Hello!

I'm entirely new to this site so I guess I should give you an inkling of who I am and what I intend to achieve. My name is Fintan, I'm 19 years old and I intend to apply for The Royal Marines on 1st September. I've been working towards this end since December 2007 when I weighed 290 pounds and measured 6'1 in height. Understandably, this is simply too heavy for someone who has to cover so much distance on their feet on a daily basis, so I've set about slowly cutting down towards 220 pounds, a goal I intend to achieve by 1st September.

Wikipedia time, as the authors are generally far more eloquent and to-the-point than myself:

"The Royal Marines (RM) are the marines and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service. They are also the United Kingdom's specialists in mountain and Arctic warfare. A core component of the country's Rapid Deployment Force, the Corps' 3 Commando Brigade is capable of operating independently and is highly trained as a commando force. It can deploy quickly and fight in any terrain in the world."

To enter training as a Royal Marine, they aren't looking for an "end-product" as such, but very fit, determined individuals who are capable of withstanding and completing the arduous 8 months of basic training. I believe I can be this person. Cardio-vascular fitness and muscular endurance are absolutely key.

Current stats:

Height = 6'1
Weight = 250 pounds

My training is going to focus around a series of "levels". It's quite simply, a slightly different way of looking at a basic progressive program. The levels range from 1-10 and dictate the intensity and quantity of the exercises/drills to be completed dependant on the level being used. To move up to a new "level", a series of test must be completed to ensure that I'm ready for the progression. Tests can be taken at any time, but it must be noted and collectively the tests cannot take longer than 2 days to complete, failure of a test means a compulsory further week of the current level before another test can be taken. I'll post up the requirements of each "level" and the appropriate tests that must be completed at the end of each to progress as I reach them. I'm starting at level 1 which has been constructed to match my current level of fitness.

Level 1:

Core Strength--- 1 minute rest between sets

4 sets of 2 Pull-up
4 sets of 2 Chin-ups
4 sets of 20 Press-ups
4 sets of 25 Sit-ups

Resistance Training--- 3 minute rests between sets

4 sets of Bench Press - 15 reps at 80kg
4 sets of Overhead Press (strict) - 15 reps at 40kg
4 sets of Deadlift - 15 reps at 100kg
4 sets of Cleans - 15 reps at 50kg
4 sets of Squats - 15 reps at 80kg

Circuit Training--1:30 rest between sets

6 exercises randomly selected from table 1 (See below, perform in any order)
10 reps per exercise
4 sets
50 skips (with rope) after each set

To determine which exercises are to be performed in a circuit, 6-sided dice are rolled. The results of the dice are added together and compared to the table. The appropriate exercise is chosen and added to that work-outs roster. For Table 1, 3 dice are rolled. This keeps the selection entirely random for each work-out and drastically reduces the chances of the same work-out being repeated. Exercises cannot be chosen more than once per work-out unless otherwise stated, so should two identical exercises be chosen, simply re-roll.

Table 1

3. Hanging Leg-Raises
4. Mountain Climbers
5. Twisting Sit-ups
6. Squat-Thrusts
7. Burpees
8. Lunges
9. Bench-Jumps (From side to side over the bench)
10. Ab-Plank* - 30 seconds per 10 reps
11. Clapping Press-ups
12. Press-ups
13. Sit-ups
14. Box-Jump ( 30 inches)
15. Step-ups ( 30 inches)
16. Squats ( Bodyweight only)
17. Star-jumps
18. Bench-Dips

To progress to level 2, the following requirements must be met:

Bleep Test (20 metre shuttles) - level 9
Sit-ups - 60 in two minutes
Press-ups - 45 in two minutes
Pull-ups - 4 in two minutes
3 mile run - 24 minutes


Edit: Completely forgot to mention. Intended weight-loss is 2-3lbs a week which should put me at 220lbs in good time to up my calories and concentrate on fitness before I apply. I'll make a seperate post that I can re-edit to update my weight loss as the weeks go by.

