Struggling to drop weight and increase strengh for .mil?

[tampam4]

to give a little background first. 20 years old, was involved quite a bit in sports when in my teens and actually in pretty good shape. Then, due to work environment, got introduced to alot of bad stuff for my body and everything went downhill.

I enlisted in the Navy back in September of 2009, and will be shipping early September this year to boot camp, with a contract for EOD/Explosive Ordnance Disposal.

Back in Sept, I was 6'2, 24% body fat and about 230 pounds. I've really picked up my PT, training over 10 hours a week with the local SEAL mentor and then more on my own.

I am currently 6'3, 17.5 % body fat and 245 pounds. They Navy wants someone my height to be 211 lbs, but if you're over as long as you're under 23%bf, you'll be good.

All of my PT scores for the swim, run, pushups and situps are good, but I find myself struggling to reach the numbers I need for pullups. Yes, they have dramatically improved from half a pullup to 3 solid, true deadhangs, but I've found myself reaching a plateau for some weeks now.

Its been difficult for me to try to lose weight AND maintain a very stiff workout regiment, so I'm trying to figure out a balance between trying to lose pounds but maintaining/improving strength.

Should I focus more on losing the pounds or just a combination of losing bf% and gaining muscle? What recommendations would you have for either one?

[Heavy Metal]

I use a machine at the gym that let's me do assisted pull-ups after I do my normal set. It also alllows assisted dips too. I do three sets during my circuits around the free weights and machines.

I went from one in December and can now do about five Pull-Ups.

Pull-ups are just plain hard because you are using muscles on your upper-back you don't normally use a lot. I can do over twice as many chin-ups.

[tampam4]

I use a machine at the gym that let's me do assisted pull-ups after I do my normal set. It also alllows assisted dips too. I do three sets during my circuits around the free weights and machines.

I went from one in December and can now do about five Pull-Ups.

Pull-ups are just plain hard because you are using muscles on your upper-back you don't normally use a lot. I can do over twice as many chin-ups.

I'm going to have to find a place with the assisted machine. I have a Perfect Pullup bar that I used for a while, until one day my door frame decided to give out with my at the peak of the pullup. That was kindof funny...

What gets me too is how we do the pullups, which is of course, the proper way. start from a total deadhang, pull straight up, no kicking, swinging or bouncing, chin has to physically be over the bar, not just above it, and then a 1 sec pause at the top. Holding at the top is what really gets me. My first two are pretty good, but the third is huge, slow effort.

[99superduty]

If you dont have access to one of those pull up machines use a spotter.

bend your legs at the knees 90 degrees and cross your legs. Have your spotter cup your ankles where they cross. Do as many pull ups as you can on your own and then have your spotter help you with a few more. Dont push off of him to get up but make him basically spot you up there. You want to keep the good form (just like weight lifting) and get a few more reps.

Do this for three sets every few days in addition to your regular workouts. I used this when we changed over from using the kip to dead hang p/u's in the Marine Corps. It got me to 20 (from 10ish) in a few months.

Plus when I was a recruiter, I had my poolee's do this routine. The ones that stuck with it managed to get a few more before shipping.

Unfortunately the only way to get good at pull ups is to do them.

Hope that helped......

[High-Order]

Hey bro, I'm Navy EOD. I went through EOD school back in '01. My advice to you is to try and cut some weight. What kind of workouts are you doing?? I used to be in a similar situation, I'm 6'3" and I used to carry a body weight of anywhere from 210 all the way up to 230 at one point. This was based in part by the old school philosophy of body building style weight lifting, some running, swimming, and pretty much eating what ever I wanted. I was never fat, but I always wondered why with all the pt I did that I never had a six pack. A few years ago while on deployment I was exposed to crossfit and I did a lot of research into it, then I stumbled on to the paleo diet. I've been doing the paleo/primal diet now for about 1.5 years combined with crossfit and gym jones workouts. All I can say is it's a night and day difference! My body weight is now effortlessly maintained around 195 with sub 10% bodyfat. My run times, swim times, pull ups, push ups have all improved. The idea is speed, strength, and power with minimal body weight. If you're interested in more info let me know and I can point you in the right direction.

