Hardest most insane 2 week work out ever! help!

[600rr]

I ship out in 2 weeks and thought I was doing good on pt. Then yesterday I recieved an embarrasing 250 on the apft.
I maxed out pushups but got like a 60 on situps and 15:16 on the run! (had a 13:12 only 2 months ago!)

I just began Ranger Silverbacks apft improvement workout. I would also appreciate any imput on how to put on some fast muscle! Should I smoke myself like 20 times a day? Eat only beef jerky or something? Maybe supplements? Do I really need to rest a day on and off?

Any imput would be way appreciated because a 250 was deffiently a supprise to me!

[RangerX]

You actually have 18 weeks (likely longer) to prepare for RASP. Take any extra time you have at OSUT & Airborne school to do extra PT and improve your scores. It can be (and has been) done.

[colt1rgr]

Simple explanation Stud. It's called "overtraining!" Take 2-3 or days off, NO PT at all, period. Eat good clean carbs, lean meat and just chill. I think you will see a marked improvement. Once you start back all you need for pushup improvement is 3 sets to maximum (Read: MAX EFFORT, one minute rest between sets). Then a day of rest before you do it again and if sore take 2 days. The body has to have time to recuperate, if not you are just breaking down. Two weeks out from heading to basic is not the time to begin a workout program that is designed to "break your body down, and then rebuild". You should be past that at this point. Train smart!

You have plenty of time to prepare for RASP like "X" mentioned above. And contrary to popular belief the Army is still pretty dang good and getting men prepared for "what may come!" All the best to you!!

[600rr]

Thanks sir, I'll read max effort and try not to overtrain.

[600rr]

Another thing though, i've noticed that even after hitting tmf on pushups (few sets of 50) and on situps (few sets of 40-50), I never get sore anymore? I use to feel good when I'd work out and feel sore cause it feels like improvement, but I havent been feeling that at all. Should I still be resting if my muscles feel completely fine?

[Jim Diegz]

Your body uses soreness as an indicator to let you know it has experienced an unexpected muscular trauma, which in this case is completing your first workouts. Completing these workouts breaks down your muscle tissue and the body responds to this as a threat. The body adapts and builds muscle fiber to essentially protect itself from experiencing the same trauma in the future. If you continue with the same general workouts over and over again the body will no longer react with the same intensity resulting in lower levels of soreness and little to no improvement. It's also possible to still improve but no longer feel the same levels of soreness. This is because there is a greater change in your body's homeostasis when going from inactivity to working out daily than from already working out daily and just increasing intensity.

Now if you're actually dropping in score this is likely due to over-training, a lack of rest, or a significant change in daily nutrition. It's necessary for the body to take time and recover otherwise, like Ranger Colt1rgr said, there is just a continual breakdown in muscle tissue.