M&F with Miles Austin on the cover, shout out to the dude. Started reading about full body routines and I want to try it out. There's a simple routine in in 3 day full body and I'm gonna keep the cardio on Tuesday and Thursday and most likely Saturday or Sunday depending the schedule. So 3 days of weight training and 3 days of cardio training. Starting Monday followers, enjoy the weekend. Keep grindin.
What up brothers, enjoying this nice little Saturday. So I was reading through the new M&F and came across two pretty awesome story, the first on WR Miles Austin. The second on Caleb Campbell out of West Point who had to fight the 5 year active duty policy to get a chance in the NFL. Both top notch people it seems like, hard workers, and hopefully all their goals are realized. Just wanted to give those dudes a shout out and let everyone know the kind of people I look up to in life and enjoy watching in the NFL.
Anyways weekends are for cardio, so says my routine. I hate cardio with the most ungodly passion ever. Especially since I'm a big guy and results take long enough, watchin my friends chow down, and runnin and bikin my ass off everyday just really pisses me off. The music that I listen to however, always seems to come through with some epic shit to keep me pushin. I have no idea where I'm going with this post, but it doesn't matter cuz I wanted to get this off my mind. Keep grindin.
Been strugglin' lately brothers, had a couple things go wrong with my girl, missed some training days. Tomorrow is a new day with a new approach. I'll be back on track and things will hopefully start gettin' easier. Keep grindin.
I'm back after a crazy couple weeks, restarting my engine, recreating the first couple stones for my path. This game we're in is the hardest thing anyone can go through. Perfecting physique, dieting, gaining, cutting...strengthening. There is no other thing out there that a human being can do that is more taxing and takes more attention and detail then fitness. Obviously it's not easy, how many people a day do you see in great shape or shredded or ripping through their shirt at the gym, I can count less than 10. DAILY. But that's why were all here, that's why I'm here, to eventually become one of those 10. Today start's my 4 week full-body routine, 3 days a week with 3 days of cardio in between. It's not that long if think about it, one month and it's over, something fresh and something new. Here's todays workout;
Walking Lunge
Dumbbell Bench Press
Bent Over Rows
Hanging Leg Raises
Dumbbell Curl
Lateral Raises
Keeping the volume low the reps moderate and the weight heavy. 30 second rest periods, great attention to form. There's another workout I will post Wednesday, I will be alternating what exercise I start with so that each can get the full fresh of the day attention, I will post gains/losses/results.
Went well today, I like the new routine, really gets me fatigued. I don't think I'm hittin' core or arms enough however though so I'm gonna add 2 or 3 exercises on Tuesdays and Thursdays so they keep up.
Here was today's workout:
Walking Lunges 2 x 12
Dumbbell Bench 2 x 12
Bent Over Rows 2 x 12
Hanging Leg Raises 2 x 15
Pushdowns 2 x 12
Lateral/Front Raise 2 x 12
The rest periods were 30 seconds, total workout was about 40 minutes, I was still sweating in the car so I think the poundages were all right. Hopefully this routine adds some strength and still allows me to cut, since the main goal is to cut. I'm doing a carb cycle kind of a makeshift thing I made up.
150 grams of carbs on weight training days (MWF) and 50-75 grams of carbs on non (TTHSS) that way I can still cut and still hopefully gain some muscle. Hit me up with any tweaks all help is good help.