A Marine corps workout is a workout unlike any standard “Lose Belly Fat” or “Tone up for summer” workout. Marine's require there bodies to function when the time comes out on the battlefield.  


They often require their bodies to go as far as its limitations can go because if their bodies give way then their lives can be placed in danger.

So, what are the requirements of Marine Corps Workout?

Before creating any kind of workout It’s always essential to be specific if it’s to be effective. Being specific requires taking a closer look at the demands placed on a Marine when out in the field.

This workout should help them to perform which will in turn benefit concentration as fatigue usually results in more mistakes being made.




As you may already know, the Marine corps has a physical fitness and strength test which is graded out of 100. There’s no reason why you can’t get above 90 points on this test with some prior specific training.

Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test Scoring

Each Marine receives a score based on his\her performance in each event, these being pull-ups, crunches and a 3 mile run.

Based on the total points of the three events, a Marine will be assigned to a physical fitness class.

First class being the highest and third class being the lowest. In order to get the highest possible score on the test you have to carry-out 20 pull-ups, do 100 crunches in 2 minutes, and run 3 miles in 18 minutes.

 

More Repetition of Pull ups

Here are some tips to improve your pull-ups;

Watch your grip

Make sure to grip the bar towards your fingers and avoid piniching you skin from the bar as this will cause you unnecessary pain and hinder your performance. So take time to adjust to a comfortable grip.

Recruit your back

When doing a pullup you should be recruiting the muscles in the back as oppose to your arms. This is because the back muscles are far more dominant that the biceps and triceps and are, as a result stronger. Keep practising using your back muscles and you will get better at pullups.

Cross your legs

Crossing your legs compacts neighbouring muscles and as a result makes them stronger.

Beat 100 crunches

The ab crunch test has a two minute time limit where the individual being tested must complete as many crunches as possible.

The critera for this test are as follows;

Arms must be placed across your chest with no gap between the arms and chest. This implies that the arms must be in contact with the chest right throughout the test.

A rep is only counted if your upper body begins at the bottom and then your elbows touch the thighs.

Another person is allowed to hold your feet onto the ground to keep your body in place.

I find the best way increase crunches is not only just doing crunches themselves but also developing some of the muscle of the body that help us to do crunches more easily. These exercises include back extensions of the lower back, squats for the gluteus and core and deadlifts also for the core.

Personally, I would incorporate too much upper body stuff as a heavy upper body may result in you finding it harder to raise the body into the top part of the crunch position. The main thing is to concentrate on exercise which develops the mid section.

On top of this, it would be prudent to keep your body fat as low as possible as excess body fat just acts as a dead weight on your body making it harder for you to crunch. Do some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) to shed this body fat. This should also help your aerobic endurance which will play a big role in the endurance you have for crunching to 100 reps!

Sub 18 minute 3 Mile Run

My advice is to not practice your 3 mile rins on a treadmill as it is much more strenuous completing a 3 mile run outdoors due to wind resistance and other factors.

The best way to train for this in your marine corps workout is to run 12 laps of an athletic track 2-3 times every week. 12 laps is 4800 meters which  works out to be exactly 3 miles.

Time yourself with a stopwatch and attempt to beat this time everytime you run the 3 miles.

A good way of doing this is firstly running the 3 miles or 12 laps and then dividing this time by the number of laps. So lets say for example that it takes you 24 minutes to run 12 laps. That means on average it took 2 minutes to run each lap.

All you have to do now is run each lap at 1.59 seconds to cut time off you last record!