SGT Private RallyPoint Member 3008872 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>So, I would like the insight of my superiors on something. <br /><br />TL;DR at the end for those of you who can&#39;t be bothered to read a wall of text.<br /><br />I&#39;m 19 and a second year college student. I&#39;m a dual major, and dual minor. I&#39;m studying information security intelligence with a cyber security focus, homeland security, criminal justice, and military leadership. <br />In order to graduate in a reasonable amount of time, I need to take excessive amounts of credits. I&#39;m taking 19 now. That usually lands me spending 10-12 hours a day six days a week dedicated to school.<br />I&#39;m in ten campus organizations, including university student government, and I&#39;m a conductor in training/trombonist in four college bands, one of which has over 100 performances yearly.<br />My school&#39;s recreation center (gym) is under maintenance and has been only slightly accessible all year. It&#39;s always crowded, and I find myself spending more time waiting for space or equipment than actually using it. Plus, people I know are always staring me down. It&#39;s kind of natural when you&#39;re as involved on campus as I am. I don&#39;t want to say &quot;I don&#39;t really care,&quot; because I do and I&#39;m insecure, but I normally just ignore them. Uncomfortably. <br />Finally, the food courts are horrific. Our salads would be amber, everything else would be red-I absolutely guarantee it. Fried oreos as a side of volcanic chilidogs may sound great, but our food is horrifically unhealthy. People here blow up like blimps. I&#39;m. Not. Kidding. Student Government did a survey and 60% of students gain 20 or more pounds in their first year here. Hence the &quot;freshmen 15.&quot; I would link to the surveys, but that would give away my University and I kinda want to keep that off of the internet.<br />Ultimately, I am in a unit where no one really cares about PT. Everyone fails their PT tests. Someone got 11/11 raw score for their pushups and situps and came back double middle-fingering the NCOs (30 year old specialist) when he walked his 2-mile. But I do not want to be like them. I want to excel. I want that 300+ PT score. I&#39;ve been an E-1 for six months now and I want to move up the chain. I&#39;m willing to work. I&#39;ve been buying fruits, vegetables, and melons from the local Meijers with my drill money. I&#39;ve also been drinking lots of milk &amp; eating at least one salad a day. I volunteered for a deployment in May (they wanted NCOs I think, but I saw another E-2, so I slipped my name in). Finally, once weekly I am a &quot;physical trainer&quot; for a couple of reeeaaallyy cute sorority girls and we go through all PRT drills that do not require equipment and finish with the run. I also am that guy that always complains at drill that we don&#39;t PT enough :P<br /><br /><br />Too Long; Didn&#39;t Read: How do you guys manage to keep a good PT score while overwhelmed with crazy and hectic college life? What are your workout routines? What are your habits? How do you eat? What kind of advice can you give me? 2017-10-18T01:41:41-04:00 SGT Private RallyPoint Member 3008872

