Shoemaker Composite Squadron Physical Training Manual - Introduction/Chapters 1 - 4

Shoemaker Composite Squadron Physical Training Manual
Version 2
Created and edited by C/Maj. John S. Gomez-Simmons

Introduction: Do you believe that you were never born to be an athlete? If so, all I can say is that your beliefs are the only reason standing between you and “Awesomeness”. Most people fear physical training because they do not understand it, and so hopefully by reading this you will not only understand it, but also will learn techniques that can be done to achieve what others fail to because of their doubts.



Table of Contents:

1. Understanding Proper Eating Habits

2. Speed, Endurance, and Power; Understanding the Muscle Build-Up Process

3. The Two Different types of muscle

4. Starting a PT Schedule

5. Leg Workouts

6. Core Strength

7. Upper Body Workout

8. Special Workouts

9. Acknowledgements








Understanding Proper Eating

There is an old saying, “You are what you eat,” and I hope for all readers to understand that this is literally true by the end of this section. Eating is important, but you must also always keep in mind that eating too much will cause an excess of what you body does not need to function, while eating too little will cause of lack of what your body does need. As you will always find, whether in eating, PT, or even in leadership, balance is the key to success.

A. Protein

Did you ever wonder what made your muscles able to build up? It may not be the only thing, but protein is definitely what makes up majority. However, remember to not neglect other essential nutrients, as they allow different function of the body as well – even though you probably may not realize it yet.
Eggs are always a good source of protein (especially egg whites), and there are many other foods containing protein to include nuts, milk, and meat. Again, make sure to eat well balanced, or in simpler words, eat different types of foods to get the different things that your body needs.

B. Calcium

Having strong muscles is the main thought of PT, but I have seldom met people who stopped to think that your bones are what hold that muscle together. Without enough calcium in your diet, your bones will gradually become weakened and will not be able to repair themselves. The only reason your body can repair itself at all is because of the nutrients from what you eat and drink. Now to illustrate how important calcium is, let’s look at its relation to shin splints. Excessive running will cause the bones in your shins to literally crack, which causes much pain and will stop nearly anyone from continuing to their workout routine. It will heal in time stronger than before, but your body uses calcium to make it heal. Now, what do you think will happen when your body doesn’t have enough calcium to repair it? It may be seldom thought of, but calcium will have its effect on training as has been pointed out just now.

C. Fat

To directly answer the question which is no doubt in some of your minds, yes, fat is a nutrient. It is important for endurance trainers especially to have the amount of fat necessary, but it must always be kept in mind that you should only be having minor amounts of fat, as excessive fat is stored by your body and causes greater strain on your muscles. In a sprint, your body will first burn what is called ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). This will last about 7 – 11 seconds, and your body will then hopefully switch to burning carbohydrates. After this (about 30 seconds if my memory is correct), your body will start burning fat (important note: this is for what is called a “Dead Sprint”, aka running at the very top speed your body is capable of. Normal running will take at least 20 minutes before you start burning fat). Burning fat (as with ATP and carbohydrates) will give energy – which is crucial to endurance running. However, excessive fat causes you to wear your muscle down by its great weight. It is true that muscle is more dense than fat, and thus heavier, but you can muscle in controllable while fat is not.

D. Carbohydrates

As previously mentioned, carbohydrates provide energy while running and doing other physical activity. Carbohydrates in the form of sugars should be avoided, and other types of carbohydrates for energy use should be used instead. One such example is having pasta and water the day prior to a PT test. This does not use sugars – which can actually be changed into fat once in your body – but still gives your body carbohydrates for energy.

F. Other

There are some other essential nutrients needed by your body, namely, grains, fruits, and vegetables. All have their functions and are necessary to conditioning yourself for PT, but since I haven’t much to say about these important food groups, I will now move on to the next section of this manual.

G. Understanding the value of maintaining a consistent weight

A major problem why people don’t run is because it is far too stressful on their body – their knees in particular. This can often be “easily cured” by maintaining weight consistency by use of dieting or simply eating more healthy foods. Just eating healthy will help you to improve by cutting back on fats and other nutrients your body doesn’t need too much of, but just simply eating healthier can also have its drawbacks when the person in question is not being careful about the quality vs. quantity approach. A person who just picks out healthy food and then eats as much of them as he pleases is going to overall be healthy, but will find himself nowhere near the shape or weight he will have to be in should his goal be to compete. Good quality food (i.e., healthy food) is a good way to start, but in this case, quantity (trying to eat less food) is something that rather heavily built people should keep in mind. When you notice that your weight is increasing while your height is staying the same, a good way to put this in check at an early stage is eating less. Part of your weight is based off how much waste you have in your body. The two ways in which weight can be gained are by excess waste and your body storing up fat alongside your muscle. The waste can simply be put in check by eating less and drinking water. In other words, eat three small meals instead of medium/large sized ones. Within the week you should be rid of most of your excess waste. Now, the fat stored alongside your muscle must be used by your body before you are rid of it. You can either do a low fat low sugar diet for a very long time, or you can do PT and work it off. Even when doing PT, you are likely to have weight changes. That is why it is important to monitor this so that you can fix the problem before realizing that you shot up 20 pounds in the last 2 or 3 months. A last note on this subject is that muscle is more dense than fat, meaning one cubic inch of muscle will weigh more than one cubic inch of fat. Doing PT (particularly upper-body work) will build your muscle and thus your weight as well. If you have been doing PT for a long time and stopped suddenly, your body will still be supplying your muscles with nutrients to heal themselves, and so that will actually make your muscles become bigger even though they are truly weaker at this stage.

