Working Out On The Go!
How To Live Forever Or Die Trying, Part 9.
It’s always hard to keep up an exercise regimen with all the demands of a hectic modern lifestyle, especially if you have to travel for business. J.D. Johannes, freelance embed and author of Fit for Combat: When Fitness is a Matter of Life or Death,* explains how he gets it done in this guest post from a forward operating base near Tikrit:
I have lifted weights more in the first few weeks of this trip to Iraq than I ever have before.
The lower operational tempo is a contributing factor. In the “old days” I would go outside the wire for days or weeks at a time sleeping in the dirt and living off the land or living in a Patrol Base or Combat Outpost that was just a rented house with a pallet of bottled water stacked up in once corner and boxes of MREs in another.
The other contributing factor is that every Company sized installation now has a nice little gym.
Because the equipment varies from place to place (I’m on my 4th gym in 3 weeks) and there may not be a soldier around to spot me, I try to stick with dumbbells.
The only problem is that on dumbbell incline press I need 100 pounders and most of the smaller gyms only go up to 80 or 90 pounds.
But at least there is a gym!
In this end-stage operating enviorment I work out in the morning, eat breakfast, read the Bible, figure out what is going on that day, jump in an MRAP, bounce around in the back of the MRAP, eat lunch with important local Iraqi, head back to the base.
I keep a few low-carb protein bars in my cargo pocket while on missions and a tub of whey protein at whatever little base I’m living at.
The only other downside is the food.
At the big bases there is plenty of protein at the DFACs (chow halls.) At a little place like Sharqat some meals are mostly carbs.
The whey protein is a must.
I still log my workouts like I recommend people do in my book. Overloading over time is important even when in a combat zone.
My workout is a simple four day rotation.
Day 1–Lats, rear delts, traps
Day 2–Chest
Day 3–Biceps, Triceps
Day 4–Delts
The unpredictability of Iraq imposes days off.
If I was at a larger FOB for a year, I could do a serious cycle through the Phases of the System. But with moving every week and eating 1 Iraqi meal a day, my goal is just maintain.
So you see how someone who is committed to fitness methodically adjusts to disruptive circumstances. The important thing is to have a flexible program tailored to your situation. It’s noteworthy that while relative peace affords more opportunities for maintaining a formal maintenance program, Johannes’ comments indicate he is deprived of the full-body workout and weight-loss benefits of pitched combat (See “How To Live Forever Or Die Trying Part 4“).
Here’s the same post, now up at Johannes’ own site, with art of the FOB’s gym. Not bad.
About that war, Johannes, who has been one of the exemplary freelance embeds showing the salaried pros how it is done, reported in an earlier email that it isn’t over even if it’s quieted down a lot. “The battlefield now is the offices of politicians or ISF officers, the hospitality rooms of Sheiks, city council meetings, etc. Everyone else is just pulling security for the Company, Battalion and Brigade commanders. Still dangerous work. Plenty of bombs, anti-armor grenades and precision small arms fire … ”
Some art from the new battlefield.
Previously, in the How To Live Forever Or Die Trying series:
Old? Fat? Feeling Death’s Icy Chill Down Your Neck? How To Live Forever Part 1, the Crittenden Workout for Middle-Aged Fat Bastards.
How To Live Forever Part 2 The Beer Workout. Drink and be healthy.
How to Live Forever Part 3 Israeli research finding: Advanced geezerdom no bar to exercise’s life-extending benefits.
How To Live Forever Part 4: Fit For Combat You think preparing for combat is healthy? Try combat. Hey, when’s someone going to market the Combat Weight Loss Program?
Run For Your Lives! Just got in that dirty little two-miler …
Danger Zone How to eat all you want this holiday season and not let something dumb like winter interfere with your workout program …
Hurt More You’ll feel better.
Ready to Hurt More Got pain? Learn from the pros.
* Awaiting the arrival of my copy, formal Fit for Combat review to follow.
Topics: Iraq, Live Forever Or Die Trying!, media, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:54 am on Thursday, November 12, 2009
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