RichardCaan
Jr. Member
- Reaction score
- 29
- Points
- 330
Good day everyone I hope you are all doing well!
I have been placed on a BMOQA course sometime in late June so I have about 30 days to make amends to my training plan and learn or gain basic knowledge of any remaining skills. I have been following this routine for the past 30ish days or so, and now I am pretty much used to it. My reason for doing this is during BMOQ, I remember how the initial adjustment period caused unnecessary stress and stress = decline in performance. In this context performance means the ability of a candidate to be physically, mentally and cognitively ready for tasks.
The factors that I believe decreases candidate performance or causes stress are the following:
I am quite confident in my statement that performance declines throughout army courses because you sleep less, are unable to eat enough to meet body needs/low protein and have an elevated cortisol level as tests/assessments are done many times a week. For instance, I know guys who came out of basic being able to bench 225 but dropped to 135, 50 pushups to 30 etc just within 3 months. The only thing you can do is slow down the rate at which the decline occurs by showing up prepared. One thing I noticed on BMOQ was that the best candidates were older people who have had similar jobs/experience to the military. Their body or more likely their CNS was able to rapidly adjust compared to all the folk who joined straight out of high school. One of my peers who worked in EMS/Firefighting was instantly able to adapt to the BMOQ schedule + demands because of past experience, and this made me wonder…….
Now what happens if I am able to remove the pain of the adjustment period that causes stress/impact performance during the initial weeks of any military course by preparing for them ahead?????????????
I have been following this daily routine for the past 30 days to get adjusted to the BMOQA training schedule. My intent is for my body to be as adjusted to the schedule rather than getting a sudden shock of a bunch of variables thrown at me all at once. I pretty much got the timings for everything on BMOQA from a friend of mine and modified them to my daily routine to simulate the grind as much as possible so I am already somewhat mentally ready.
0330 - Wake up, stretch and warm up for the day (I know wake up time is at 0400, but the earlier I wake up the more quickly I am able to shave, shit and brush. This means I don’t have to wait on 6 other guys to finish using the washroom)
0400 - Shave, shit and brush usually done within 8 minutes, then continue doing exercises physio recommended I do everyday
0500 - Running, I run everyday sessions are usually tempo, interval and long run. This replicates the morning runs done on BMOQA.
0600 - Shower + ice/foam roll legs + protein powder, takes me about 5 minutes in total to be fully showered and changed
0700 - Eat breakfast, I timed my meals down and I am able to get a standard mess breakfast (2 scrambled eggs, 2 brown bread, 2 x 250 mL juice) within 6 minutes
0710 - Study/Review slides/QSTP/Skills or concepts conducted on BMOQA
1200 - Lunch, able to get rice, chicken and salad down within 9 minutes. Usually mess food is softer so I hopefully should be able to reduce the time it actually takes for me to eat when I actually get on course.
1210 - Go to gym/lift, I know on BMOQA PT is always done in the morning but my logic behind lifting during this time and daily is to be able to get more fatigued to simulate the levels of lethargy I will experience on BMOQA
1300 - Study/Review slides/QSTP/Skills or concepts conducted on BMOQA or screw around
1700 - Dinner, able to get rice, chicken and salad down within 9 minutes. Usually mess food is softer so I hopefully should be able to reduce the time it actually takes for me to eat when I actually get on course.
1800 - More exercise Light pullup, pushup, squat, dip or plyometrics
2000 - Sleep
I have been following a schedule for about 30 days. During the beginning it was really difficult to follow through, I would experience lethargy, tiredness etc, the same feelings I usually would experience during the first 3 weeks of BMOQ. Now I am pretty much used to it! All feelings of lethargy/tiredness and that weird groggy feeling are gone. I am quite confident my performance will not drop during the beginning of the course unlike BMOQ as I have been somewhat “acclimitized” to it! I will comment back on the effectiveness of this 4 months from now after completing BMOQA, as this could be a very valuable resource for people who want to prepare for basic military courses in the future.
My physical stats have also gone up and I am used to high volume throughout the day!
Here are my current physical stats: (I am not including lifting stats in this as I already have a good base for lifting and lifting is kinda pointless for BMOQA aside from injury prevention)
5 KM - 25 min
Pushups 40
Pull Ups 10
Plank 2 min
Half marathon time: 2 hr 10 min
I will start doing runs in boots + light pack etc so I can get used to running in boots, this hopefully somewhat simulates the load of FFO + Plates
Here are my questions:
I have been placed on a BMOQA course sometime in late June so I have about 30 days to make amends to my training plan and learn or gain basic knowledge of any remaining skills. I have been following this routine for the past 30ish days or so, and now I am pretty much used to it. My reason for doing this is during BMOQ, I remember how the initial adjustment period caused unnecessary stress and stress = decline in performance. In this context performance means the ability of a candidate to be physically, mentally and cognitively ready for tasks.
The factors that I believe decreases candidate performance or causes stress are the following:
- Waking up early - Candidates are not used to waking up at 4 - 5 AM + doing their morning routine which results in an alteration of sleep schedule, I am sure we can all remember how sleepy we felt at basic. I would say this is the most significant factor that harms performance, as it impacts learning and harms your body's recovery process.