H. Eating “Techniques” for Before Physical Training Tests

As crazy as this may seem, there are some excellent ways to maximize performance while exercising. Here are a few that you might try.

1. Pasta and Water

A technique I learned several years ago was to have pasta and water the night prior to a physical training test. By having this, it makes more carbohydrates that your body can easily use, and so it will nearly literally have you energized to run at full speed for the entire mile. This is a technique that I have tested – and quite successfully at that – and I would strongly recommend it for all people who want to do their best in testing or competition events. However, an important note is that it must be plain pasta with water. The only thing you can add is a light coating of cheese, but nothing else. Also, don’t do this the same day as your actual PT test. The reason for this is that pasta is a food that I have noticed is a little harder to digest, and so it will give you side pain unless it has had at least 6 hours to digest. I would personally recommend 8 hours to maximize performance and yet minimize the risk of side pain.

2. Bananas

A great source for potassium – which helps to make energy – is having bananas before you run. I have tried it several hours prior to a run with success, but one thing which I have heard stops side pain is to have a banana immediately before a run (i.e. eat a banana a few minutes before you start running. I have tried this once just before a two mile run successfully, but that was the only time I tested this theory. I would recommend trying it out, but again, this is something which I only tested once.

3. Empty Stomach

There is a saying I heard from a former Army Special Forces person that a person is their very strongest just before they die of starvation. This is a debatable topic, but something that goes without saying after my findings and that of others is that physical performance is at its maximum when on an empty stomach. However, this technique should be used with care; eating small meals for an entire week is essentially what I have done with great success for this technique , but overdoing it is always possible and never wanted. Always remember that to muscles need to be able to refuel after heavy workout, and that as always, balance must be used to truly make this technique work as it should.








Speed, Endurance, and Power

Contrary to popular belief – which only focuses on one of these at a time – speed, endurance, and power are equally important. Let me first give a brief definition of each. Speed is being capable of moving fast, endurance is being able to continue for prolonged periods of time, and power is the ability to harness complete control over the weight and mass of your own body as well as additional weight. With this said, speed can give the ability to go at a fast pace while also building up tolerance – thus making speed and endurance co-dependant. But always left out is power. It should never be forgotten because of the many times when we have to carry additional weight. Physical training has two general purposes (there can be others, but this is just generalization): to promote health and to make hard tasks be easier to accomplish. Now let’s use the example that you need to cut down a 15 foot tree is a tight spot… would you really be able to lift it? Tasks such as these can be required of you at any given time – I myself actually had to accomplish this one except for the fact that the tree was about 50 – 75% larger. In these particular cases, how long you can manage your own weight (endurance) doesn’t matter since you must be able to haul your own weight as well as extra.

All three elements work harmoniously with one another to create an unbeatable opponent. Speed makes you ahead of the game with plenty of room to spare; endurance keeps your lead, and power makes nothing capable of weighing you down.

The one problem comes when you must compete against people who chose to specialize in just one or two of these aspects. When working for speed, it is hard enough to add endurance. Adding power just adds to making it harder to attain. When you add that extra weight, you find that you wear down much more easily and are not able to build up that endurance. Endurance can have nearly the same effect on speed, as focusing primarily on endurance will cause you go slower in an effort to save energy to last longer. It is hard to describe the very thin line of how to balance each of these three essential elements, but all I can say is to not focus on any particular one unless you specifically want to make a career out of it. Try to work out for long periods of time at a quick pace with additional weight to add to your own is all that I can say on the matter. In doing this, remember to build up and don’t be in a rush to get to your goal – physical training is a life-long habit that you shouldn’t be in a hurry to get over with.








The Two Different Types of Muscle

A. White Muscle

As to the actual appearance of this type, I don’t remember whether it is truly white. What I do remember is that this specific type of muscle is all about speed and has little endurance qualities. In any given grouping of muscles in your body, you can have both. However, it is the percentage of each that either gives a person a potential for speed or endurance. An example of this is a person who was a ration of 63% white muscle to 37% red muscle. A minority of people have over 50% of this type in any given grouping of muscles. Those that do are able to go much faster due to the quickness of this type of muscle, but it is at a cost. White muscle may be fast, but it tires easily.

