Is it worth joining a gym?
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Tony_m
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Personally I wouldn’t but whatever works for you. I always preferred saving my money and training outdoors. My phys always consisted of various running seshs, press ups, crunches, pull ups. Literally all free of charge and out in the elements. But good effort in taking your prep seriously!
Yeah im at the point now where im comfortable with the strength aspect. Just need to inprove on the running.
Redders
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Your training bulk needs to be running. A mix of endurance, sprints, hills and interval sessions. You can mix in bike sessions if you want, I do this to limit impact these days.
As said above your strength sessions can be done without gym equipment and based on functional movement patterns such as press ups, pull ups, dips etc.
As said above your strength sessions can be done without gym equipment and based on functional movement patterns such as press ups, pull ups, dips etc.
DannyMac
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Save your money I’d say.
My weekly prep went like this 2-3 short fast runs (3-5 miles) 1-2 long slow runs (6+miles or 1+ hour)
2 sprint sessions (short high intensity intervals, hill sprints)
Also just like weight training, you need to let the muscles recover the next day to allow them to grow and improve. On the days I didn’t run I worked on non-impact fitness like strength work as well as core work and upper body
My weekly prep went like this 2-3 short fast runs (3-5 miles) 1-2 long slow runs (6+miles or 1+ hour)
2 sprint sessions (short high intensity intervals, hill sprints)
Also just like weight training, you need to let the muscles recover the next day to allow them to grow and improve. On the days I didn’t run I worked on non-impact fitness like strength work as well as core work and upper body
@PhysMan or @Coachmikechadwick might answer but I’d say you can achieve what you need to without a gym
Certainly not necessary. Whether it's worth it is up to you. I'd say the advantages are: swimming (if it has one) for recovery, range of weights machines, and specialist kit for sports and cross-training you enjoy. The disadvantages are cost and comfort: there is real value at this time of year in having to do your phys in gipping weather. It may not improve your times, but it will build a mental fitness that you will need.
I had a Gym membership for a few years, during the last few lockdowns it's been closed for refurbishment and opened for just one day before Tier 4 caused it to close again.
To be honest I've not missed it. I've gotten leaner and fitter since I've not been going, and getting out in the elements no matter what the weather is actually quite a motivator for me, pushing for what I want and a few drops of rain is nothing.
My opinion is don't worry about a Gym for now, as others have said it's pointless anyway as they're not allowed to open. Work with what you can, and save some cash.
To be honest I've not missed it. I've gotten leaner and fitter since I've not been going, and getting out in the elements no matter what the weather is actually quite a motivator for me, pushing for what I want and a few drops of rain is nothing.
My opinion is don't worry about a Gym for now, as others have said it's pointless anyway as they're not allowed to open. Work with what you can, and save some cash.
Big_Shep
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Couldn’t agree more with this. You can rigorously thrash yourself for free and although improvement in overall fitness and stamina levels is always the goal you should aim to adjust your whole mental outlook. To develop a ‘paratrooper mindset’ you need to commit to changing the way you go about the business of living. That means, you guessed it.... getting your carcass outside. Preferably early in the morning in the rain.
This. I thought of an exception, however. Worth joining a boxing gym or martial art class. Boxing training is great fitness alone, but more importantly, sparring gives you experience of getting hit. Just the way that the country is going, but increasingly young recruits have never been in a fight. Whether or not this is a good thing for society, it's not great if you want to be a paratrooper. If your first experience of rounds incoming is during depot, or (worse, for 4 PARA) actually during milling, you're going to be in clip.
I'll let others weigh in on the value of specific martial arts, but almost all of them (aside from the classes directed at kids), even the fairly neutered Westernised ones or weapons-based arts, involve at some point getting hit by something. Boxing is good because it's specifically related to getting hit in the head, and though boxing is not milling, you'll benefit from knowing what it's like to take a hook in the temple, because the first time it happens to you, that's probably you away with the fairies for the next 30s or so.
Also, if "not much good at fighting" describes you. Don't let it phase you. I've seen big blokes who have clearly always been the bully get taken apart by guys half their size. The bully never had to take much incoming, while the smaller bloke has had it all their life. That makes a big difference. But if you think it's a weakness, get to a gym or class where you can work on it.
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I would unfortunately have to disagree with a lot of the comments on this one. Depo first and foremost is about surviving. In order to do that, you must ensure your body doesn't break down; this requires strength, which requires resistance to overload (working >84% for strength is optimal), along with muscle mass to protect the joints from over use injuries (you will repeat, repeat repeat everything so it becomes a habit (see my latest post on instagram . This will also require resistance (hypertrophy ranges around 74%) as well as callisthetics (Bodyweight). Firstly ensure you can stay the course, then think about how you be the best on the course. Strength first, volume second.
How often will you do PT in training? Is it 5 days a week?
Do you have any other platforms you share your tips and fitness workouts on for those that dont have instagram?
If you go to redonfitness.com there’s a thing on there called the academy where you make an account for free and there is some tactical training articles on there that make for a good read. Not sure how many are written by Mike himself but they are all written by like minded individuals with an overarching tactical theme.
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- Joined
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My posts also go over to Facebook. www.facebook.com/coachmikechadwick or a simple google search will bring my writing up from instagram.
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You will conduct some sort of arduous activity 5 days a week, but structure physical training will be in the training as and when it fits. There are lots of other units at ITC, so the programme is build around space and time, so sometimes you may have 2 sometimes it may be 4 a week. Just depends on the programme. The main thing is to just be ready for anything thats thrown at you. If your body is strong enough, you'll be fine with whatever and whenever that is.