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>So, I would like the insight of my superiors on something. <br /><br />TL;DR at the end for those of you who can&#39;t be bothered to read a wall of text.<br /><br />I&#39;m 19 and a second year college student. I&#39;m a dual major, and dual minor. I&#39;m studying information security intelligence with a cyber security focus, homeland security, criminal justice, and military leadership. <br />In order to graduate in a reasonable amount of time, I need to take excessive amounts of credits. I&#39;m taking 19 now. That usually lands me spending 10-12 hours a day six days a week dedicated to school.<br />I&#39;m in ten campus organizations, including university student government, and I&#39;m a conductor in training/trombonist in four college bands, one of which has over 100 performances yearly.<br />My school&#39;s recreation center (gym) is under maintenance and has been only slightly accessible all year. It&#39;s always crowded, and I find myself spending more time waiting for space or equipment than actually using it. Plus, people I know are always staring me down. It&#39;s kind of natural when you&#39;re as involved on campus as I am. I don&#39;t want to say &quot;I don&#39;t really care,&quot; because I do and I&#39;m insecure, but I normally just ignore them. Uncomfortably. <br />Finally, the food courts are horrific. Our salads would be amber, everything else would be red-I absolutely guarantee it. Fried oreos as a side of volcanic chilidogs may sound great, but our food is horrifically unhealthy. People here blow up like blimps. I&#39;m. Not. Kidding. Student Government did a survey and 60% of students gain 20 or more pounds in their first year here. Hence the &quot;freshmen 15.&quot; I would link to the surveys, but that would give away my University and I kinda want to keep that off of the internet.<br />Ultimately, I am in a unit where no one really cares about PT. Everyone fails their PT tests. Someone got 11/11 raw score for their pushups and situps and came back double middle-fingering the NCOs (30 year old specialist) when he walked his 2-mile. But I do not want to be like them. I want to excel. I want that 300+ PT score. I&#39;ve been an E-1 for six months now and I want to move up the chain. I&#39;m willing to work. I&#39;ve been buying fruits, vegetables, and melons from the local Meijers with my drill money. I&#39;ve also been drinking lots of milk &amp; eating at least one salad a day. I volunteered for a deployment in May (they wanted NCOs I think, but I saw another E-2, so I slipped my name in). Finally, once weekly I am a &quot;physical trainer&quot; for a couple of reeeaaallyy cute sorority girls and we go through all PRT drills that do not require equipment and finish with the run. I also am that guy that always complains at drill that we don&#39;t PT enough :P<br /><br /><br />Too Long; Didn&#39;t Read: How do you guys manage to keep a good PT score while overwhelmed with crazy and hectic college life? What are your workout routines? What are your habits? How do you eat? What kind of advice can you give me?

2017-10-18T01:41:41-04:00 2017-10-18T01:41:41-04:00 PO3 Robert Laity 3008904

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>First of all, there are ways to get educated and be healthy at the same time. I would ask that you google &quot;Excelsior College&quot; in Albany, NY. They have been in the forefront of helping busy people get college degrees. I have several degrees from Excelsior. They have what is called a Credit Bank. The credit bank allows someone, anywhere in the world, to study at an regionally accredited educational unit and then to apply the credits towards any number of Associate, Bachelor and Master Degree programs. Online course credits may also be applied. Excelsior excels with it&#39;s special programs for Military personnel. One can also either challenge tests (some such as the GRE award 39 Credit hours for ONE successful exam sitting) or be evaluated by a panel of experts in one&#39;s field, in order to prove a certain perspicacity in one&#39;s field. That is called &quot;special assessment&quot;. Don&#39;t burn your candle at both ends and the middle. You should reduce your extracurricular activities, Run on your own or Jog, see a Nutritionist and eat healthy. Sleep is very important. So is reducing stress. Don&#39;t push yourself so far that you get sick.

2017-10-18T02:10:39-04:00 2017-10-18T02:10:39-04:00 PFC Jonathan Albano 3008922

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>My advice would be to incorporate your exercise into the space between your scheduled activities. For instance, going to your next class, jog there. Regardless of distance, it&#39;s a drop in the bucket. Need a break studying, take a minute to knock out some jumping jacks. Gives your brain a break and forces your legs to wake up. You&#39;d be surprised, when you sit down and think about it, just how many college activities you can incorporate exercise into.<br /><br />You&#39;re going to have people staring. There isn&#39;t much that can be done about that. What you can change, however is your outlook on the people staring at you. Rather than feel uncomfortable about it, use it for motivation. Tell yourself that they&#39;re probably interested in how you&#39;re keeping your rock hard abs with all that crappy food they serve in the cafeteria. Just don&#39;t say it out loud. They might assume you&#39;re full of yourself.<br /><br />Hope this helps.

