Why Does the Army Want Me Weak?

[stef]

by Ryan Long

Is a 111 pound soldier really an effective member of an infantry squad? Can that soldier carry the average soldier when wounded on the battlefield?...My strong-but-fat Soldiers were great contributors in combat, and often they were the best performers both mounted and dismounted. They were more durable and more versatile. Our problems were with the skinny-fats and the sparrows; they couldn’t keep up on dismounted patrols under load, couldn’t kick in a door, couldn’t evacuate anybody over 140 lbs, and couldn’t intimidate an insurgent.

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[hatmanii]

Excellent stuff.

[MAD9692]

"increasing my back squat from 365lbs to 515lbs"

God Damn...

[OITW]

Outstanding, Major! Hoo-ah!

Please contact me on the PM.

[smitty]

Great article. I cut GOMAD down to 1/2GOMAD about a month early for fear of the Navy's "rope and choke." Starting next month, we can no longer receive a waiver for being fat but achieving an excellent or outstanding on the PRT. If you're over the body composition analysis threshold three consecutive times, you're out - no matter how many pushups and situps you can do, and no matter how fast you run the 1.5 miles.
I think that the driving force for the PRT program is not physical fitness at all, but lower health care costs.

[hbriem]

"increasing my back squat from 365lbs to 515lbs"

God Damn...

I know. For me, that's the biggie. I've been training for nearly 7 years. I was roughly at his "before" 5 years ago, give or take, 365 lbs squat, 250 lbs bench, 405 lbs deadlift (my deadlift was actually around 450 lbs 5 years ago, but whatever).

Then in 4 months!!! he adds 150 lbs to his squat, 50 lbs to his bench and 85 lbs to his deadlift?!?! Wow!

What was he doing for 4 months? He only added 8 lbs of bodyweight, BTW.

I have hardly missed a workout in those 5 years. I've pushed hard too. I've done Sheikos and Smolovs and Starr 5x5s and 5-3-1 and I've added comparatively trivial amounts to my lifts. More bodyweight though.

So I don't want to know what Major Long did to ace the army tests, which he did, but what he did to increase his powerlifts and especially his squat, so much.

[homerj742]

"increasing my back squat from 365lbs to 515lbs"

God Damn...

I was thinking the same thing.

Interesting article, overall.

[Ryan Long]

I know. For me, that's the biggie. I've been training for nearly 7 years. I was roughly at his "before" 5 years ago, give or take, 365 lbs squat, 250 lbs bench, 405 lbs deadlift (my deadlift was actually around 450 lbs 5 years ago, but whatever).

Then in 4 months!!! he adds 150 lbs to his squat, 50 lbs to his bench and 85 lbs to his deadlift?!?! Wow!

What was he doing for 4 months? He only added 8 lbs of bodyweight, BTW.

I have hardly missed a workout in those 5 years. I've pushed hard too. I've done Sheikos and Smolovs and Starr 5x5s and 5-3-1 and I've added comparatively trivial amounts to my lifts. More bodyweight though.

So I don't want to know what Major Long did to ace the army tests, which he did, but what he did to increase his powerlifts and especially his squat, so much.

Thanks. I think in part this is just what I was meant to do. Which brings up an interesting point because if I'm a natural powerlifter and not yet near my potential than it stands to reason that I'm a natural non-runner, yet I can improve my run quickly with intervals. 13 years ago I ran my fastest 2 mile time of 12:20, but weighed only 150 pounds, that minute and a half isn't worth it, nor is it useful.

My powerlifting routine was pretty simple: squat on Monday, bench on Wednesday, deadlift on Friday, 3 weeks of progression followed by a deload week, 3 cycles. I usually did 1-2 assistance exercises based on what felt was the limiting factor during that training session.

I'm trying to train now while doing intervals concurrently twice a week and I'm way overtrained and making no progress, sometimes the job has to take priority over the hobby.

[damonwells]

Great stuff Ryan. I'll miss our workouts and discussions...

[Josh Ferguson]

Thanks for this great article! I'm going to include it in my proposal to my CO for buying us some bars and bumpers.

The Navy has finally realized that you must use resistance to make people strong enough to do their jobs. They will focus on "pillar" strength, I guess that is the same thing as "core" strength.

I had similar results with my PT test; I ran my best time ever after a Starting Strength.