Marine Corps IST/PFT Help

Jae1297

Marine
Verified Military
Joined
Nov 10, 2014
Messages
38
Hello All,

I'm currently a Poolee and am about to ship to Parris Island in late september-october. I had a pool function recently and got 11 pull ups(not chin ups), 125 crunches in 2 minutes and a 10:08 mile and half run (i'm 5'11 ,150lbs). My biggest weakness is pull ups and I have tried different approaches of training :Greasing the Groove, supersets, weighted deadhangs,Isometric holds, etc. Any tips on how i can break through this and get up to 23+ reps?
 
Hello All,

I'm currently a Poolee and am about to ship to Parris Island in late september-october. I had a pool function recently and got 11 pull ups(not chin ups), 125 crunches in 2 minutes and a 10:08 mile and half run (i'm 5'11 ,150lbs). My biggest weakness is pull ups and I have tried different approaches of training :Greasing the Groove, supersets, weighted deadhangs,Isometric holds, etc. Any tips on how i can break through this and get up to 23+ reps?

You don't have a lot of time if you are shipping this month. In the 90's 'kipping' was encouraged....no more. Be sure your form is solid or your 11 could turn into 4.

I read this article some time ago and took some tips from it. Hope you get some value from it....

Zero to Twenty-plus: Marine develops program to improve pull-ups > The Official United States Marine Corps Public Website > News Display
 
Maybe try chin ups? Some people find them easier. I am one of those people.

The plan Ooh-Rah posted is pretty solid. No need to get fancy when improving pull-ups, just doing them everyday will make you better at them. Just play with numbers and sets. I found I improved more when I did multiple low percentage sets (40-60% of max) with a variable rest time (proportionate to previous set). Good luck.
 
It's all about focusing on the particular muscle groups. Chin ups and pull ups use different muscles. What I found helped me the most was using the pyramid approach on the pull up bar. Also go to failure. If you finish your set and you can still do more, start over again with a lower number.
 
And do negatives when at failure: stand on a chair or a stool, hold your chin over the bar, hold the position for a few seconds, then SLOWLY let yourself down. Again, x 10.
 
Hello All,

I'm currently a Poolee and am about to ship to Parris Island in late september-october. I had a pool function recently and got 11 pull ups(not chin ups), 125 crunches in 2 minutes and a 10:08 mile and half run (i'm 5'11 ,150lbs). My biggest weakness is pull ups and I have tried different approaches of training :Greasing the Groove, supersets, weighted deadhangs,Isometric holds, etc. Any tips on how i can break through this and get up to 23+ reps?


There is now a Marine Corps mentor section where pre-bootcamp/pre SOI questions like this can be posted and answered by our Marines here. Not directed solely at you, but posting in the SOF Mentor thread might be a little premature for people who haven't even reported to bootcamp yet.
 
There is now a Marine Corps mentor section where pre-bootcamp/pre SOI questions like this can be posted and answered by our Marines here. Not directed solely at you, but posting in the SOF Mentor thread might be a little premature for people who haven't even reported to bootcamp yet.

Good call....

Link to bootcamp Mentor thread.
https://shadowspear.com/vb/forums/introductions.102/

thread moved to the Mentor Area.
@Jae1297
 
Thank you all so much for the advice! I will try and report back in 5 days to let you know the progress I have made.
 
Greasing the groove is a great technique to get your numbers up. Good luck!

@Jae1297 ... That's doing clean reps with less intensity throughout the course of the day. You pass by the chin-up bar, you do a couple of clean reps and move on. So an hour later, two hours later, you hit the bar again, another couple of reps. You'll end up doing lots of reps throughout the day.

If you don't have access to a chin-up bar outside the gym, they make bars you can hang in a doorway. We have one in our house. You just hit it for one or two chin-ups when you pass by.
 
Physical Fitness UPDATE:
-Im up to 15, Dead-hang, Pull ups in a single set and have found a simple tragedy that has worked for me. Do 10-20 Max sets through out the day (2-3 sets every hour) for 2-3 days, rest 1 day then max it out the next day.

-I can do 100 crunches in 1 minute (60 seconds) hands grabbing biceps, elbow touching mid thigh, shoulder blades hitting deck. The way to increase crunches is the same way to increase pull ups, Greasing the Groove with 10-20 timed max sets.

-My mile and half run time is down to 9:47 from the 10:08. I run 5 days a week, Mon/Wes/Fri are sprint workouts with a mile and half warm up. Tuesday/Thursday are Long slow distance (3-5 miles). When running I find it best if you breath in and out with your nose. It avoids your mouth drying up and keeping your mind focused on other things.

-I'm going to keep increasing my pull ups, push ups and crunches as well as decreasing my run time. Hope this helps all poolee's or devil pups out there.
 
@Jae1297 ... Slow down.

It's good to be fit and ready to hit the pipeline and overcome the Initial Strength Test with a comfortable surplus. But you're pretty well beyond that now.

"To pass the initial strength test, a man must perform at least two pull-ups, 44 sit-ups in 2 minutes and run 1.5 miles in 13 minutes and 30 seconds. To qualify for combat-related training, he must be able to do three pull-ups, the 13:30 1.5-mile run, 44 sit-ups and also perform 45 ammo-can lifts in 2 minutes."

If you injure yourself trying to push it, you're screwed.
 
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