2017-10-18T02:48:10-04:00 2017-10-18T02:48:10-04:00 SPC Private RallyPoint Member 3008930

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Being in the National Guard I can tell you PT is a chore. It&#39;s not every morning at 0500 unless you make it every morning. On top of that you&#39;re not with a Platoon doing it with everybody, and interestingly enough having a group of people around you working out makes it easier, more enjoyable. Then finally, you&#39;re not getting paid to do it unless you&#39;re active, so it&#39;s easy to push it off because of work or chores at home or that thing you want to go do.<br /><br />You&#39;re going to be busy, but you need to set aside 30-60 minutes each day to get some form of physical activity in. You need to make sure you&#39;re good for running, pushups, and sit ups. Additionally doing pull ups, squats, and planks will help too. Even if you don&#39;t have a gym available you can do PT anywhere. You don&#39;t need weights to get a workout in.<br /><br />Finally, pick what you eat. Junk/fast food is an easy sometimes cheap choice but hinders your PT efforts. Try prepping meals or planning to eat where you can get a nutritional meal that will help you keep your weight down.<br /><br />Break PT also helps, writing a report and getting tired. Get up and knock out 20 pushups, or some half jacks, do a 2 minute plank, squats, anything to get your heart pumping. Heck if you&#39;re watching TV try and do some planks or flutter kicks during the commercials.

2017-10-18T02:58:49-04:00 2017-10-18T02:58:49-04:00 Capt Daniel Goodman 3008957

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>I&#39;m going to give you a suggestion, I quite honestly think it&#39;d help you, for real. For a good !Amy years now, off and on, I&#39;ve dome aikido, and also have been doing some iaido. I think you&#39;d find them much to your taste, I&#39;d seem an aikido group on here, if you search for it. Its exceedingly aerobic, don&#39;t worry about practicality, its not supposed to be practical as a martial art. Also its not like judo, judo is a cpscore sport, aikido isn&#39;t. Trust !e, you do an hour of aikido a day, and three hours on asumdays, as I&#39;ve dome, with iaido, which is Japanese precision swordsmanship, you&#39;ve basically done the aerobic equivalence of running 10 miles a day, honest. doing those got me from 342 lbs to about 265-272 lbs, in a few months, combined with a diet of nothing but yogurt and fruit, maybe some tuma. Body strength, that&#39;s separate, the other things I&#39;d suggest are swimming and viking, possiblymalso rafewalking, which I can assure you is quite real, though it takes some getting used to. I hadn&#39;t done serious running before Army ROTC and USAF OYS, hknesr. I only wish I&#39;d known of aikido and iaido while I&#39;d been in, tpyou could also see of there are Army combatics and/or MCMAP USMC !martial arts available by you, as well, I only !emotion those as I genuinely think those might seriously be of help to you, honest, I&#39;d be most eager for your thoughts, look IP either the US Aikido Federation, there&#39;s also Birankai aikido, numerous other dojo groups, I&#39;ve learned to love it, you won&#39;t understand it at first, it&#39;d take time. There&#39;s also jujitsu, and straight judo, also karate, the kwan do, kendo, Philippine !artiap arts, any nimer of mother possibilities, I just love those, I hope that was of at least some use, many thamks, don&#39;t forget biking and swimming as well, I love those also.

2017-10-18T03:31:31-04:00 2017-10-18T03:31:31-04:00 LCDR Rich Bishop 3009147

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>First, understand your mission - Is your mission to graduate or to be in 10 campus organizations? 4 Band groups? I would imagine you are getting some PT with the band workouts? Sounds like you are eating well. I think you should consider prioritizing your 10 organizations and drop at least 3 or more as these take time away from your studies and mission - obtain a degree! Look for a cross fit group on campus and go for a jog first thing in the morning to get you system running.

2017-10-18T06:53:17-04:00 2017-10-18T06:53:17-04:00 Maj Marty Hogan 3009188

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Well- worked full time, went to college full time, was a single parent with zero family support, coached baseball and soccer, and was a school room &quot;mom&quot; often. Still managed to get a run in 4 times a week if not more. 2 miles is about 20 minutes. Maybe lighten the load some- 10 groups might be a little much with everything else. Slow down- refocus what is really important out of all you do. Schedules have a way of defining themselves fairly quick. Good luck

