Advice for women on BMQ and other courses [MERGED]

[Rodahn]

As "they" say Kawigirl, practice makes perfect. Have you tried by starting off by doing the "ladies" push ups first, and then trying the mens? That might help a little bit.

Best of luck.

 

[kawigirl]

Hey Rodahn,
Nice bike by the way...I just sold mine. I had :'( a Kawasaki ninja 600 ZX. I intend to buy a new one next summer. Anyways I do men push ups until I can't do them any more then change to girl pushups. I have heard that it is all about muscle memory. But I dont know. I'm just doing what I can...

Thanks, Kawigirl 

 

[exgunnertdo]

Re pushups - I do "ladies" push ups most of the time.  I can do way more when I do them from the knee.  The point is to build the upper body muscles, not to strain your back, which we ladies suffer from with traditional pushups.  It all has to do with centre of gravity.  The guys centre of gravity is the middle of their chest, ours is our hips, which is why push ups hurt our backs - the back is trying to support that heavy part.

In any event - I do ladies push ups, and weights to work the upper body, and I do core strengthening exercises to work the back/abs.  Then every few days I do men's push ups to combine it.  It sort of breaks up the difficulties we have with push ups into the two separate parts - upper body and back.

 

[Celticgirl]

I stopped doing push-ups from the knee a couple of months ago because I found that they weren't helping me to achieve more push-ups from a plank position. (I don't like saying men's and women's push-ups because it makes us sound weak and girly. ) Anyway, this may or may not be the case for other women. I have found that exercises with barbells and weight machines have helped me, but it continues to be a struggle. My goal is to do more than 20 by summer's end. If I should be lucky enough to get on the officer course for August, that ought to be a good starting point.

 

[breezie]

Hi all! As far as those security clearance forms, you should try filling them out after living in 3 countries in the last 10 years, and moving more than once a year in that time! It took me almost a month to get all the info! Oh well, at least I have it now, and I'm definitely keeping a copy!

For training, I started training two years ago when I decided I would join the forces (I was still living in Japan at that time). I had a roommate help design a weight training routine for me (Japanese trainers didn't speak English, and they wouldn't have known what to do with a woman who wanted to enter the military anyway!), and that made a huge difference. I started by only being able to do one or two pushups, to now being able to do about 20 or so. I'm currently doing 3 sets of 8 once a week, but I'm doing them really really slowly. That is one great workout! I also started out only being able to do a quarter of a chinup, and now I can do 3-4 no problems, depending on the day! I started doing reverse chins - jumping up so you're in the "up" position, then slowly lowering yourself to full extension, and doing that until I had built up enough strength to come up from the bottom just using my arms. As far as weight training, I do lots of squats, bench presses, lat pulldowns, bicep curls, dips, military press with a barbell, etc. Basically anything and everything gets mixed into my routine at some point during the week (I rotate 3 different routines, check out stumptuous.com for some good women's training ideas). I always keep a record of what I do every day, and when I find that I've plateaued at a certain weight for too long, and can't seem to go past it, I will change my routine.

I also did the running routine on coolrunnings.com, building up to a 5km run using that program. Now I can do 5km without much problem, and even did a 10km run a few weeks back. I'm allergic to aerobics and step classes and such, they make me nuts, all the women going "Woo, feel the burn, lift those thighs!". I just stick to running, and some work on a rowing machine. I try to do as much as I think we'll encounter in our actual training, I can't imagine a bunch of big macho guys doing step aerobics.

So, hope that helps, and good luck with your training! You can do it, you just have to work at building yourself up.

Cheers!

 

[breezie]

Oh, forgot to mention, I'm 35 and about to enter RMC this August. No kids though thankfully!! ;D

 

[Celticgirl]

Breezie, I also moved about a dozen times in the last 10 years. It took a while to track down some of the old addresses! How long did it take you to get your clearance? Were you teaching ESL in Japan?

I don't do any chin-ups or pull-ups at the moment, and I'm thinking that I am going to have to add them in to my workout routine. I just hope that I can build arm strength without ending up looking like Sarah Connors in the Terminator sequel!

 

[Yrys]

I don't do any chin-ups or pull-ups at the moment, and I'm thinking that I am going to have to add them in to my workout routine. I just hope that I can build arm strength without ending up looking like Sarah Connors in the Terminator sequel!

Why ?!? I love Sarah Connors ( I prefer when played by Linda Hamilton, 'to) !

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

This thread is useless without pics..... >

 

[Celticgirl]

Why ?!? I love Sarah Connors ( I prefer when played by Linda Hamilton, 'to) !

Me, too, but the arms are just a little too bulging to be feminine in my opinion:

Mind you, she could probably pop out 100 push-ups pretty easily!  ;D

 

[Yrys]

Me, too, but the arms are just a little too bulging to be feminine in my opinion:

Mind you, she could probably pop out 100 push-ups pretty easily!

... and some 'mazing others stuff.

She was bulging, but less then some culturists females...

 

[breezie]

Yep, teaching ESL and doing work for the Embassy. Chinups are important, as I think they'll be making us do them in basic. Good for getting your butt over the rope wall too!

I love my sculpted arms! I'll never look like Linda Hamilton, but when I flex my arm it's pretty impressive! I used to have 2 four year olds hanging off each arm when I was teaching - they thought it was terribly fun having such a strong teacher!

 

[Celticgirl]

Point taken on the chin-ups. I'll start working that in to my gym routine. (I'm betting it will be a while before I can do one, though.)

Breezie, I taught ESL over in South Korea and Taiwan many moons ago. My stint in Taiwan fell into the 10-year time period and therefore, I'm waiting to get clearance before my application will be further considered/processed. Apparently, the hold-up is on Taiwan's end and hopefully they get on the ball soon. I think I asked you this already but didn't see a response - did it take you long to get your clearance?

 

[breezie]

Sorry, forgot to respond to that question. I applied in June or so last year, did my interviews and such in November, and was told in Feb that I got in. I had done lots of the police checks, etc myself for Japan and NZ before returning to Canada. I don't know if they used them or not, but that may have sped up the process a bit.

 

[Celticgirl]

Sorry, forgot to respond to that question. I applied in June or so last year, did my interviews and such in November, and was told in Feb that I got in. I had done lots of the police checks, etc myself for Japan and NZ before returning to Canada. I don't know if they used them or not, but that may have sped up the process a bit.

Thanks for the response. You did the checks yourself as well? Interesting.

 

[George Wallace]

Thanks for the response. You did the checks yourself as well? Interesting.

I believe if you ask at the CFRC, they may suggest that you can pay out of your own pocket to have these checks done.  Much the same as you can pay out of your own pocket to have a Credit Check or a Criminal Check done on yourself here at home.

 

[Celticgirl]

I believe if you ask at the CFRC, they may suggest that you can pay out of your own pocket to have these checks done.  Much the same as you can pay out of your own pocket to have a Credit Check or a Criminal Check done on yourself here at home.

I hadn't realized this was an option! Thanks, George. I will check with the CFRC a.s.a.p.

 

[Celticgirl]

This thread is useless without pics..... >

Is that why so many men are browsing this thread? Checking for pics?

 

[breezie]

Probably. Most men seem to need visuals to keep their interest for more than a few minutes!! :-*

 

[Celticgirl]

Here you go, guys.