So yeah… I decided awhile back that I was going to join the army, I figured I would have to work hard and everything but I figured it would be fine. I went through everything and got my date for basic August 8 2010. It wasn’t until after this that I realized that I can’t do push ups, I can hardly do sit ups, and I’m not that good at running. Oh and I am going to barely meet the weight requirement. Now I have just over a week and I haven’t much of anything to get better. I have my someone running with me in the mornings but I can barely run a quarter mile. He keeps saying “Just work at it” but every time I go to I find myself getting overwhelmed with the fear of failure and as with all self-fulfilling prophecies I give up. I want to do well, I mean the army pays great and I will have a relatively easy job as far as the army goes, but I just can’t seem to get past the fear that I’m going to screw up everything and that I’m going to go to basic and fail…
Dose anyone have any suggestions to help with the push-ups? Or anything, just something to help me make it easier.
You are not going to make any significant change in your physical strength and endurance in one week, but if there is any possible way to get you in shape, the Army will find it.
Now, I am not military, but, from what I have heard, getting overwhelmed by a fear of failure (or showing any such weakness) comes under the Category: Bad Idea.
Subcategory: Very Bad Idea.
Suck it up, do your best, never give up, and don’t worry. You will succeed.
Or, maybe not. Either way, I’m pretty sure they won’t work you till it kills you. I’m pretty sure they stopped that in the late '80’s, early '90’s.
You’ll either meet the standards, or you’ll get discharged, probably administratively, as long as you made a good faith attempt.
The military will give you every opportunity to succeed. The motivation to take advantage of that opportunity has to come from within. If you want it bad enough, and the DI’s see that, they’ll do everything they can to help you. It will be tough love, because that’s the military way.
Physically, you can do more than you think you can. In basic, you’re gonna run until you can’t run anymore…then you’re gonna puke…then you’re gonna run some more. A little further each day, a little less painful, a little less puking.
If you can pass a gut check…possibly the toughest gut check you’ve ever faced…you can make it.
I may be mistaken, but I think the army has remedial basic training for those who aren’t fit enough for regular basic.
As for push ups, try doing them on an incline. Back when I was in worse shape than I am now, I couldn’t do a regular one, but I could do them by putting my hands on the edge of the tub and pushing up from there.
I don’t have much help to offer, just good wishes.
The only thing that helps me get through physical hardship is feeling like it’s something I have to do rather than want to. Sometimes this is because I want to so badly I just have to, other times it’s outside pressure. I imagine drill instructors are pretty motivating, so you’ve got that going for you. Just expect to be tired and achy and for it to be fairly physically miserable and I think accepting that will make it a little easier to bear.
As for feeling overwhelmed and fear of failure, break things down into the immediate small next step, which is usually something you know you can do. So, you know you can physically run, you know you can run a quarter mile, so it should be doable to run a little more than a quarter mile, for instance. Don’t concentrate on having to eventually run for miles.
You almost certainly, with practice, can do all of the individual physical requirements of basic, so focus on getting through that and let finishing basic/making it in the army take care of itself. Or not - failure is okay too, it really is. Not being able to make it in the army is a bummer but it certainly isn’t the end of the world. You’ll find something else you want to try. But you’ll feel a heck of a lot better about failing if you know you gave it your absolute best shot. I guess just lower the bar regarding your expectations - don’t tell yourself you have to succeed, just that you have to try, and that is completely within your power to do.
You’re young enough and healthy enough to be able to do this (or you wouldn’t have been accepted, right?), so just trust in that and know that you will get better at it because that’s what happens when you work at something over and over (especially regarding muscles and exercise). And remember to breathe!
On the fear of failure thing. ** EVERYBODY** in your unit is going to feel that. Every day. Every swinging dick in the room is scared shitless that he won’t make it. You’re gonna bond with those guys, and you’re gonna get through it together. And when you’ve done it, you’ll take a certain amount of pride in it. And a certain amount of delight in telling war stories about how your DI was meaner than every other DI in military history. And truly sadistic glee whenever you happen to catch the first half of Full Metal Jacket on cable.
Regarding pushups: start in the correct start position on your toes (not knees) and lower yourself *slowly *to the floor. Get back in start position, lower yourself again. Do it until your arms get really tired. It will strengthen your arms. Keep doing it every day until you can actually push yourself back up off the floor. It will happen, and sooner than you would expect. I learned to do pushups this way in a karate class in my mid-forties. You can do this.
As for the running part you need to figure out how to PACE yourself for the distance you have to run.
If you run too fast in the beginning part, you get too much out of breath, never fully recover, and end up running slower overall than if you had just run a bit slower at the begining.