Basic Training Exercises

[Bluesman]

Am retiring here in a couple of weeks. I'm 71 and in miserable shape.
Sitting here trying to remember 1970 Army basic training exercises.
I remember:
Pushups
Deep knee bends
Leg lifts
Running (I'll walk thanks)
Jumping Jack's

Any others?

[Fargus]

Not sure if they were around when you went, but early 90's we did a lot of flutter kicks

[Calrob]

Get those arms extended and lets pick some cherries!!

[grizzman]

Went through Army BCT in 1977. Pushups, situps, one mile run, horizontal ladder.

We did mountain climbers and leg lifts, but only as punishment, excuse me, training.

When I went through OCS and IOBC we did two mile run, pullups, horizontal ladder, run/dodge/jump, inverted (perverted) crawl, pushups, situps, mountain climbers, leg lifts.

Of course, some of the equipment you need might not be readily available but you can make due with what you might find on a playground.

[Ætheling]

Am retiring here in a couple of weeks. I'm 71 and in miserable shape.
Sitting here trying to remember 1970 Army basic training exercises.
I remember:
Pushups
Deep knee bends
Leg lifts
Running (I'll walk thanks)
Jumping Jack's

Any others?

2 mile run in 15 minutes on hills and concrete. BEGIN!!

In 99 it was 2 minutes no knee ever touching ground 60 something pushups in 2 min, 50 something full situps in 2 min with resting only aloud in the up position and the 2 miler.


Oh and pushups were counted like this: "one, one, one, one, one, Private if you dont touch your ****ing chest to the ground and lock your god ****ed arms we will stay here all ****ing day!!"

[JES]

Add some squats and lunges.

Also, stretching would do you a world of good I bet.

Reduce the elbow bends to facilitate weight loss...

[Ætheling]

Now I believe its the 10 minute ice cream sunday challenge followed by the 30 minute sit in place and they finish it up with the walk back to the barracks for a relaxing shower

[AHF]

Star walking, sometimes we underestimate the benefit of a simple walk, that plus a very good diet works wonders.

[Froggy]

Low crawling 250 yards down a concrete sidewalk, back to the barracks, when caught walking back from the PX on a Sunday in 1969.

I did learn one thing in the Army. They can get you in shape standing in one spot.

[piercebronkite]

I would be concerned about joints and ligaments.

Try some low impact full body exercises if you can. Here are some ideas, stationary bike, row machine, swimming, assault bike. Just some ideas.

[BassMaster13]

If you are in "miserable" shape, and 71. Check and see if your health insurance or medicare would cover a trainer/ physical therapist to give you exercises. Sounds like I would start with low impact exercises. I would avoid the jumping jacks and do cheater push ups.

Start out easy, hurting yourself will get you in worse shape.

[Froggy]

If you are in "miserable" shape, and 71. Check and see if your health insurance or Medicare would cover a trainer/ physical therapist to give you exercises. Sounds like I would start with low impact exercises. I would avoid the jumping jacks and do cheater push ups.

Start out easy, hurting yourself will get you in worse shape.

Great suggestion. I'm 71 also. I'm one month into physical therapy. About six months ago I started getting weak in my back, hips and legs. PT is covered my Medicare and private insurance. So far, so good. I should have started PT sooner.

It sucks not being able to get up off the ground without using my arms to help pull me up but I'm determined now.

[kevin nicholls]

I made a dent in the ground at Ft Benning GA from doing so many push ups. I was a slow learner. I'm 61 now and to this day I do 20 push ups every morning, I'm still a slow learner.

[SamHarper]

Burpies, aka, suicides.

[Hogmauler]

I would start with a stretching program and a good walk. Whatever you do build up to it brother. You’ll be surprised how fast you’ll make progress.