Fitness and Weight Training for Military Recruits Menu Verywell Fit Nutrition Weight Management Nutrition Facts Nutrition Basics Diets Meal Plans Meal Delivery Services View All News Fitness and Nutrition What to Buy How We Test Products Fitness Gear Nutrition Products Tools Recipe Nutrition Calculator Weight Loss Calorie Goal BMI Calculator Body Fat Percentage Calculator Calories Burned by Activity Daily Calories Burned Pace Calculator About Us Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Search Programs for Sports Fitness and Weight Training for Military Recruits By Paul Rogers Paul Rogers Paul Rogers is a personal trainer with experience in a wide range of sports, including track, triathlon, marathon, hockey, tennis, and baseball. Learn about our editorial process Updated on June 06, 2021 Print Military recruits at boot camp. Scott Olson/Getty Images Table of Contents View All Table of Contents Weight Training Getting Ready Fitness Standards Exercises When joining any one of the military forces you usually need to pass a relatively elementary medical and fitness evaluation. This varies by country and service. Once joined up and in recruit training, fitness enhancement is one of the main goals. Calisthenics, running, marching, walking, crawling, and lifting odd objects will be the order of the day for the 2 months or so of recruit training. Weight Training for Military Recruits This is where many new recruits make it harder for themselves than is necessary. Why not get fit before basic recruit training commences? Here's how to do it. Getting Ready Unlike the more demanding fitness requirements of the special forces, good general fitness and strength can easily be achieved in around three months leading up to induction. Functional fitness for basic recruits requires physical strength and endurance at a moderate level in order to deal with day-to-day physical activity instruction with some degree of competence. This article provides an overview of the physical fitness and training requirements and standards that you should target in order to be ready for recruit training. However, you should request information from the units themselves to avail yourself of the most relevant fitness requirements for your application. This article can only be a summary of broad principles and practices. Fitness Standards Below is a range of fitness standards for men that should prepare you for the challenges you will face in recruit training. The strategy is to be fit enough so that you don't struggle with the physical challenges. Save your energy for the psychological and mental challenges. Women's standards will be somewhat lower, especially in regards to the strength standards, but all-around fitness for women is still important considering the additional roles women take on in modern armies. As well as getting fit with general strength and conditioning, you need to get used to walking long distances with a heavy pack on your back. There's no substitute for this type of training. Target these aerobic/endurance standards: Beep, multi-stage, or shuttle test. Level 12 Run 2 mile, 3.2 kilometers: 14.00 minutes Run 3 mile, 4.8 kilometers: 22 minutes Run 6 miles, 9.6 kilometers: 46 minutes Walk 10 miles, 16 kilometers, with a 45-pound, 20-kilogram pack in 3 hours Aim for these strength and endurance standards: Pull-ups (to proper hang and chin standard): 6Pushups, full-body: 50Situps, standard military: 60 If you reach the fitness standards above, you should have excellent upper and lower body strength and endurance, and aerobic fitness. You should not have too many problems with the raw physical fitness aspects of recruit training. Adding swimming competence to your list of accomplishments is always useful. Aim for 800 meters. Strengthening Exercises Distributing your training between endurance activities and strength training will be a challenge because each type has a tendency to develop specialized physiology and biochemistry. You will need to make the best compromises possible to be proficient in both. Too much bulk and under-developed aerobic capacity will slow you for demanding endurance activities like long pack marches. However, too little upper-body muscle and strength will limit your ability to cope with rope work, swimming, and general upper-body strength work, including hauling heavy packs and equipment.​ Lower Body Running, especially hill running and fast intervals, will give you good leg strength. You can supplement this with a regular squat and deadlift workout, which will develop core and lower-back strength, too. Upper Body You need to develop the back muscles, especially the lats (latissimus), the shoulder (deltoid) muscles, and the traps (trapezius) across the top of the shoulders (to haul that pack). Naturally, you cannot ignore the large arm muscles—the biceps and triceps at the front and back of the upper arms. Below is a list of weight training exercises to build the upper body and to help you do copious quantities of push-ups and pull-ups. You will also do many, many standard push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups in a single session of multiple sets. Barbell bench pressBarbell or dumbbell bent-over rowBarbell hang clean or power cleanBarbell military press (overhead)Bicep curlsCable row machineLat pulldown machinePull-ups - overhand and underhand gripTricep cable pushdowns or overhead extensions or dips The main message here is to ensure you are in good physical condition before you tackle recruit training. A 3 to 4-month training program should be sufficient to produce excellent entry-level fitness. If you're overweight and just getting started with exercise, 6 months may be more appropriate. Strength Training: A Beginner's Guide to Getting Stronger 7 Sources Verywell Fit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. International Sports Sciences Association. Best Was to Increase Aerobic Endurance. Haddock CK, Poston WSC, Heinrich KM, Jahnke SA, Jitnarin N. The benefits of high-intensity functional training fitness programs for military personnel. Mil Med. 2016;181(11):e1508-e1514. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-15-00503 Barnes KR, Hopkins WG, McGuigan MR, Kilding AE. Effects of different uphill interval-training programs on running economy and performance. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2013;8(6):639-647. doi:10.1123/ijspp.8.6.639 Rogan S, Riesen J, Taeymans J. [Core muscle chains activation during core exercises determined by EMG-a systematic review]. Praxis (Bern 1994). 2014;103(21):1263-1270. doi:10.1024/1661-8157/a001803 Gordon R, Bloxham S. A systematic review of the effects of exercise and physical activity on non-specific chronic low back pain. Healthcare (Basel). 2016;4(2). doi:10.3390/healthcare4020022 Aandstad A. Association between performance in muscle fitness field tests and skeletal muscle mass in soldiers. Mil Med. 2020;185(5-6):e839-e846. doi:10.1093/milmed/usz437 Swift DL, Johannsen NM, Lavie CJ, Earnest CP, Church TS. The role of exercise and physical activity in weight loss and maintenance. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2014;56(4):441-447. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2013.09.012 By Paul Rogers Paul Rogers is a personal trainer with experience in a wide range of sports, including track, triathlon, marathon, hockey, tennis, and baseball. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? 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