I'm starting this as of the 5th of May, so I'll post up yesterday as well as todays work-outs and then continue on a daily basis from there. Hope it's not too confusing, it's certainly a simple concept to me but then, I designed it. Thank-you for reading (I'm impressed if you've bothered to get this far) and hopefully I'll see some of you in my journal in the future!

Fintan.

Monday 5th May

Monday - SS Cardio ( 2 mile walk, 2 mile run at 8:00 pace)
Core Strength level 1
Circuit training level 1


10x Bench Hops
10x Squat-Thrusts
10x Press-ups
10x Squats
10x Mountain-Climbers
10x Ab-Plank* - 30 seconds


40 lengths swimming - recovery

Notes: The circuit training is phenomenally hard work, even at such a low level, but I imagine my body will adapt a little to it within a couple of weeks. Steady-state cardio seems fine, intend to keep it at 4 miles total with a 50/50 split between running and walking for the next two weeks.

Tuesday 6th May

SS Cardio ( 2 mile walk, 2 mile run at 8:00 pace)
Core Strength level 1
Resistance training level 1
3x3 Hill Sprints ( Hill is about 100 metres but at a very steep incline, so pace is around 80% as oppose to a full tilit sprint)

Notes: Everything fine at this point, still have some hill sprints to finish up with so I'll post this in as though I've done them, but I'll edit it out or something if I manage to break my legs horribly in the next hour or so.

Wednesday 7th May

SS Cardio ( 6 mile walk)

And that's it for today! As the circuits and running are both high impact, I try to limit it to 2 days on, 1 day off sort of thing, but up the slower SS cardio to compensate if only as far as calories are concerned. Normally I'd go swimming as well, but I have a lot to do and my Dad's back from Spain at long bloody last so we're going out for a meal, cinema and various other places filled with chances to fill up on nigh-useless calories.

(Plus, it's really hot and I want to sunbathe with my new book)

Wow! Intense or what! Very interesting read. Good luck with getting into the royal Marines.

p.s What book did you get?

Having a baby girl :)

ORIGINAL: firest0rm

Wow! Intense or what! Very interesting read. Good luck with getting into the royal Marines.

p.s What book did you get?

Cheers pal, having just returned from an enormous meal containing lots of chips and even more beef I'm a little sceptical about the intended weight loss, but I'll simply keep it stricter from here on in, if I don't eat carbohydrates after 6pm I find it pretty hard not to lose weight with my output. I was reading The Kite Runner, which is a fantastic book, but to be honest I'm more excited about the Andy McNab Immediate Action I ordered from Waterstones yesterday as well. Having read Bravo Two Zero, I'm seriously looking forward to reading about his earlier life as a boy solider!

Early night time for me, a hard days work ahead of me tomorrow.

Ahh you're into your military literature then are you? I read a good book called The Terminators a few years ago, about battles of the worlds special forces. It covered SAS, Spetznaz, French Foreign Legion etc, loved the SAS tales.

I've just about finished a book by Arthur C Clarke, loved it. Called the Time Odyssey. Time and space get ripped apart and different areas of history are all slapped together, the end result is a massive battle between Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great at Babylon! Fantastic stuff lol. This is of course in between my Renaissance literature reading for my upcoming exam. Yayyyyy Shakespeareeeeee

Having a baby girl :)

ORIGINAL: firest0rm

Ahh you're into your military literature then are you? I read a good book called The Terminators a few years ago, about battles of the worlds special forces. It covered SAS, Spetznaz, French Foreign Legion etc, loved the SAS tales.

I've just about finished a book by Arthur C Clarke, loved it. Called the Time Odyssey. Time and space get ripped apart and different areas of history are all slapped together, the end result is a massive battle between Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great at Babylon! Fantastic stuff lol. This is of course in between my Renaissance literature reading for my upcoming exam. Yayyyyy Shakespeareeeeee

The Terminator sounds interesting, can you remember who wrote it? May have to snag myself a copy! Ah I don't blame you, Shakespeare made me want to stab my eyes out everytime I had to read it in English, it always baffles me why people can't let it fade into the past to join the only people in history who had a chance of understanding it. It's not like there aren't modern-day classics suitable for study after all, with the added bonus of not having to translate it first.