[chuckman]

Your motivator should be helping with the issue with the pull-ups. My advice: when you "max" out, now at 3, stand on a chair, get your chin over the bar, and slowly let yourself down to the starting position. Do it over x 5. I think this is a form of negatives, but it will really help. The assist machine is good, too.

As far a dropping weight vs body fat, drop weight. You are a big fella, and you will be doing a crap-load of cardio work, and the lighter you are, the easier you will have it. You will be suprised at how much faster you can run and swim if you took off some poundage.

[BooneGA]

Im also an A/D EOD tech. Not navy, but I am good friends with alot of Navy techs, and they have us beat on fitness by a long shot. I often worked out w/ the Navy guys going through school and they took this shit seriously. You need to change your diet and start doing crossfit type work outs. It has done wonders for me. You will need to be able to bust out pull ups (along with almost every other exercise you can think of) to hang with most of these guys. Dont get disheartened, you can do it, it will just take work and dedication on your part.

I trained all through school and finally was able to do as many pull ups as the Navy guys in the class behind me (around 30), then they started doing 1 handed pull ups... bastards.

Seriously, look into the paleo diet and check out the crossfit mainpage/your local gym. I follow Gym Jones because I find that the have alot more thought and planning into their workout programs (not just smoke yourself everyday, repeat), but for most people crossfit is a HUGE revalation as compared to what they have been doing.

Rick

[tampam4]

A few years ago while on deployment I was exposed to crossfit

The workouts we do with the SEAL motivator are pretty much crossfit, but most of it is with body weight. Lots of squats, pushups, pullups, burpees, kettlebell drags etc. So far that has worked pretty good for me.

I was never fat, but I always wondered why with all the pt I did that I never had a six pack.

I wouldn't call myself fat either, but I do have a gut and some handles I'd like to get rid of, so I definitely know where you are coming from there. I'm going to have to look into that paleolithic diet, I've heard alot of good stuff about it.

My advice: when you "max" out, now at 3, stand on a chair, get your chin over the bar, and slowly let yourself down to the starting position. Do it over x 5. I think this is a form of negatives, but it will really help

Doh! completely forgot about negatives. Even though I'm slowly going down, I'm still using the same muscles as if I were pulling up. thanks for the reminder.

Im also an A/D EOD tech. Not navy, but I am good friends with alot of Navy techs, and they have us beat on fitness by a long shot. I often worked out w/ the Navy guys going through school and they took this shit seriously. You need to change your diet and start doing crossfit type work outs. It has done wonders for me. You will need to be able to bust out pull ups (along with almost every other exercise you can think of) to hang with most of these guys. Dont get disheartened, you can do it, it will just take work and dedication on your part.

Thats where I'm at right now as well. Most of the guys at the workouts are absolute machines. I'll catch up to them eventually Crossfit sounds like the sure way to go.

I follow Gym Jones because I find that the have alot more thought and planning into their workout programs (not just smoke yourself everyday, repeat)

I'll take a look into Gym Jones, sounds like that may just be what I'm looking for!


Thanks for all the replies fellas. I'll throw out an update on here in some time to let you know where things stand in the future

-Steindor

[High-Order]

"I wouldn't call myself fat either, but I do have a gut and some handles I'd like to get rid of, so I definitely know where you are coming from there. I'm going to have to look into that paleolithic diet, I've heard alot of good stuff about it."


If you are serious about it, I would start reading here!

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/

[Mat]

Military Fitness Manual by Nathanael Morrison. His book his so straight forward and easy to read. It's just basic, simple and solid and that's what works. There's so little worth recommending out there but I can't stress how good the information is in here and I promise it will start you on the right path. I have associations with a couple of the past and current title holding UFC fighters, I made them read it too even though a lot of what's in here is how those guys live already.

Here's a couple links about the author: ATSCI, Alpin Gruppe, Linkedin.

I'm not a personal friend of Nathanael's but I am a total fanboy of his book. It's a bit pricey but the information really is good stuff.