2017-10-18T07:19:39-04:00 2017-10-18T07:19:39-04:00 Col Jim Harmon 3009289

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>First, your overloaded. You will burn out within two years working 12 hour days for six days a week. You are in a marathon not a sprint. You need to adjust your schedule to reflect that reality and that means giving up a few things.<br /><br />Assess your end goal and focus your efforts only on those things that will make you successful in obtaining that goal. For example, you are involved in ten school organizations. Cut that down to one or two. How do Information Security and Criminal Justice benefit from your participation in Band or Student Government? You may really enjoy being in the Band, but does it pay off for you down the line in achieving your goal. Any activity that you are participating in that does not directly contribute to achieving your goal should be jettisoned, or put on hold until after you are through with your studies (With the exception of working out with the cute co-eds . Keep that one). Weed out those things that will not help you achieve your goal (i.e., band) and use that time for physical fitness. <br /><br />If your gym is unavailable then start using a prison PT Program (Pushups, Sit-ups, Chair Dips, Lunges, Squats, Pull-Ups, Burpees (we used to call them Bends and Mothers), Planking, Star Jumps, Jogging, and Wind Sprints are all free and require no facility). Some of the great athletes of our age never lifted weights and used only their own body weight for strength training. Work in one week increments where you alternate between upper body and lower body on alternating days. Every week you should be increasing the number of repetitions you perform for each exercise. Get a note pad, write down your work out routine, and track your progress. The great part is the entire program can be done in the privacy of your dorm room (with the exception of running), requires no gym equipment, utilizes your body weight to build strength, doesn&#39;t cost you a dime, and can be done when it is convenient to your schedule (not when the gym is open). <br /><br />Food is a tough nut for a college student. You are at the mercy of the contractor as to what is served. Try to eat smartly and opt for salads when available. If not, then eat smaller portions and augment your diet with the fresh fruits you talked about. Go for a long walk after you eat. Walking will help you burn off the dead calories and it will become a great mental refresher for your mind to work over an academic problem or to just relax.<br /><br />Good luck and keep it up. You&#39;re well on your way. And tell those co-eds I said hello!

2017-10-18T08:12:48-04:00 2017-10-18T08:12:48-04:00 AA Joseph Moody 3009431

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Standing desks are a thing, do the thing. Seriously though, you burn a few more calories and have far better circulation while standing over sitting so if you can convert half of your days ass time into stand time it will only benefit you.<br />I&#39;ve been doing the digital art thing for the past few years and I&#39;ve found that having a standing desk as my primary desk has helped with weight control and housekeeping. <br /><br />After that I would suggest healthy snack foods, nuts and dried berries are a good one and keep well in most situations.

2017-10-18T08:56:42-04:00 2017-10-18T08:56:42-04:00 MAJ Private RallyPoint Member 3009593

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Here&#39;s a life lesson: You can&#39;t do everything. We all get the same amount of time each day. How you spend it is up to you? As an adult it&#39;s time to start making the hard decisions. Would you rather be in 10 organizations or score a 300 on your PT test? Is it worth it to you to keep doing everything you&#39;re doing and score a 200? That&#39;s what you have to decide. For me, I have a full time job, a wife, and young children. There&#39;s plenty of other stuff I&#39;d like to go do but my #1 priority is my family so that other stuff either gets done to a lesser extent or doesn&#39;t get done at all.<br /><br />Once you&#39;ve made your decision here&#39;s my PT advice. Forget the gym. It takes time to get there, workout, and get home. Time is something you don&#39;t have much of. Buy a pull-up bar. If you want to score a 300 start doing pushups/pull-ups/sit-ups three days a week for about 30 minutes. There&#39;s tons of workouts online but these need to be intense workouts. You&#39;ll need to run 4 or 5 days a week. These can range from 30 to 60 minutes. Make sure one day is devoted to legit speed work and another is in the 5-6 mile range. Or go online and find a good 5K program for advanced runners. Keep in mind that running is something you need to ease into. i.e. if you&#39;re only running 10 miles a week now, don&#39;t jump to 20 at once. You have to increase mileage gradually or risk injury.<br /><br />Remember that PT is no different than your classes. You&#39;ll get out of it what you put into it. I&#39;m 40 years old and I score a 300 on the APFT doing what is above. Calisthenics are like running in that they take time to improve. You&#39;ll see improvements in a couple of months but to see the best results you have to keep building. The guys you see doing all the crazy calisthenics online have done it religiously for years.

