Army Basic Training Tips
Your decision to join the Army is one that should be honored and respected. You have chosen to join the millions of American men and women who fight to defend our nation and the freedom we enjoy every day. Before you reach the front lines, though, you will be sent to basic training, the toughest nine weeks of your life. There are steps you can take to prepare yourself before reaching your base, steps that might make your nine weeks a little easier.
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The Basics of Basic
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Basic training is meant to make you mentally and physically stronger. During the course of your nine weeks--14 if your assigned base is Fort Benning, Ga.--you will be taught the seven Army values: respect, loyalty, selfless service, loyalty, honor, personal courage and duty. This is accomplished through a combination of classroom and physical endurance training and is broken down into three phases: patriot, gunfighter and warrior. You will undergo live fire, hand grenade and gas chamber training as well as be expected to pass a physical fitness and endurance test before graduation. When you first enter the gates of your base, you are a civilian; when you graduate, you are a soldier, prepared to handle any challenge.
Importance of Preparation
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Basic training is mentally and physically demanding. You are away from all that is familiar to you, and no time is wasted in building up your physical endurance and knowledge of Army regulations. Not only does this require an unwavering commitment from you, it also requires preparation before arriving to your assigned base; this preparation will make it easier to prove you are physically fit when you are tested upon arrival to your base.
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What Is Physical Endurance Training?
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This is better know as muscle and strength endurance (MSE), and it involves exercises to produce a lean, hard body. The workout is designed to get you into the best shape possible, which will ultimately help you when you are in combat. A bulk of muscle and strength endurance comes from performing push-ups and sit-ups. There is also cardiovascular respiratory training (CR), which involves running and sprinting.
Preparing for MSE
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Your should focus your preparation for basic on MSE, as this is the most important and difficult aspect of your physical training. You should have an exercise routine in place before beginning. To gauge your ability and the number of repetitions you should be performing each time, do as many sit-ups and push-ups as possible in two minutes, then divide this number by three--this is the number of repetitions you need to start with. Do three sets of repetitions for both exercises, adding three repetitions a week until you have added 20. Once you can perform this amount of repetitions comfortably, begin adding some form of resistance to make the exercise more difficult. For example, elevate your feet when performing the exercises to make them more challenging.
Know What to Expect
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Knowing what to expect before you get to basic training is the best mental preparation there is. You most likely will be homesick, but you can write letters back and forth and are allowed to keep small pictures of your loves ones with you.
There will be stress, and it won't come only from the drill sergeants who are pushing you to be all you can be; it might come from fellow recruits who do not handle the mental and physical expectations well.
You can also expect to make mistakes. You will not succeed at every task you are given or every challenge you face. But basic training is set up to teach recruits how to depend on each other; where one might be strong, another might be weak.
There are a variety of resources available to help you prepare mentally for basic training, one of them being the bestselling book, "The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook," by Sgt. Michael Volkin. There is also a website that is helpful to new recruits, and its link is listed in the resource section.
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