Should I go into DEP?

[Narrow Gauge RR]

I have already intro'd myself but for some background I am 28 years old and I want to be a Ranger. I am currently working to meet the Army physical standards before the recruiters will even seriously talk to me..got about 30lbs to get off. I am wondering if I should go into DEP to help me along the path to being physically fit and also preparing me for basic. Thank you.

[psxdns]

Hello, though I am still a civilian, my recruiter allows me to attend their DEP events. This reply is basically to tell you my experiences with DEP so far and is just to be helpful, I have no intentions anywhere in this post to tell you in fact what is best, as I know and fully understand that Rangers and soldiers of this forum are against civilians/DEPers who think they know everything.

First off - my DEP events happen every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, MWF we must be @ the recruiters office at 5:50am and S we must be there by 9am. They last 1hour.

So far, I have only attended one of the DEP sessions (just started this week).

We started off by formation marching and cadence over to a field, where we did excercises. We ran about 1/2 of a mile, and did a bunch of pushups, situps and jumping jacks.

After about 45minutes, we started heading back to the recruiters office in double time. When we arrived, one of the Sergeants yelled at us while in pushup "rest" position (whatever it's called, where you must remain in the starting position of pushups, but not actually doing pushups) because some of the PVTs were having arguments. He made us do some pushups then, and eventually dismissed us.

Supposedly they do some work with navigation and so forth, and go over a bunch of stuff that can be found at www.armydep.com - our recruiter gave us a big packet of stuff with how to read maps, what our general orders are, etc. I'm sure you could get ahold of the same information. This is mainly the only reason I would attend my specific DEP events, besides going with my friend, as the physical training is just too mild, and most of the stuff I am able to do from home.

If you are looking to get in shape, might I suggest getting some dumbells from walmart or some place, they are rather cheap, and are a GREAT way to excercise ALL muscles in your body.

I make sure I work out at least 2-3 hours a day, and it's really paying off.

Here are a couple sites on how to use dumbells effectively:

http://www.fitstep.com/Advanced/Power/b ... ng-tip.htm

http://www.muscletech.com/TRAINING/DUMB ... kout.shtml

I also make sure that I do a full session of situps/pullups/pushups at least once a day - however, I personally do them before I use dumbells, as they are good for both stretching and getting prepaired for the extra weight (dumbells) and toning the muscles.

The more you fatigue your muscles, the more they will grow.

I mainly do my workouts every 8 hours, one session I will concentrate on upper body (biceps/shoulders/triceps), one on mid-body (abs) and one on lower body (running - we need to get that heart pumping good :)).

Regarding suppliments, you might want to try protein powder or some sort of vitamin - I take niacin as it gives more energy and utilizes your metabolism where more of the neutrients go into your muscles, rather than fat cells. Energy snacks are also good for your muscles.

Make sure you get good rest, the key to building muscles, if thats what your going for, is rest - muscles don't grow in the gym, they grow when they are resting.

I have only been working out for about 1 week and a half, and have already seen a very drastic increase in muscle size and strength.

Personally, I bought a 10lbs dumbell, and a 20lbs dumbell. I have only used the 10lbs dumbell so far, as it is good to start out slow. I will probably switch to the 20lbs dumbell in a couple weeks, after my muscles grow a bit more. (Don't think that 10lbs and 20lbs are for losers, for one, for people just starting to work out, these are great. And two, the most responsible thing you can do when dealing with your body is not overexcercising, starting out low and working up will give you the best results).

Effectively taking control of your body and providing it with the things it needs to grow healthy will in turn help you lose weight in fat, and build muscle mass and strength.

As I said, the main reasons I would go to my specific DEP events are for the information we gain (navigation etc) and because my friend wants to go - it may be different at your place, but the workout here is just way too mild, and in my case, you can do a lot more at home rather than at DEP.

These are my personal experiences, as I said in no way they represent fact (except for some of the information on excercising, but thats just general information), different DEPs have different ways of doing things.

I hope this helps, good luck to you,

Eric

[Roasting]

psxdns - its great you have alot of enthusiasm for improving your physical fitness, but I would strongly recommend you slow down. Working out every day, especially if you are doing so for 2-3 hours at a time (don't see how that's possible with two sets of dumbells) every 8 hours, will cause serious overtraining. You will be doing harm to your body!