B. Red Muscle

You have just learned that white muscle is all about speed. Red muscle may not be nearly as quick, but it is capable of taking much more damage before wearing down. This type of muscle has much greater endurance capabilities. A person with a greater ration of red muscle to white muscle will be able to run 10 miles with much more ease and an overall greater time than a person with more white muscle. The only problem is that these people have to work extra hard to get fast, while people born with white muscle are more gifted and talented at speed runs so long as they are short distanced.

C. More about these types of muscle

In case there is any confusion, try to think of it this way. Your triceps are the muscle between your shoulder and your elbow at the backside of your upper-arm, and you primarily use this type of muscle when doing push-ups with your hands close together. One who has, say, a 60% red to 40% white muscle ratio will be able to do push-ups for a long time at a slow pace. A second person, who was a 30% red to 70% white muscle ratio, will be able to do push-ups with extreme amounts of speed, but he probably won’t last 30 seconds. Each muscle grouping (biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings, deltoids, etc) contains a ratio of both of these types of muscle. That ratio helps to decide with whether or not the person will be naturally better at speed or endurance. A good combination of the two may seem like not that big of a deal, but it is actually the rarest and arguable the best. People with a 50% red 50% white ratio will actually be more capable of distance running at fast speed that any others.








Starting a Schedule

Planning is essential to PT: it allows you to be able to have a vision for what you want yourself to be capable of doing in the future, and also keeps you on track for today. As a beginner, your primary concern is to condition your body to be able to endure PT. Building up your strength, speed, and endurance is your ultimate goal. Now, to do that will require taking it step by step – or in other words, to start small and gradually increase the amount of PT you do. There are several different types of schedules; some of which are for beginners, some for only those who are very advanced. Again, start at the beginning and work your way up. Lastly, don’t be afraid to make up your own routine – as that is how all of these listed came into being.

A. Alternation

Allowing proper muscle recovery time is of great importance, as it allows you to be able to perform again within a 48 hour period (what you generally want). One method is to alternate which muscle group you work. For example, let’s say that you work out every day. Day one, you work out your arms. Day two, you focus on your legs and abdominal muscles. Day three you work your arms again, and day four you work your legs. This builds up tolerance to doing PT, and also allows your muscles to have proper recovery time. On that note, it is important to realize that most muscles require 36 hours to properly heal themselves. When doing PT, you actually tear your muscles. That in turn makes your muscles build up again stronger than before in the area it was torn (of course, only so long as it is not torn beyond a certain point where stress keeps pulling it apart again). Abdominal muscles are capable of faster recovery, so it is fine to do exercises such as sit-ups on a daily basis. However, arms and legs will require an extra day’s break, so unless you are working out lightly/moderately, you do not want to work your arms or legs on a daily schedule. The opposite is also to be avoided – never give yourself more than two days to recover, or you will not be building up muscle. A final note, if you train for several months and then suddenly stop, your arms will appear to be getting stronger and larger, but that is only because your body will still be sending nutrients thinking that your muscles will rapidly consume them. This should be avoided. You want to keep a constant schedule, not to mention that getting bigger arms and legs will mean a harder time running and more weight to lift doing push-ups. Size and shape never matters for training… what matters is what you can actually do with your body.

B. Every Day

When doing this, you are able to greatly improve speed and form. Power can also be built up using this technique. However, it should only be used sparingly and should never be done when accompanied by heavy PT (unless you are already fully conditioned and waiting to take the next step up). I started out by doing this technique, but then I gradually moved towards doing PT every other day. The benefit is that this technique lets your body know that you intend to have it build up, but the disadvantage is that it restricts you from building up to your full potential by quickly wearing your muscles down whenever you try to advance in building up.

C. Every Other Day

This is the routine which I would recommend most strongly. It allows proper build-up time and enough rest to be able to constantly be building upon what you did two days prior. In this routine, you are able to exercise to the maximum of your ability – making it much different that the two previous routines. However, there is one slight disadvantage that tends to sneak its way in to your lives – and that is by the fact that there is an odd number of days in a week. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but can actually affect everything about your schedule. It keeps things changing, so that every week is different from the week prior. To avoid this confusion, you can exercise every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. However, it gives you a three day break between Friday and Monday. This often doesn’t affect your performance, but still can have some negative effects by letting your body get used to taking a break.

D. Advancing: Taking the Next Step

When picking up your training and trying to become better, you must intensify your workouts. Increase not only the amount of exercises done, but increase the repetitions as well. You should be trying to work out all of your different muscles from the beginning stage, what I mean is that to advance you must find all of the different ways to exercise each different muscle. The next chapters are all based off of how to train each of your major body parts used.