- PT early morning - Again candidates not used to working out in the morning, performance impact
- Limited caloric intake/short meal timings - Candidates not used to having 10 minutes to eat or not being able to eat enough protein or calories to remain in an anabolic state.I honestly don’t think it’s even possible to eat calories to match your energy expenditure on BMQ. Let's say a candidate burns 500 calories a day through exercise, the average person needs 2000 calories. Candidates only end up consuming around 1700-2000 calories in the best case scenario, this is also how the weight loss happens so it is not all that bad for some people, but the lack of protein/calories causes people to become physically weaker/ in a catabolic state throughout the course.
- Learning - For me atleast learning new skills/concepts at basic was somewhat difficult. I am sure we all remember spending time ironing, studying for tests or practicing weapon drills so we won’t get recourse and have an extended time at basic. This is a performance impact as sometimes study/practice time may cut into sleep or cortisol elevation thus impacting performance.
- Meal Timings, most people usually have their last meal at 8 PM as a civilian, but on BMOQ it usually is at 3-5 PM. This takes approximately 2 weeks to get used to but it still is a performance impact as sometimes the hunger signal can disrupt focus/motivation and drive.
I am quite confident in my statement that performance declines throughout army courses because you sleep less, are unable to eat enough to meet body needs/low protein and have an elevated cortisol level as tests/assessments are done many times a week. For instance, I know guys who came out of basic being able to bench 225 but dropped to 135, 50 pushups to 30 etc just within 3 months. The only thing you can do is slow down the rate at which the decline occurs by showing up prepared. One thing I noticed on BMOQ was that the best candidates were older people who have had similar jobs/experience to the military. Their body or more likely their CNS was able to rapidly adjust compared to all the folk who joined straight out of high school. One of my peers who worked in EMS/Firefighting was instantly able to adapt to the BMOQ schedule + demands because of past experience, and this made me wonder…….
Now what happens if I am able to remove the pain of the adjustment period that causes stress/impact performance during the initial weeks of any military course by preparing for them ahead?????????????
I have been following this daily routine for the past 30 days to get adjusted to the BMOQA training schedule. My intent is for my body to be as adjusted to the schedule rather than getting a sudden shock of a bunch of variables thrown at me all at once. I pretty much got the timings for everything on BMOQA from a friend of mine and modified them to my daily routine to simulate the grind as much as possible so I am already somewhat mentally ready.
0330 - Wake up, stretch and warm up for the day (I know wake up time is at 0400, but the earlier I wake up the more quickly I am able to shave, shit and brush. This means I don’t have to wait on 6 other guys to finish using the washroom)
0400 - Shave, shit and brush usually done within 8 minutes, then continue doing exercises physio recommended I do everyday
0500 - Running, I run everyday sessions are usually tempo, interval and long run. This replicates the morning runs done on BMOQA.
0600 - Shower + ice/foam roll legs + protein powder, takes me about 5 minutes in total to be fully showered and changed
0700 - Eat breakfast, I timed my meals down and I am able to get a standard mess breakfast (2 scrambled eggs, 2 brown bread, 2 x 250 mL juice) within 6 minutes
0710 - Study/Review slides/QSTP/Skills or concepts conducted on BMOQA
1200 - Lunch, able to get rice, chicken and salad down within 9 minutes. Usually mess food is softer so I hopefully should be able to reduce the time it actually takes for me to eat when I actually get on course.
1210 - Go to gym/lift, I know on BMOQA PT is always done in the morning but my logic behind lifting during this time and daily is to be able to get more fatigued to simulate the levels of lethargy I will experience on BMOQA
1300 - Study/Review slides/QSTP/Skills or concepts conducted on BMOQA or screw around
1700 - Dinner, able to get rice, chicken and salad down within 9 minutes. Usually mess food is softer so I hopefully should be able to reduce the time it actually takes for me to eat when I actually get on course.
1800 - More exercise Light pullup, pushup, squat, dip or plyometrics
2000 - Sleep
I have been following a schedule for about 30 days. During the beginning it was really difficult to follow through, I would experience lethargy, tiredness etc, the same feelings I usually would experience during the first 3 weeks of BMOQ. Now I am pretty much used to it! All feelings of lethargy/tiredness and that weird groggy feeling are gone. I am quite confident my performance will not drop during the beginning of the course unlike BMOQ as I have been somewhat “acclimitized” to it! I will comment back on the effectiveness of this 4 months from now after completing BMOQA, as this could be a very valuable resource for people who want to prepare for basic military courses in the future.
My physical stats have also gone up and I am used to high volume throughout the day!
Here are my current physical stats: (I am not including lifting stats in this as I already have a good base for lifting and lifting is kinda pointless for BMOQA aside from injury prevention)
5 KM - 25 min
Pushups 40
Pull Ups 10
Plank 2 min
Half marathon time: 2 hr 10 min
I will start doing runs in boots + light pack etc so I can get used to running in boots, this hopefully somewhat simulates the load of FFO + Plates
Here are my questions:
- What could I add/modify in my routine to mimic the daily training schedule of BMOQA?
- How to eat faster? Currently I am stuck eating breakfast in under 6 minutes, lunch and dinner under 9 minutes. Being able to eat faster would mean I would be able to get 2nd servings often resulting in me consuming more calories/protein which equals less muscle loss and higher energy thus improving my performance.
- What other key fitness standards am I missing/weak on for BMOQA? I do not want to meet the standard, I want to exceed the standard by approximately 25% to account for the decline in physical ability that occurs as the course progresses.
