training philosphies

[Nuke]

I have recently been appointed the coordinator of my units physical training program.

I have several guys interested in bodybuilding/weight training that young and relatively in shape (i.e. they passed boot camp physical readiness test), but have not regularly lifted before. Do you recommend starting beginners or people who are returning to lifting after a inactive period pursue a split training program or do recommend a whole body program for the first several months?

Also, if I can, what is your opinion of the high intensity workout styles such as CrossFit, P90X, etc. I currently enjoy doing CrossFit for my own workouts, but I am not seeing the mass gain I expected to proportional to the strength gains I am seeing (I add 125# to my squat in 6 months, but only about 1/2" actual change in leg size, and 45# to my shoulder press but no real width gain in my upper body). Though I am getting much more defined/tone look.

[pghiron]

crossfit is not supposed to get you big. all it does is get you in excellent shape. bodybuilding is in no way practical for people in the military. its not gonna help your pt test and its definitely not gonna help you when you deploy. dont have your troops do "crossfit" workouts either if you dont have a level 1 cert at minimum. crossfit is getting a bad name in the military because of people that dont know what they are doing leading other people who dont know what they are doing and when someone gets hurt they blame it on crossfit. you can take the principles from it and create workouts for them to do but i would not tell anyone you are doing crossfit. running and cals should be the foundation of your pt program. you could do like mwf runs and bodyweight workouts and t/th goto the gym. these guys should be going to the gym on their off time if they want to get serious about lifting. full body workouts are the way to go though.

[silvr002001]

Good luck getting everyone to the gym and not having 80 percent of the dudes standing around shamming. That is the main reason we arent allowed to do pt at the gym during pt hours. If everyone was motivated to actually better themselves and build muscle you would be good. Maybe your unit is better about it. p90x and crossfit will burn calories and maybe get you a bit stronger but dont expect to gain too much size

[pghiron]

i dont know what kind of unit your in but getting big should not be the priority when it comes to pt.

[silvr002001]

i dont know what kind of unit your in but getting big should not be the priority when it comes to pt.

don't worry my unit feels the same way. I still think going to the gym can help your pt. Not exactly in too many ways but you can't tell me a bench press won't help your push ups. I'm in a cavalry unit and they are all about pt. Maybe that is part of the reason the gym is off limits during pt. They don't want soldiers getting too big. lol Not likely though. Mainly it's because they stand around and do nothing at all. They encourage soldiers going to the gym anytime besides pt. I know using the various cardio machines improved my 2 mile time without ever running as well. In my off time getting big is the priority. My unit could give a shit about it. They just want high pt scores.

[pghiron]

i agree with you completely. more strength is never a bad thing. lifting definitely has its place but the standing around is definitely a problem. if you want help figuring out an actual program id be glad to help. just let me know how many troops you have and what kind of equipment you have access to. i had to work a program and a few alternates up for my unit so alot of this is fresh in my head.