I'm not in the best of physical shape right now. I was at 27% body fat when I first spoke to a recruiter. It took about 6 weeks but I lost almost 30 pounds and now tape at 23% body fat. When he told me I could ship within 30 days, I got excited.

Now I'm thinking, there will be no way in hell I can handle BCT in my shape in 30 days. I can run a mile.. it takes me about 8:30 to run 1... and I'm totally done after that. I have to do a very slow paced jog if I have to keep going.

I can do push ups and sit ups... About 30-40 pushups in two minutes, very poor, I know.. and I can do about 40 situps in two minutes.. again, I know this is poor. But this is my physical shape.

My recruiter says I have to be able to do a 1 mile run in like 8:00 or 8:20 (cant remember) and 20 pushups and situps to get shipped to basic.

I can do that. However, everything I read about Army BCT... 5 mile runs, A guy having to do 50 pushups for every cookie his wife/aunt/mother sent him in his care pack.. (No, no one will send me contraband like that, just pointing out the reference to getting smoked hard core)..

Do they slowly build you up to this? Or in my first week of basic could I be told "drop and give me 100"

I'm trying to be informed as possible. I have a lot of heart and dedication and can push myself past my limits.. Unfortunately, I think my limits might be too weak at the moment.

So, you lost 30 pounds in six weeks. Basic Training for the Army is now 10 weeks. You'll have plenty of time to meet standards for graduation.

Keep working out. ALternate your running program. Mix distance with interval runs. If possible, get some swimming in there. Continue to work on push ups and sit ups.

Prepare as much as you can before hand, and let the Drill Sergeants handle the rest.

You will get in the mind set once you het into BCT that you can do it. Dont think negative about it at all. Once you get into a routine of PT and doing daily workouts, you will be fine when its time to graduate.

IronErik is right on the money with this, just get in the mind set of "I can do this" and you will be fine.

Clomax:

You won't be asked to do 100 push-ups (or anything else) right off the bat. The first day when I got to my training platoon, the Sr. DS asked us all who could knock out 35 push-ups. Only about 12 of us (out of 57) could. That told the DS who he didn't have to push too hard.

You will be built up over the entire BCT process. You will be started off with relatively short runs (1-2 miles) and sprints on a track. As time progresses, you will be expected to be able to run further faster. You will be challenged (expected) to improve your APFT score with each PT test that you take. We took them every 2 weeks, on the average.

The final APFT is the "record" one that counts. In BCT, you only have to score 50% in each event. TOO EASY! The better you do on your PT, the more your DS' will leave you alone. Be a PT dud and you will receive a lot of unwanted attention from your DS'.

So get in as good shape as you can before you ship. The better shape you are in, the better off and easier BCT will be for you. While you are in BCT, remember that once you go to AIT, you will be expected to score at least 60% on each APFT event, which is the Army standard. So always strive to score higher than 60% and always improve.

Good Luck!

Matt
SPC, US Army
15U

Thanks Matt.. that post is what I really wanted to know.

I was reading what I have to do on my PT test in reception, and I'm confident I can do that... I might struggle in the run, but I plan to start running every day until I ship (only got about 30 days) which isn't much, but it's better than nothing. I can push myself hard when someone is yelling at me to do more, so I have a feeling I'll do things I couldn't imagine possible for myself there.

Thanks again.

clomax, i just graduated from mp osut training on the 3rd. we had a guy who when we got there could not only not do a pushup but ould not even hold himself up for more than 5 seonds before he fell and his 2 mile run time was somewhere in the 20s.. he graduated with us, im nto sure what his run time was but he graduated with 58 pushups. he caught hell a lot and had to do extra pt but he put forth the effort and did extremely well. if you five it your all during your pt sessions then you will do very well, just dont be the one who tries to coast through pt without giving any effort and youll be fine