Hello from Afghanistan.
I am a military member and have been for many years, working on my 13th deployment here. We subscribe to the philosophy that Team guys need to be physically ready to handle any task and therefore it is imperative for us to have an elite level of fitness over a broad base. We are obviously not Olympic Weightlifters, Sprinters, Marathon runners or World class mountain climbers. However, we do need to be able to function at a slightly less elite level in each of these disciplines (i.e. throw a lot of weight around, sprint to HLZ’s, and operate in extreme environments.)
I have tried many different work outs, I like to call them the flavor of the month, because it seems like every month there is a new workout that is supposed to be the best. What I have found in my line of work is that Cardio is the foundation. Jacking steel around is a close second. In the military they have a PT test to measure your level of fitness. This test is a joke here is my. My Gear (a term used to describe my body armor and all equipment I need to close with and destroy the enemy) weighs about 65 lbs. the average guy with kit weighs about 250-275 lbs. so if one of my guys goes down and I have to carry him out of battle how is doing 2 mins of pushups going to help? I’m sure there are better exercises out there to help with that. Like the dead lift or the power clean, just to name a few. In my option the push up helps with one thing. That is pushing you off the ground when being knocked down. I could go on for hours about this but bottom line the guys to my left and right need to be able to pick my lifeless 270 lbs body up and carry me to the HLZ at 9000 feet above sea level.
My work outs consist of Olympic lifts and intense cardio (sprinting 400’s with a gas mask on) and squat my ass off.
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