The Army's problem of finding physically fit recruits at a time of rising obesity in the United States is especially acute in the South — where it traditionally draws a high percentage of soldiers, a study published Wednesday finds.
Army recruits from Southern states are generally in poorer physical condition than those from other parts of the country, concluded researchers at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.
When I enlisted in the Michigan Army National Guard at the ripe age of almost 26, the Guard sent me off to a mini-boot camp for the weekend. It was an eye opener about how unready I was. I experienced "muscle failure" doing push-ups. After being repeatedly dropped as we all were, I eventually literally couldn't push my body up with my arms though I refused to give up when the drill sergeant screamed at me and asked if I was giving up.
My spirit was willing, but my body was weak.
Because I was on a delayed entry path so I could got to grad school, I took that time to make sure I could do push ups by the time I went to basic the next summer. That was the most important physical challenge. I didn't run or do sit ups. Once at basic I coped with those running (and marching, loaded down with equipment) and sit up challenges with natural youthful health and lack of obesity (weighing under 150 at the time).
So I never once experienced muscle failure from push ups in basic. It was hard and tiring. But I could do it even as others in the company were failing. Hell, by the end of basic training the platoon I was in would drop in solidarity when any of our number was dropped for push ups because of some real or imagined failing. Thank you drill sergeant, for training my body and my mind! We all got to that point regardless of what our individual starting strength was.
Perhaps the Army needs a delayed entry program and a mini-boot camp for a large number of recruits to expose them to what is physically required. It sure helped me. But I had the motivation to self correct.
Maybe an expanded conditioning program at basic training is the answer. When I was there, some recruits who couldn't pass the initial push up test were pulled out of our class and sent to a conditioning camp that lasted several weeks before being added to another basic training class.
You don't have to be physically fit to join the Army, just physically fit enough to survive the Army program of making you physically fit.
