I have to say that in the beginning it was a bit rough, I have been out of any big activity for about 9 years now, so I was a joke at first. At this time the requirements for the Air Force are as follows:
| Male Fitness Requirements | ||||
| Standard | Run (1.5 miles) | Push-Ups (1 minute) | Sit-Ups (1 minute) | Pull-Ups (no time limit) |
| Liberator (minimum graduation standards) | 11:57 | 45 | 50 | 0 |
| Thunderbolt (honor graduate minimum standards) | 9:30 | 55 | 60 | 5 |
| Warhawk (highest standard) | 8:55 | 65 | 70 | 10 |
Lets just say I was no where near the minimum... I was running a mile and a half in about 15-16 minutes, about 35 push ups in a minute and maybe 26 sit ups in a minute... pretty pathetic I thought.
I started doing 80 push ups each night, doing 30, 30 and then a set of 20, and kept doing this each night. I didn't really do sit ups as much in the beginning which I am regretting now. I ran around the neighborhood and lake next to my house a few times but it was impossible to tell how far it was and the terrain is so up and down that I really couldn't use it to compare running on a track, so I started running on treadmills and elliptical's at the gym at least. We continued to work out about 2-4 times per week for about 2 hours each time, starting off with a run and then moving to legs, arms, chest, back, etc. depending on what night it was. We didn't focus on being able to lift a million pounds, more so being able to lift less weight more times, that's what is key.
During the first month or so my body was just drained after each workout. Been told before that your workout wasn't hard enough if your not puking, well mission accomplished... twice. But throwing up during training at BMT is not out of the norm, they push you til you do almost, but tell you that if you throw up you better keep going, no stopping...
After the past 3 months almost now, I can say that my fastest run time has been 8:40 for a mile and a half, which is 15 seconds faster than Warhawk. My other areas have improved as well but not nearly as well as my running times. My pushups are at about 45-50 solid military style pushups in 1 minute and about 36-40 situps per minute, I have a feeling I will be able to get this up to maybe 45 within the next 2 weeks before I ship though. Also I used to be able to do a million pullups, even tying the new record for most pulls ups back in Jr. high, but those were underhand, and we have to do them underhand and drop all the way down and all the way back up, none of this coming down halfway crap. Two weeks ago I could do maybe 2. Last night I was able to complete 5 full solid pull ups overhand going all the way down and back up, I am hoping to be able to get another 1 or 2 in each set before I leave. But remember BMT isn;t about being able to run fast, it's more about being able to run a long distance fast enough. We will be running for about 30 minutes every morning, and only parts of it will be sprints, but its all non stop.
Two weeks and counting. At first it seemed like it was so far away and it was going by slow, but recently the time has gone by so fast it's freaky. People keep asking me if I am nervous or excited, and all sorts of questions. I am not so much nervous I guess for BMT, I am excited, to an extent. I'm excited to start this whole thing, and the experience I am about to go through, but I am not excited to get my ass kicked everyday, and get yelled at for every little thing even if it was right, but it is what it is and is all part of the experience. I guess I am more worried that I have taken care of everything I could back here at home for my wife and kids. I want to make sure they don't have to worry about anything, I've come to terms that you will never be ready for BMT no matter what, but I want to be sure things are ready here at home for me to be gone for so long. I would feel like crap if I left with anything up in the air for my wife and kids to have to deal with and it would probably just affect my performance at basic and make it even more miserable. So that is my number one concern. Otherwise sure I'm a little nervous, it's the unknown, so how could I not be a little I guess.
Going along with the theme of having issues a long the way, my recruiter scared me a bit about a month or two back saying that MEPS was missing some information on my security clearance, He didn't say anything was wrong with it, just that they were requesting more info and missing things from the agent and place that conducted the interview with me. I never heard anything back so I kept following up on it and it sounds like it was taken care of since I never heard anything back on it recently now (I hope), but it's still in the back of my head that something will come around and bite me in the ass and mess with my ship date or something.
But on the good side of things I finally told my work at the beginning of August, giving them about a 2 month notice. My boss wasn't upset, and was happy I was going to do something I wanted. He was also happy that I gave him such a large notice and not just left him with a two week notice. Time is getting closer and he still hasn't found a replacement yet, but it sounds like he is going to hire 2 separate people to take over my duties. I always recommend to never burn a bridge, you never now what could happen down the road, and he helped me out get back into the workplace at a time when not a lot of others were hiring so I wanted to help him out in return.
If you want to follow along with basic training for someone that is there, or for information there is an Air Force BMT Group on Facebook that post pictures and keeps up what the trainees are doing each week: USAF Basic Military Training
Also for a hilarious group filled with actual stories of people from BMT check out: What The Piss Trainee
At this point, I only have 2 weeks from today til I ship, so we will see if I get a chance to update before I ship out, otherwise when I get set up at my tech school at Keesler AFB, I will update with how basic was and my experiences that I had while I was there.
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