Mind of a Marine: Workout Week and Physical Fitness for Marines

For the Marines, as you know, Physical Fitness is a primary part f our lifestyle. Especially when your not deploying left and right. You need to keep your fitness levels up in the case that the powers that be say, " Pack you gear you leave in 3 hours". As I have said before, Headquarters Marine Corps requires Marines to PT at least 3 hours a week. This is split up by, one hour a day, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Usually during the summer months it goes from 0600- 0700. And During the winter months, it goes from 1530-1630, military time. Which equates to, 3:30 pm- 4:30 pm eastern standard time.

What you choose to do for these three hours varies form unit to unit. So, for the sake of knowledge, I will use my own unit as an example. Mondays, at 0600, we meet and do an individual effort 3 mile run. Once that is completed, we use the rest of the hour to do mild calisthenics. Push-ups, Crunches, flutter kicks, and side straddle hops. Just to keep our upper bodies in shape. Ten we stretch for the remaining time. Wednesday's we try to do something not as monotonous as running. If we are lucky, we will get the Pool reserved and do twenty laps of swimming. If the pool is not available we will do some find of formation run. I have convinced my unit that formation runs with such a small unit do nothing but provide pain for the ones who can actually run. Formations usually have the slowest man in front so that he can keep up. Usually if the man in front is slow we will make it a circuit course type of a run. Where every so many feet stop and do a random exercise for a count of 15. The way the Marine counts repetitions is a sequence of 1-2-3, (1) 1-2-3, (2) 1-2-3 (3)…and so on. Friday's are the fun days. Usually we will play football. Other times it will be soccer, if we can get the field. But since we have such a small unit, it is difficult to play at times.

The purpose of PT is more geared towards maintaining your current fitness level. Unfortunately I am not that lazy of a person, and I feel as do most Marines, that we could do better. For myself I make it a point to hit the gym as often during the week as possible.

Mondays-Chest
Tuesday- Back
Wednesday-Bicep and Triceps
Thursday- Off (Field Day)
Friday- Shoulder and Legs.

Warm up- First exercise 2x10

-Chest - Incline Dumbbell press- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Flat bench dumbbell press- 4 x 12, 10 , 8, 6
- Decline flat Bar- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Cable Crossovers- Upper, middle, and lower
o 4 x 12, 10, 8,

-Back - Seated Rows- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Dumbbell Pullovers- 4 x 12, 10, 8 , 6
- Close grip Lat Pull downs- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Wide grip Lat pull downs- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Max set Pull-ups- x4
- Bi's and Tri's- -Flat bar Curls- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Spider Curls- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Seated Dumbbell Curls- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Overhead cable curls- 4 x12, 10, 8, 6
- One arm Cable pull-downs- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- dumbbell press- 4 x 12, 10, 8 , 6
- Bent over dumbell extensions- 4 x 12, 10, 8 , 6
- Tricep pushdowns- Rope and V-bar- 12, 10, 8
-Shoulders- - Seated Dumbbell Press- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Front Dumbbell raises- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Lateral Dumbbell raises-4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Barbell shrugs-4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Dumbbell Shrugs- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Legs- - Smith Machine Squats-4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Leg Press-4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Donkey Kicks- Max Sets x 4
- Leg Curls- 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6
- Clave Raises-4 x 12, 10, 8, 6

Now every Marine is responsible for his own Physical Fitness, but every once in a while the unit will organize a group workout session. This session is usually run by some demonic possessed woman, who seems to be in better shape than all of us in there. It will vary from a step class , to Bicycling. Just thinking about it makes the muscles twitch. Personally I enjoy lifting and working out at my own pace. Not some instructor who has A.D.D. But that is the typical workout schedule for the United Sates Marine corps. We enjoy our liberty on weekends, as far as that is concerned, I usually just stick to doing a routine max set of crunches in the morning. But that's as far as that goes.