On a training note, just got up and had breakfast but feeling incredibly weird. Possibly because the last week or so has been entirely eat-what-you-want, but I feel like I have about 6 pounds of general stuff in my intestines that refuses to come out, very weird feeling. The diet is going back to being strict today, with all the vegetables and decent fibre I normally eat I can only hope that it will all be flushed out in the next couple of days. Will post later this evening to detail work-out.

I've got it on my shelf, the author is Nicholas Davies. I don't mind Shakespeare really, but we've been given only a few texts to choose from, only 1 of which I enjoy. It was either Shakespeare or bleeding Ben Johnson!!! He's a total ballache to read lol.

Speaking of studying modern texts, I'm taking Gender and the Gothic in Cinema next year, and I'll be studying films like Blade, Near Dark, and some lesbian vampire films!!! Great success!

Training wise, I've got back today. Had my first Anabolic Pump tablet before, with some carbs, and I'm feeling a little woozy lol.

Having a baby girl :)

Cheers, I'll definitely look into getting myself a copy! What's an Anabolic Pump tablet by the way? Oral steroids?

Training going well so far, though I'm going to have to make quite an important change in my sleeping patterns. Just finished my two mile run and ****-me-sideways it wasn't fun in this heat. A combination of recently being ill and simply not being able to hydrate myself fast enough made my lungs feel like they were about to give up on me in the last half-mile, only sheer bloody mindedness and a complete and utter lack of self-respect for my aesthetic appearance got me to the end, albeit wheezing and collapsing in the grass near an obviously disgusted picnic party, groaning and occasionally coughing up flegm and wiping the river of sweat away from my eyes. Needless to say, I think earlier nights and 5-6am rises are in order for my runs, as until I get used to this heat it's going to be too much of a hindrance, especially as my daily mileage increases.

Oh no it's not steroids mate, it's a fairly natural product.

Your training makes me feel ill just reading about it lol. Rest well!

Having a baby girl :)

Thursday 8th May

SS Cardio ( 2 mile walk, 2 mile run at 8:00 pace)
Core Strength level 1
Resistance training level 1
3x3 Hill Sprints

Notes: Absolutely bloody knackered! Hill Sprints, even with the sun winding its neck in, are horrendously hard. Intend to wake up earlier tomorrow to get the SS cardio and Core Strength parts of my work-out out of the way. I'd ideally like to get 40 lengths of swimming in on every work-out day for an extra calorie deficit, conditioning and generally unwinding either at the end of the day or as a respite half-way through it. Will have to work on that!

Also, someone could have warned me that high-rep deadlifts hurt.

Friday 9th May

Right, we have a problem. Through some level of wilful arrogance, naiveity and general twattishness, I feel lethargic, bloated and have gained about two pounds over the last week. Now, I could blame this on many things, the sun, my Dad coming home after 3 months and celebrating with a cheat-meal, but at the end of the day it was more likely to be linked with the 4kg of red meat I consumed at ridiculously inappropriate times. Needless to say, there will be consequences.

Today will be a rest day from training (lol, consequences) and for a good reason. Tomorrow, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will all be training days, all containing a 2 mile run, core strength 1, a circuit and 40 lengths in the pool. In addition, Tuesday will also contain hill sprints. Come Wednesday, my body will beg me for mercy and it shall temporarily have it, it will be active recovery with just one long 10 mile walk at 4mph. Training will then continue as it normally would, with the exception that 5 days a week I will be running, circuiting and swimming as a bare minimum, hill sprints and weights will be added during the week as appropriate.

Diet-wise, red meat is off the menu. I'm going to return to a low-carb, high protein, reasonable fat level of dieting that served me so well into getting to this stage of weight loss. I don't know why I slipped off the wagon so easily but I can promise you one thing: It's not going to happen again.

How embarassing.

Edit: Small typo, courtesy of my furious-at-myself typing.

