Ex forces....did you keep your fitness up?

Hi all

I'm interested to hear from any ex forces members here who were once at a very high level of fitness.

Did you keep that level of fitness up once you left the forces?

Does your old fitness abilities help to motivate you now you don't have to do it any more?, Maybe it actualy puts you off, thinking that you'll never be at that level again? Of course that may not always be the case, but i know of many ex soldiers who think they can never be as fit as they were back then.

I'm coming up to 44 years old, and it's been twenty years since i left the forces. I was in the military police so once you passed your basic training, unless you had a boss who was keen on fitness, it was very much a personal thing. Luckily, i enjoyed the phsical side of the army, and maintained very high levels of fitness.

Twenty years on, when you don't have to do it any more....it's not always as easy.

A few stone heavier with a few injuries, some from the army, others from just getting old, and i know i'll never be able to march mikes and miles with stupid weights on my back. Then again, like i said, i don't have to

Now my eldest daughter who is 18, she is joining up and going through the whole phsyical fitness preperation that you do before your assessments. Lots of runs, jerry cans shuttle runs, strength lifts and many many bodyweight exercises. I'm building her a nice solid pull up bar and dip station in the garden, and she's coming on leaps and bounds with her personal health and fitness.

It has motivated me though to get back into shape.

I'm going to stick to basic bodyweight exercises, pull ups, sit ups, press ups, dips, squats etc. Cardio will consist of mainly walking, rowing and cycling as i have a slipped spine and a really weak ankle that turns over at the slightest thing.

My goal is to lose about forty pounds. Yes that sounds a lot, but i need to. I carry my weight well, and people know me from the shape i was in in the army, they just think i'm built like a tank lol....but i know i'm not.

So have any of you kept a good level of fitness since leaving? Or are you starting out again at an older age?

Really interested to hear your experiences of this, including what kind of routine you do.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any comments.

CX.

a reply to: CX

Been out for fifteen years now but I just can't stop.

I'm nowhere near the level I once was but I don't want to be.I once speed-marched 42 miles in ten hours NONSTOP.My feet were wrecked for weeks.😃

I'm still a gravity assisted mountainbiker and only recently stopped lifting weights but like you,I'll start doing bodyweight exercises now (both) elbows have recovered.

Because:Sun's out,guns out!

I remember being told "don't join the infantry" and when I asked why I was told because you have to walk everywhere lol.

Well I joined the infantry and we ran everywhere, once in civvie street I carried on running and feel like I've ran all my life. Resulting in dodgy knees funny really because all my army mates have dodgy knees as well.

a reply to: CX

Funny thing about that--the Army (U.S.) kept me in okay shape, but it wasn't until I got out of the military and actually started researching fitness and diet and exercise that I realized the Army didn't really do a good job. Many of the physical exercises and ways of testing one's fitness were outdated, and they do a terrible job actually coaching people with the correct way to do things--they really failed at looking at runners' gait and aiding in picking the right shoes.

That caused this non-runner (when I joined) to have troubling knee pain to the point of being on a non-running profile for the majority of my service. Since I took it upon myself to learn about running form, types of gait, and finding the correct shoes, I've been running ever since.

But, the long and the short of it is this--my body has been in (and will be again) better shape post-military, and in my journey, I learned a lot about what the military had me doing wrong (or unsupervised, which gave me bad habits).

a reply to: redchad

Very interesting indeed.

As part of my resettlement when i left the army, i trained in Personal Training and Sports Therapy, an i too quickly found that much of what we did in the army would have been a no-no in civvy street if you looked at the proper way to do things.

That said, the army is job specific. Walking miles with heavy weight on your back is not good for your spine, yet it has to be done. My rehab time in the army when i ripped my ligaments was minimal, i now have a permanent weakness there. Having trained in sports therapy, i know know i should have been resting and doing physio a lot longer than i did.

Oh well.

Thanks for the replies, it's nice to see others still have it in thier blood. I do tend to see an 18 year old machine when i look in the mirror......whilst trying to ignore the belly

Despite being an MP though, i used to have a lot of friends in other regiments through boxing, so i loved joining the infantry regiments for training in my spare time.

Seeing my daughter go through her assessments now though, i think the UK run times have been eased somewhat for some regiments. Not sure if thats too avoid injuries or help with numbers being able to stay in.

Thanks again everyone.....food for thought.

CX.


CX.

a reply to: CX

I'd suggest swimming. It's a great cardio workout and helps shed pounds.

It's also lower impact than weights.

I've managed to stay in the same shape I was in when I left the army.

Which is pretty good. But due to injuries I've had to adjust how I work out to prevent further damage.