2017-10-18T09:45:15-04:00 2017-10-18T09:45:15-04:00 CPT Private RallyPoint Member 3009628

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Walk fast or run between all of your classes and stay away from beer and liquor. A serious girlfriend can also put weight on you, but who wouldn&#39;t want a really supportive, sweet and intelligent woman behind you? Often your wife will make or break your military career. Look for an athletic girl.

2017-10-18T09:56:40-04:00 2017-10-18T09:56:40-04:00 SGT Dave Tracy 3009784

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>First, hopefully you&#39;re one of those people who can pass a PT test without much preparation, but that doesn&#39;t last forever, even if you are. If not, honestly, the only practical advice I have is this: Triage your extra curricular activities--or basically anything that is a draw on your time and energy--and focus on what matters most. Needs vs wants. If you can&#39;t (or won&#39;t) make that determination, and then make those hard choices, you&#39;re in trouble.<br /><br />Know this: If you&#39;re in the Reserves, you need to carve out the time to do your PT or your PT will suffer; it&#39;s as simple as that. And sooner or later, since the Army is cracking down on PT failures, it will catch up to everyone. If your PT does suffer and you fail your PT test, your college benefits may be threatened as will your ability to remain in uniform; especially if you fail repeatedly! That is squarely on you. So choose, and choose wisely.

2017-10-18T10:43:59-04:00 2017-10-18T10:43:59-04:00 LTC Private RallyPoint Member 3009827

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Here&#39;s the way I see it, what this really boils down to, is that you just need to figure out what&#39;s important and prioritize. You mentioned a lot of stuff in your post, most of which is unimportant...if you want to do all the campus activities that is fine, but you&#39;ll probably burn yourself out and use that as an excuse for not working out. And you don&#39;t need a fancy gym to work out...just clothes to work out in and some running shoes, then get out there and run. Mix up your runs with some LD runs, some speed work, throw in a bunch of body weight exercises and you&#39;re good to go...but do it religiously. As for the cute sorority girls, let them work out on their own and you go out and bust your ass everyday if you really want that 300.

2017-10-18T11:01:18-04:00 2017-10-18T11:01:18-04:00 CPT Private RallyPoint Member 3009949

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>You HAVE to take some time for yourself. When I started grad school I made the mistake of putting my health and fitness on the back burner. The deleterious were so gradual that I didn&#39;t even notice how bad I looked and felt. It didn&#39;t hit me until I saw a recent picture next to one that was taken before I started the program and I looked like a different person. I&#39;m a skinny guy already and somehow I&#39;d inadvertently lost 20 pounds (mostly of the little muscle I had). I also looked about 5-10 years older. I&#39;ve been trying to better at fitting some &quot;me&quot; time into the week. Since doing so my energy and focus have improved dramatically. Despite taking some time away from study time I&#39;m actually doing better in school.

2017-10-18T11:27:38-04:00 2017-10-18T11:27:38-04:00 PO3 Grant Skiles 3009976

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>These is more than enough time to go to class, complete all work as well as spent an hour or two in the gym every day. These are trainers on every college campus that will help set up a training routine. Great way to either start the day before classes or do after your last class to get away from the instructional portion of your day before you start any assignments.