We all slip mate, but it's good you've realised it and haven't lost faith. A few quick adjustments and you're back in the fray! Good luck for your uber scary training days next week lol.

p.s. Just started reading Bill Bryson's Shakespeare. Was recommended by one of my uni teachers, and it's actually very interesting. It's not written in iambic pentameter so you wont cut your eyes out trying to read it lol.

Having a baby girl :)

That sounds like an improvement, but I do think I'm going to stick to my modern literature for the moment. Read an older book by Forster called Maurice the other day, it's nice to dip in and out of different centuries and see how things differ but I do prefer most modern authors.

Yeah, I'm glad I caught myself, I really should have known better though. Might set me back a few weeks, in fact, I think I'm going to remove the batteries from my weighing scales for the rest of the month and knock out 3 consistent weeks of level 1 exercise and two mile runs. That should get me down below 250 pounds regardless of weight, and I do tend to place too much emphasise on how much I weigh so remove the distraction and just train for a little while to get my footing back again.

By the way, if you think this is tough training, you ought to see levels 5-10.

Saturday 10th May

SS Cardio ( 2 mile walk, 2 mile run)
Core strength level 1
Circuit training level 1 x4

10x Lunges
10x Sit-ups
10x Burpees
10x Box-Jumps
10x Bench-Dips
10x Bench-Jumps (Over the bench, side to side)

Notes: The swimming bath was absolutely packed today, not a single lane free and plenty of people queuing so I cut my losses and went back to do my circuit training early. Looks like weekdays will be the swimming days as people flock to get out of the heat in the weekends! The run was fine, I've set up a metal bar sunk into the grass in my garden to hold my feet whilst I do the sit-ups as well which is nice, I used to have to go inside and do them in the back-room with my feet under the sofa!

Circuit training was incredibly hard on my legs, feeling quite a bit like jelly at the moment! Going out for a few drinks tonight, I'm a whiskey man so at least the calorific content shouldn't be too high! Diet was clean and solid, plenty of water and generally feeling a lot better about everything. Batteries have been taken out of the scales as it really is a distraction I don't need right now. Looking forward to tomorrow already.

hello there mate, i did RMR last year at uni couldnt progress onto phase 2 (week 17) because of uni commitments. The one bit of advice i would give to you is run, run, RUN. Half of the commando tests are endurance based. Worry about the 3 disciplines of pullups, situps and pressups and you will be laughing. i did training for about 3/4 months prior to my PRMC and maxed out on most tests. If you dedicate your time you will be fine...GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

The circuit training you are doing looks excellent keep that up. Incorperate swimming also, particularly if you are a poor swimmer as many underestimate the swim test. The 'Best' exercise you can possibly do is the burpee with a jump. One circuit session could be 100 burpees as quick as possible, that will work you...trust me!

also search for a circuit called 'The Beast'

Thanks Pal! Yeah, I'm looking to increase my mileage steadily until I'm knocking 6 mile runs out without too much trouble, the body-weight disciplines are just to make sure there are no problems in that area and also to keep my overall core strength up! I'm a strong swimmer fortunately, I used to swim 5 days a week which is something I'd love to get back into, the conditioning aspect is fantastic apart from anything else. I'll definitely give the burpee test a go, sounds painful, I usually start to slack on form after around 25! Thanks for all the help man, really appreciate it.

Sunday 11th May

SS Cardio ( 8 mile walk)

I know that it was meant to be a normal training day but after getting in at 6:00am this morning I didn't really feel up to an intensive training session, so I compensated by reducing my normal intake of food and going for a long "Wake the hell up" walk instead. Possibly not a bad thing, as the DOMS in my legs are absolutely outrageous at the moment, here's hoping that they're all fixed by tomorrow morning!

Time for a nap, I'm absolutely knackered.

"THE MIND WILL GIVE UP LONG BEFORE THE BODY DOES" - DIG DEEP! - dont think i will go for my green lid after uni, considering police force instead. But everytime you go for a run and do a session, imagine that green meanie infront of you mate