Corps Strength: A Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant's Program for Elite Fitness

206 Pages·2010·4.35 MB·English

by  Paul J. Roarke Jr.

Table of Contents

Title Page
Dedication
Introduction

PART 1 - LINE OF DEPARTURE
CHAPTER 1 - WAKE-UP CALL
CHAPTER 2 - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS
CHAPTER 3 - PT: PHYSICAL TRAINING
Working Fitness

PART 2 - THE SYSTEM
CHAPTER 4 - SAT (STAND ALONE TRAINING)
Part 1. Warm-up (5 minutes)
Part 2. Pre-Fatigue (30 minutes)
Part 3. Mission (20 minutes)
Part 4: Cool-Down (5 minutes)
CHAPTER 5 - SUPPORT
Cycling and Swimming
CHAPTER 6 - ACTIVE REST

PART 3 - MAKING IT WORK
CHAPTER 7 - PLANNING
PT while Traveling or on Vacation
CHAPTER 8 - CHOW
The Basics
Losing Weight
Tips for Military Personnel and First Responders
CHAPTER 9 - EXCUSES, VAMPIRES, AND USELESS INFO
Excuses
Vampires
Useless Info

APPENDICES
INDEX
Acknowledgements
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Copyright Page

This book is dedicated to my parents, Paul and Marcine Roarke.
All I can say is thanks, I love you both very much. PJ
INTRODUCTION:
REAL FITNESS FOR REAL PEOPLE
Before I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1981, I grew up in a large working-class
family in upstate New York. Not many people in this big circle of family and
friends went on to college and a white-collar career. The standard career path
was a short tour in the military, and then straight to work. They worked with
their hands, their heart, and common sense; physical strength, health, and
endurance were required to be successful. With skill and honest effort they ran
small businesses, worked the fields, and made things of value. Many were
construction and factory workers, mechanics, and truck drivers. Some chose to
serve as police officers and firefighters. When the call went out, they put aside
their tools and served in our military, defending our country against Hitler,
communism, and terrorists. It was all work and they did it with humility,
integrity, and pride.

Despite the fact that no one really exercised (unless you count hunting and
fishing) or followed special diets, you didn’t see many overweight people. Nor
did you often hear of people being sick. Hurt on the job sometimes, yes, but just
at home sick? Almost never. The fact was most of my family never went to the
doctor for anything until they were much older, after many decades of hard
work. Yet day after day they were able to work hard, raise their families, and
stay fairly healthy in the progress. That was the recent past.

In the last 25 years there has been a serious decline in the health and basic fitness
of America’s working people. It’s hard to believe how dramatically the rates of
obesity, diabetes, and heart disease have risen over this time period, but don’t
take my word for it: Go to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) website,
where they have all the data. It’s alarming, but it’s all true. Many workers are
also getting injured and becoming disabled early in their careers. It’s no
coincidence that the economic productivity of our country has been waning.
Many major American industry icons are also in decline, and in no small part
due to the massive increase in the cost of insurance and health care.

The fact is that the health of our nation is directly related to the health and fitness
of our people. This is, and has been, the case throughout human history. No great
nation has ever survived and prospered when its people were unfit and
unhealthy.

Surprisingly, this decline in health and fitness has been accompanied by an
explosion of health and fitness products and information. The media is
overloaded 24/7 with fitness products, workout DVDs, diet systems, special
weight-loss supplements, and more. You’d think that with all this information
more available than ever, we’d be in better shape and healthier. The reality,
however, is that the opposite is true. While the reasons for this disconnect are
pretty simple to explain, it’s by no means an easy fix.

Over the past three decades, through much trial and error, I designed a system to
get and keep me at a high level of physical fitness for when I couldn’t participate
in normal Marine Corps training. This is not a standard Marine Corps, body-
building or sports-conditioning program. It’s a comprehensive system that takes
the best parts of many different exercise programs and brings them together to
obtain what I call “working fitness.” “Working fitness” is a term and goal that
I’ve used for many years. I came up with it to capture the blue-collar nature and
goals of the system. Like the working man himself, it’s effective, time efficient,
and, above all else, results driven.

Throughout this book I’ll be running my pie hole, giving my opinions, making
observations, and providing recommendations concerning physical fitness and
eating—many of which I’m sure that you’ve never heard before. Or at least
never heard explained the way I lay it out. I base 90 percent of my guidance on
only three simple things: long personal experience, first-hand observation, and
the input of other trusted people. The other 10 percent is what I’ve read in books
(hundreds of them) or heard from what I’d consider a reliable source. Am I hard-
headed? Maybe, and while I realize I don’t know everything about this subject
(far from it), I know what I know. More than anything else, I know what works,
and more importantly I know what doesn’t work.

I also share many of my experiences related to physical training. “Sea stories”
are what we call them in the Marine Corps. Like everything else I write, they
have a purpose. Two, actually. One is to illustrate a point I’m trying to make.
The second is to entertain you with some funny stuff that I’ve seen and
experienced. I learned a long time ago that when you’re instructing or teaching
anything, it’s best done with real-life examples and humor. Believe it or not, the
stories I tell are 100 percent true, to the best of my memory (that’s my memory).

Another fair warning: I write like I speak, as an adult speaking to other adults.
To do it any other way would not be me. So if you don’t like direct, honest
opinions in “grown folks” language, you need to find another fitness guide.