Building Mass while in the academy

[CharlesInCharge23]

So for the months leading up to my application to the academy I have been training and losing weight to get in good shape for the academy. It looks like I'll be hitting my goal weight around the time I start the academy (Aug 25). The plan I worked out is that once I hit my goal to turn around and start building mass however I fear that going to school M-F 8-5 and work M-F 6-11 my gym time is going to take a big hit. Any idea or suggestions of how to manage the schedule and still make the gains I'm trying to? Thanks for any advice!

[tanksoldier]

Your main goal is to graduate the academy. Any physical fitness you do outside the academy's requirements puts that at risk.

You may injure yourself, you may overtrain, you may have better things to do with that time that help you meet the academy's requirements.

You'll be getting PT in the academy. Use the time you'd be in the gym to study or rest. You'll have time to put on mass after you graduate.

[CharlesInCharge23]

Your main goal is to graduate the academy. Any physical fitness you do outside the academy's requirements puts that at risk.

You may injure yourself, you may overtrain, you may have better things to do with that time that help you meet the academy's requirements.

You'll be getting PT in the academy. Use the time you'd be in the gym to study or rest. You'll have time to put on mass after you graduate.

That's a perfect answer, thanks a lot. Guess I didn't think of it that way. Appreciate it!

[judoka]

My acasemy was 20 weeks and we did 4 10hr days. So we were off friday through sunday. Another guy and I met at the department gym on fridays and sundays. We did the upper body portion of 'westside for skinny bastards'. We left out legs because we were pretty much running daily. I also brought a ton of food and ate at every break.

[CharlesInCharge23]

My acasemy was 20 weeks and we did 4 10hr days. So we were off friday through sunday. Another guy and I met at the department gym on fridays and sundays. We did the upper body portion of 'westside for skinny bastards'. We left out legs because we were pretty much running daily. I also brought a ton of food and ate at every break.

I'm gonna try doing that actually. I dont need to go nuts but I've made a lot of progress and dont want to stop (also because I see the stronger and more athletic i am, the better student/officer I'll make) so that why I'm focused on continuing my workouts

As far as eating, I was already planning on bringing a hefty lunch for sure but any tips as to what to bring/snack on during the day? I dont want to run to vending machine every break and buying garbage.. maybe protein bars and veggies?

[NORCOCOP]

Over training is not a complete myth but its occurance is way overstated on the intrawebz. You may want to throw in a few bare bones strength oriented work outs a week as long as you can get plenty of rest and food. The most likely candidate for injuries in a training enviroment are repetitive motion related. Remember they are catering to the lowest common denomonator in the training. If you are in reasonably good shape on entry you should adjust to anything they throw at you more quickly than the classmates coming in unprepared and out of shape.

Prowler work outs should be fine for lower body as they involve no eccentric portion and will not take very long to recover from. Just get it down to a minimum number of essential excersises and keep it focused and short in duration. Don't waste effort and energy on filler nonsense.

Now it should go without saying if you are struggling with academics or your personal life is severely suffering, jettison all non essential activities ASAP. The abiltity to do that is essential if you want to lead a fufilling and complete life and not be over whelmed by the job. All academies are difefrent and require a different amount of effort on the participants part.

[tanksoldier]

All academies are difefrent and require a different amount of effort on the participants part.

True. If your academy's PT isn't enough then add some BUT at my academy we used mostly Crossfit, and if the workout wasn't hard enough you just scaled it up.

If you're going to do it be careful. Injury may be unlikely, but if it occurs it is catastrophic.

[CharlesInCharge23]

My academy has a corrections class running simultaneously with our recruit class. I spoke to one of the CO students, says they do P90x. I was told in orientation that PT is going to be a mix of cardio and weight training. Once i start PT and DT (they run together) I would stop lifting but before and after that module (it starts in November) I figured I could stick with some kind of routine and subtract from it if needed.