16 Year-Old Pectus Excavatum Prepare for Military

[sheldoore]

Hello everyone,

I am new to bodybuilding.com, although I have been doing some running and lifting over the last year. Here is some background on me and why I joined bodybuilding.com. My dream is to become part of the Army Special Operations, such as the Rangers or the Special Forces. I have done tons of research on the military and determined this to be the path that I want to follow. I am very a leader, very smart, love to serve the community, and play sports. Unfortunately, I have always been pretty little and not very strong. My problem is that I have a moderate case of pectus excavatum. It doesn't prevent me from doing activity, but it makes me look fatter and less strong than I am. For that reason, I usually get discouraged when trying to gain weight to build muscle, because I feel that I am fat, even though I am actually not. I am trying to train for the military, and I am in pretty good shape (14:30 2-mile run, 65 sit-ups in 2 minutes), except for my muscle (I max out at about 25 push-ups). I really need some work-out advice on how I can improve my muscular strength and push-up ability significantly relatively fast, as I am applying for AROTC and West Point. Also, if you have any pointers on increasing my speed and sit-ups I'm all ears. I have been doing this alone for too long without much results, so I really need your help.

Height: 5'8"
Weight: 130 lbs
Willing to Give: 100%

Thanks everyone in advance,
Drew

[DCSpartan]

If there ever was a community in the military that valued performance over appearance, its SOF.

this is a terrible board for advice on how to prep for the military. If you want to get some basic strength, I recommend Starting Strength. Do really prep for any sort of SOF, the official Navy SEAL prep guide at www.sealswcc.com is as good as it gets. You want to have a baseline of strength for SOF selection, than after that every bit of mental and physical endurance you can muster. Once you get through selection you can get big and muscle bound, before that its dead weight on those timed night rucks and open ocean swims.

[yungchaopper561]

My advice is get to work on a lot of cardio, basic training is full of push ups and sit ups but you will be doing a lot of running 2-5 miles average. As for the muscles I say buy a pull up/dip bar that comes with perfect push up and ab straps set. It runs about $30-60. Also a simple way is start off doing 10-15 push/sit ups after every tv show you watch on your down time. Then add more reps every week to improve as it becomes muscle memory. For speed 60:120s work pretty well. Sprint for 60 seconds walk for 2 minutes that's one set do at least 3-5 of them. If you want a easy way to get SF or Ranger with out it in your contract get a MOS with Ft Benning as a basic training. They ask you when you get there if you want to volunteer for Airborne and Ranger sense your already where they train at. You might be able to even request Benning when you talk to your recruiter. I been to Benning so I know there training standards are a lot harder and tougher.

[DCSpartan]

you want Ranger in your contract. period.

[scullin]

When my son was little, they said he might have Pectus Excavatum also. Although he was too small to really tell, so we'll probably have to have him reevaluated at some point. I know there is a surgery you can get to repair it. My cousin's son had the surgery. Not sure if you've looked into it or not.

In the military, it doesn't really matter what you look like as long as you're not overweight / fat. Which you're not, so don't worry about that. You have plenty of time, a couple of years. I suggest you do starting strength for a while to get stronger and keep running. When you get closer to the time of going to BCT, you can focus more directly or prepping for that.

BCT is pretty easy as long as you're in some kind of shape. But as in anything you do, it helps to be stronger. That's why I suggest doing starting strength for a while until you gain some strength and muscle. Also, building up muscle will help your self-esteem which is probably what you need most right now.

The only thing hard in the military is staying motivated for years and years, avoiding / working around injuries, and keeping out of trouble etc. The rest is pretty straight forward. PM me if you want any specific advice (I just hit 20 years in the military this year).

[Nicks18]

Few weeks back i came across a complete new and innovative SEAL training evolutions that are built to challenge a participant mentally and physically. SAC and SOFA programs offered guarantee 100% more intense workouts than any other physical training program. The multiple events offered changes lives and certainly can put participants on course for a Special Forces future with confidence.

But if you want to start the training from home here goes the detail -:
1) use weight lifting to increase muscular endurance and joints strength by using high reps 10-12
2) starting from small distances increase distance only a 1/4 of a mile at a time
3) try to keep a steady 8 minute mile pace on all runs

Also i would like to offer you the best score for each of the asked activities-:

PHYSICAL SCREENING TEST MINIMUM OPTIMUM
Swim 500 yard breast or side stroke-: 12:30 9:30
Push-ups in two-minutes-: 42 100
Sit-ups in two-minutes-: 50 100
Pull-ups no time limit-: 06 25
Run 1.5 miles-: 11:00 09:30