VMM-266

Here is a recent design we’ve been working on.

Fitness Platoon – January 26, 2009

1.5 mile run
1 hour of Frisbee Football and Razzle Dazzle

JP is back from Parris Island. We like to do something fun when the Marines come home. As the weather is going to be bad this week we didn’t put it off. I think I counted 16 people at PT on Monday. You can see how dark it is in the morning when we start.

Fitness Platoon – January 23, 2009

Frizbee Football and Razzle Dazzle
Deck 3— PHASE 2, Lower Body Workout: link

We did something fun because Justin, Rachel, and Sarah all leave for Marine Combat Training (MCT) on Monday. We’ll have more fun next week because JP is home on his 10 day boot leave.

As a joke, Justin gave Taylor (pictured above) a service stripe because he has been in the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) for so long. Thankfully for Taylor, he has made good use of his time and is well prepared. He can already max his pull-ups and crunches on the Physical Fitness Test (PFT). Unless his ship date gets pushed back again, he has less than two weeks left.

Fitness Platoon – January 21, 2009

Fitness Decks: Deck 2— PHASE 2, Upper Body Workout: Link
1.5 mile run

Team 1 getting some push-ups. Notice Gunny’s interior decorating skills in the office with the sand bags. He probably wants to use cammo netting for curtains.

RACE!
My wife taught me a stall tactic a few years back: When you start to get tired in a workout, start telling jokes. My wife absolutely turns into Wanda Sykes when bench pressing. The fitness platoon has fallen into this habit so we decided to make the workouts a race in order to short circuit the stall tactics. We broke up into two teams and went at it. It worked beautifully. Everyone pushed at the end to win rather than slow down. It wasn’t laughter at the end, but I still almost busted a gut.

Fitness Platoon – January 19, 2009

3 mile run
Abs by Gunny: 2 mins crunches, 1 min crunches, 30 sec crunches, 1 min flutter kicks, 1 min ins and outs, 15 atomic sit ups

The PT crew

Atomic sit-ups

22nd MEU

Why anyone would ever pick a fight with Marines is beyond me. I mean, who wants to go toe to toe with gun-toting martial artists with the most lethal technology on Earth? Any American that has spent any significant time on a Marine base knows that the country’s defense is in good hands.

I’ve had these thoughts before and I had them reinforced again when we visited Fork Union Military Academy this weekend where the 22nd MEU put on a show during its Community Outreach Day. They flew in with with style in a Super Cobra, a CH-53 Super Stallion, a Huey, and a V22 Osprey. The Marines off loaded lots of cool equipment for display. The students from Fork Union Military Academy as well as poolees in the Delayed Entry Program had the opportunity to talk with these American Heroes.

We couldn’t have had better role models. Not surprisingly, these Marines were sharp. My favorite part though, as I looked on with a little envy, was when two Marines from the MEU put on a martial arts demonstration, using their training from the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). The Marine Corps has been teaching more advanced moves than when I was on active duty. It was impressive — even more so considering the Marines were green belts still moving up in the MCMAP system. GySgt Rose, the recruiter here in Harrisonburg, is a brown belt instructor, and I think everyone made a mental note never to pick a fight with him, which is the point of MCMAP when you think about it.

Here are some videos and pictures from Saturday:

http://www.facebook.com/v/57836429017

http://www.facebook.com/v/57836989017

Andrew looking through the scope of a sniper rifle.

Justin manning the 50 Cal.

The Fitness Platoon in front of the V-22

22nd MEU’s Website: Link

I’d like to say “thank you” to the 22nd MEU for their professionalism and for the inspiration they provided for the young men and women following in their footsteps. It was appreciated more than they know.

Semper Fidelis.

Fitness Platoon – January 16, 2009

1.5 mile run
Fitness Decks: Deck 2— PHASE 2, Upper Body Workout: Link

I tried this workout with a 20 lb vest. It worked pretty well and helps increase the difficulty of the workout for those of us who need it while not over doing it for the beginners.

Fitness Platoon – January 14, 2009

2 miles of hill intervals
Deck 3— PHASE 2, Lower Body Workout: link

Bonus Workout
We have one poolee who is trying to drop extra weight in order to ship next week. That means he has to burn a lot more calories than he takes in. We shuffled the phase 2 upper body and lower body workouts together and did them as one giant deck. It takes about an hour to do, but it really wasn’t a bad workout. The upper body and lower body cards don’t stack close enough together to reach failure. Afterward, we went on a 4.5 mile hike and finished up with a game of football. Heck, I dropped a few pounds yesterday and I wasn’t even trying (at least in terms of diet).

Walking is one of the best kept secrets at Marine Corps boot camp. Recruits walk just about everywhere they go. The push ups get all the attention, but if I had to guess, I would say that most of the weight loss recruits experience comes from the massive amount of walking/marching they do. Their bodies are almost constantly in motion.

My good friend and fitness guru, Tony, is an advocate of walking as a weight loss method. He wrote a column for OO-RAH.com about it a few years back. The information is still good, though, so here is a link from the archives: Link

Madam C. J. Walker

I was just made aware of another self-educated American that has piqued my interest. Madam C. J. Walker is credited with being the first woman to become a self-made millionaire. (link) Becoming a millionaire is an incredible accomplishment for anyone, but especially so for a black woman in the early 1900s. She must have been quite a woman.

The little I’ve found online is an incomplete portrait of her at best. I’m going to check out On Her Own Ground by A’Lelia Bundles to get a better understanding of her life. (link)

I did find a quote attributed to her in a couple of places that I love:

“There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.”
— Madam C. J. Walker

Fitness Platoon – January 12, 2009

Frisbee Football and Razzle Dazzle

Rachael and Sarah both returned from boot camp so we wanted to do something fun. At 0600 in the morning, the sun wasn’t up so the game started out under a full moon on a frozen field. Still, it was a blast. There were 13 people total which made for a pretty big game. It’s not like the summer when we first started. The games were sometimes two on two which was exhausting. We played until well after the sun came up. That worked great for me, because apparently my night vision is fading in my old age.