Muscles NEED time and rest to recuperate. You MUST be consuming the right kind of macronutrients and the right amount of calories to sustain such a workout program.

Fatigue DOES NOT increase muscle strength and mass. You could curl a 5-lb dumbell 100 times, thus bringing on fatigue, but never overload the bicep, which is what you want. Pushing the muscles beyond what they are used to lifting.

I don't claim to be an expert on training, but there were a few things that needed to be corrected in your post. Please consider adjusting your workouts. BTW, running should not be included as a lower body exercise. Squats, leg curls, calf raises, leg extensions - those are exercises that overload the muscles. Running is an aerobic activity, weightlifting is anaerobic.

In the first part of your post you say that the Rangers here don't like civs/DEPs talking about stuff they don't know. I won't speak for them, but please take your own advice. Good luck.

[psxdns]

rossi46 I can see how you came to some of these conclusions, and after looking over my post I came to the same ones. However, I should touch up on some of them - which I will do here.

Firstly, regarding the 2-3 hours at a time - I clearly said daily, not at a time, that would be WAY too much overtraining, especially for a 8hour basis, that would be about 6-9 hours out of my day also, impossible , don't got that kinda time. For example - first I will do upper body (which may take 30mins-1hr), then will wait 8 hours and do lower body (which will take 30mins-1hr), and so forth. To avoid overtraining, a period of 24hours or more goes by without excercising those specific muscles again.

Next - when I was talking about fatiguing, it was in a sense that you would fatigue your muscles (overload your muscles - it's pretty much the same thing) while going according to a plan that is on your level (of course you could fatigue your muscles with 100 reps of 5lbs, but effectively doing so with a higher level muscle, with lower amount of reps is what were going for).

And in regards to your last part about taking my own advice, I already stated that this was based off of my personal experience, so honestly, there's nothing wrong with my post - perhaps I could have said a little more about such things, but as I said, I wasn't going over a full workout plan - just my personal experience, that's all. No need to be rude, after all, this post was mainly just about DEP, not excercising.

[Narrow Gauge RR]

I'm pretty knowledgeable as far as muscle excercise goes....I'm mainly looking to build my lung capacity and cardio fitness. I definitely don't need to bulk up any..hell I already have 19" biceps and 20" calves...maybe I should join the Navy and start calling myself Popeye

[BeerForMe]

I was only in dep for 12 days..so dep didnt help me any. The biggest part is being mentally ready..and read what the rangers have to say. then post

[hit_it]

rangers

you know better than that, HOOAH. PUSH.

and Placebo, there is only so much we are allowed by REGULATION to do at DEP functions. don't want to scre the kids.

I'm requesting Ranger H8train come to my last DEP function next summer. i'm gonna scare the piss out of 'em before i leave.

[psxdns]

I'm requesting Ranger H8train come to my last DEP function next summer. i'm gonna scare the piss out of 'em before i leave.

Now that sounds like a good time!

SFC hit_it, I understand about not overdoing it...I'm the only guy, out of about 20 DEPs, goin' into any 'action' MOS. Everyone else is food service, vet spec or a mechanic of some sort. Still, looking at the way psxdns' friend's recruiters are doing things it seems like there's alot more that could be done.

psx,

rossi is right about the light weights. Weight like that (unless your like 10yrs old) isn't gonna develop strength. You need to move something heavy for your muscles and CNS to adapt to firing more muscle fibers. you can do it on the cheap with sandbags if you want. This will provide alot of 'real world' carryover, too, as they're awkward as hell. Hit Home Depot and snatch up a coupla bags of concrete mix. The should have 'em in 40-80 lbs sizes running at about $2-5 apiece. Wrap 'em in duct tape so they don't leak or tear and you're GTG.

<<<Here's a manual>>> with some ideas. Pick 2-4 exercises to work on and do a couple sets of each. Some days do higher reps (say 8-15) with a lighter bag, other days do lower reps (2-5) with a heavy bag. Make sure you do plenty of work on your pushups and running tho.

As far as rest goes, get plenty. It's probably gonna be OK to workout twice a day if you follow that with a rest/active recovery day. Likely the reason you've been getting away with it for now is the Ken and Barbie weights . Check out articles at http://www.dragondoor.com for some good info.

Thanks Veteran placebo (I'm sorry, I cannot find your rank..), I will look into that..

Eric