2017-10-18T11:34:29-04:00 2017-10-18T11:34:29-04:00 SP5 Jerry Mucha 3011186

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>You are overloaded and must slow down to have the time to work out, no gym is needed, there are many inovative ways to exercise without the wasted time in a gym. Find your exercises and stick to a routine

2017-10-18T17:26:49-04:00 2017-10-18T17:26:49-04:00 SMSgt Thor Merich 3011412

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>First of all, you have way too many things on your plate. You need to cut back on something.<br /><br />For staying in shape, I would do an &quot;old school&quot; work out routine. That means you don&#39;t need a gym and it doesn&#39;t take much time. An hour a day at the most.<br /><br />Basic exercises - Push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, etc.<br /><br />Cardio - Try to run 3 miles a day or for at least 30 minutes. Do this at least 4 days a week.<br /><br />Every morning when you wake up do 20 push-ups before jumping in the shower. Knock out 50 sit-ups too. That should take less than 5 minutes.<br /><br />Also, always take the stairs. <br /><br />As for eating, make sure you have a lot of fruits and veggies. Mostly veggies though, most folks don&#39;t eat enough.<br /><br />Good luck.

2017-10-18T18:40:58-04:00 2017-10-18T18:40:58-04:00 CSM Charles Hayden 3012023

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div><a class="dark-link bold-link" role="profile-hover" data-qtip-container="body" data-id="1208240" data-source-page-controller="question_response_contents" href="/profiles/1208240-74d-chemical-biological-radiological-and-nuclear-operations-specialist">SGT Private RallyPoint Member</a> Successful executives manage their time. That is why they are executives. <br /><br />When you have learned to not undertake tasks that consume more than your available time; perhaps you to can be an executive or a effective citizen Soldier. Responsibilty requires adult decisions!

2017-10-18T22:46:56-04:00 2017-10-18T22:46:56-04:00 SFC Christopher Taggart 3012085

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>At first when I read your discussion, I thought this had to be a joke! As most commentators have already said, YOU have way too much going on. The last six years, I’ve been in college with only 12 semester hours, working part-time, and it was still a 16 hour, 7-day work week for me. Btw, in December, I’ll be graduating with a Masters. With all of what you have going on, I’m assuming you’re in the Reserves or Guard. What do you think is going to happen if you must deploy with your unit? You don’t get left behind just because you’re in college. At the end of your present semester, I would rethink your motivation for doing a double major, two minors, and all those other extracurricular activities you’re doing. At 19, I’m sure there’s a young lady in the picture too. What about her? Just a thought, you don’t have to listen to me.

2017-10-18T23:13:33-04:00 2017-10-18T23:13:33-04:00 CW2 Private RallyPoint Member 3012326

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>As a experienced college student in and outside of the military for the last 16 years a piece of advice I can give you is do not overload yourself. When I first attended college and tried 18 semester hours alongside running track/XC, and working 40 hours a week full time to pay for my education I was very stressed. You only have so much time during the day and at some point you are going to start prioritizing your activites you are involved in. For me it got to a point where I just wouldnt study because I simply didnt have the time. If you are doing PT every day you are going to get tired and require rest/sleep. <br /><br />Personally I would like all of your prioritze all of your activites and find out what is on the bottom of your list. At the end of the day if you cant accomplish say the bottom three things, dont stress about it. <br /><br />If I had better time managment when I was your age who knows where I would be today. I probably would not be in military and at some school teaching somewhere. <br /><br />As far as tips for keeping in shape on campus, I would say first start walking or riding a bike to class. Something is better than nothing. As far as strength training goes try doing workouts in your room if you are spent on time. Also depending on your schedule maybe go to the gym between classes, wake up earlier in the morning to make it the gym. At this point Im used to getting up between 4-6 AM in order to get whatever I need to accomplished. <br /><br />Not sure exactly how long you have been doing this schedule of yours but eventually your going to burn out.

2017-10-19T02:42:08-04:00 2017-10-19T02:42:08-04:00 SPC Jim Mayfield 3587522

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Do body weight exercises,,, burpees can be done just about anywhere,,, running,,, stay away from the pizza, beer, etc... I worked full time and went to college, it was tough but worth it in the end. You may want to slow down a little on the extracurricular activities and get your core classes done.

2018-04-29T20:53:07-04:00 2018-04-29T20:53:07-04:00 PFC Private RallyPoint Member 3985554

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Don&#39;t get the unlimited meal plan. Trust me on this.

2018-09-22T14:32:34-04:00 2018-09-22T14:32:34-04:00 2017-10-18T01:41:41-04:00