I may be slightly off-topic, but I felt like touching on a couple of things.
I was not in "good enough" shape when I arrived at BMQ. I had some kind of false belief that I was when I signed up, but a few days into course I knew very well that I should have held off applying until I was in better physical shape. I went to RFT, and joined a new platoon 25 lbs lighter than when I left the first one. I found morning PT on course to be challenging, but definitely do-able. Rucksack marches and field training was also challenging at times, but it's supposed to be! When you are doing something for the first time in your life, it generally doesn't just come perfectly. I gave my all, and did my best in each occasion, and never had a problem completing anything that was asked of me. When graduation time came, I'd lost another 10-15lbs and was in an all around pretty good shape. (which I of course, strive to keep improving in order to be more efficient in my job)
I experienced some trouble during BMQ with rucksack marching. I'm a pretty small female, so I have a bit of trouble adjusting the rucksack to fit me properly and bear the weight evenly across my body. I experienced some pain after the longer marches, but basically just chalked it up to "not being fit enough", and "doing something new for my body". I am sure all these things contributed to it too. What it ended up being, was that I had a stress fracture in my right hip, and didn't know it. It took getting partway into SQ and collapsing on a morning run for me to realize that "just some pain" was more than that. I've just come off almost 2 months of pretty much "no breathing" restrictions, and am back on course doing unit PT. I can't stress how important physical fitness is. I know first hand how being unprepared physically can affect a person, and I will NEVER do that to myself again. My physical fitness level is very important to me now for obvious reasons.
As for the Express test, I'm a firm believer that the minimum standard is too low for this career, especially the female standard. I really don't think that 9 pushups, and a level 4 on the beep test prepares me to be able to do my job effectively. I'd like to hope that females aim to at least meet, if not exceed, the male standard. I know I make sure I can at least meet the male minimum, but that's just my personal view of course.
ushup:
