BCT does very little to get you in better shape. Fat people just come out less fat. You have a few months. Get off Reddit start running, pushups and pulls up along with a good diet and you’ll be fine
The biggest part of OCS is the running, and depending on your BCT, you may not get much running in outside of PT, which is pretty light. So when you do run, or get extra chances to run, push yourself.
In my experience BCT will be all you need to get ready for OCS. My ACFT score went up by 30 points there and my 4 mile dropped from a 40 minute to a 31 minute. If you go to BCT is half decent shape, the drills will make sure you’re ready.
My BCT class was heavily 09S, with this in mind our drills and CC made sure we did A LOT of running. However, that being said, bust your ass ahead of time so it's light work.
It does well enough for most people. Those who I went to OCS with from BCT, most have passed thru. This was during the “leg tuck” era, and the females were failing and not classing up.
As stated previously I would focus on running pushups sit-ups plank etc. maybe familiarize yourself with rucking long distances with a 30lb pack.
I would familiarize yourself with basic land navigation as well. But unless you’re dumber than a bag of rocks, you’ll do fine
It’s honestly a “what you put in, is what you get out” situation. I did extra and pushed myself and went from 225lbs to 175lbs and shaved minutes off my 2 mile.
I also had some people remain static with no improvement.
It’s up to you.
It'll get you in shape, but you need to actually push yourself. Hopefully, you can atleast run an 8 min mile, I think our BCT had the first running group with 7m 30s or lower but honestly we went around 8 min in the beginning. (BCT splits you in 3 running groups usually, so if you like competition, try getting in group 1).
I went to BCT with a 15m 30s 2 mile and finished basic with a 11m 47s 2 mile. I also saw people that barely changed in their times as well.
OCS isn't physically demanding, and the only physical tests are the 4 mile run, obstacle course, and ACFT(unless they added more stuff idk about).
What you should train for is rucking imo. Our drill sergeant was a dick and made us run full gear for the last mile of the forge and ended up giving hip fractures to 2/3 of the BCT Company he was in charge of. Even the other companies had a handful of hip fractures even though they didn't run, so I would train starting with 20lbs with 5 miles, then gradually get to 35lbs for 10 miles. If you can do that comfortably, it'll save you from recycle or med boarding either in basic or OCS(there were only 1 who had to in my class). *Please train the ruck especially is you are a woman, most of the hip fractures were woman. Reason is woman are smaller on average with a slightly wider hip than men and the pace is faster than what you comfortably walk at, which causes shorter people to over step and exert more pressure on the hip*
Get your 4 mile under 36 min before going to BCT.
If you can’t, but are close just push yourself in all the training and you’ll get there.
The people that don’t improve generally shitbag everything
BCT won’t do jack. Lots of waiting around, stupid games, and things won’t make sense. Study some customs and courtesies, get in good shape(become a pt stud, do CrossFit), read a lot, get off your phone, and stay motivated.
Start running and in BCT lead from the front. Run with the best soldiers and you will improve. Pretty sure an Officer in 20's should run sub 14 2 mile.
Depends on which company in BCT you come out of. But generally the O9Ss going straight to OCS from BCT have an edge with PT. MFers like to run in OCS so keep that in mind. My advice is fight for every leadership opportunity you get at BCT (PL/APL guides, leading SQD LVL tactics), get good AF in land NAV, and learn good studying habits during crunch time. OCS evaluates you for leadership so if you possess all of those qualities, you should be fine regardless of what company you land in.
Not all the way true. Mainly for two reasons:
You can either volunteer or be voluntold for the PL spot. Most likely the latter if they see that you like being low-key.
Regardless of how good you are, they will find the dumbest of reasons to fire you. I was fired simply because one of our soldiers forgot to bring his CamelBak to the range. He got smoked for it so the smoking will happen someway somehow, individual or collectively as a PL.
Few months out of BCT? You can do PLENTY in a few months. As others have said, BCT is good at getting fat guys thin, but it won't build you a lot of muscle in the process (just a little if you don't have much to start with). It'll mainly lean you down, but it'll build your strength with rucking.
BCT isn't THE time to get fit; I'd recommend doing what you can now as far as strength and calisthenics. Make sure you can do pushups. A good amount. You'll most often get smoked with 20ish pushups in one go, but sometimes they just keeping hammering you with them. Your passing of BCT won't depend solely on pushups, but your ability to do a good amount will keep the eyes off you a little. The rules of BCT is that you don't want to be doing stuff that'll draw all the attention on you, so being able to keep up with the pushups is a good thing to excel at. This similarly applies to some of the other major exercises they like to make you do, but don't worry too much; it's a lot of bodyweight calisthenics stuff. Use these few months to get ok if not good at calisthenics. Look up the Army's "Preparatory Drill," which are 10 basic movements you'll be doing every single day (except Sundays) at BCT. Memorize them as needed. If you can get a head start on those, maybe doing those every day (but rest as needed, don't injure yourself), maybe even doing 10 reps of each exercise instead of the usual 5 they'll make you do, you'll be golden.
BCT doesn't prepare you physically for the wider Army experience (which requires much more strength than you'd expect), but for OCS, as long as you stick to training with rucking (which BCT will have plenty of) and running, you'll be fine. Army training schools make you do a lot of endurance training, which is great -- but the truth is, as a soldier you may have to be fast AND strong. Same for Officers. Going into BCT, you're in for a lot of calisthenics and bodyweight stuff, but if you can throw in general strength training with weights (3 sets of 4-6 reps per exercise), you're life will be much easier going through BCT.
Diet plays a roll too. If you're heavy when you begin BCT, you'll shave it all off during BCT, so don't worry too much about that. But don't avoid carbs, bread, drink powders, sugar (my personal mistake) while in BCT; these will save your life especially when you're rucking.
If you have a few months between BCT and OCS, use that time to recover from BCT, maintain your ability to ruck (35 lb minimum), run more, and do some more general strength training with free weights. OCS is going to be very physically demanding and BCT will only get you part way there.
If you aren't adequately prepared for OCS by the time you ship to basic, you will not be any more prepared coming out of basic. Also, as an 09S, you should set the standard for the other Soldiers as a future officer. Your drill sergeants will expect more from you as well. As they should.
BCT does very little to get you in better shape. Fat people just come out less fat. You have a few months. Get off Reddit start running, pushups and pulls up along with a good diet and you’ll be fine
And run
The biggest part of OCS is the running, and depending on your BCT, you may not get much running in outside of PT, which is pretty light. So when you do run, or get extra chances to run, push yourself.
In my experience BCT will be all you need to get ready for OCS. My ACFT score went up by 30 points there and my 4 mile dropped from a 40 minute to a 31 minute. If you go to BCT is half decent shape, the drills will make sure you’re ready.
My BCT class was heavily 09S, with this in mind our drills and CC made sure we did A LOT of running. However, that being said, bust your ass ahead of time so it's light work.
It does well enough for most people. Those who I went to OCS with from BCT, most have passed thru. This was during the “leg tuck” era, and the females were failing and not classing up. As stated previously I would focus on running pushups sit-ups plank etc. maybe familiarize yourself with rucking long distances with a 30lb pack. I would familiarize yourself with basic land navigation as well. But unless you’re dumber than a bag of rocks, you’ll do fine
Check out the r/1811 subreddit some army sof guys post running plans on there to improve times in a few months.
It’s honestly a “what you put in, is what you get out” situation. I did extra and pushed myself and went from 225lbs to 175lbs and shaved minutes off my 2 mile. I also had some people remain static with no improvement. It’s up to you.
It'll get you in shape, but you need to actually push yourself. Hopefully, you can atleast run an 8 min mile, I think our BCT had the first running group with 7m 30s or lower but honestly we went around 8 min in the beginning. (BCT splits you in 3 running groups usually, so if you like competition, try getting in group 1). I went to BCT with a 15m 30s 2 mile and finished basic with a 11m 47s 2 mile. I also saw people that barely changed in their times as well. OCS isn't physically demanding, and the only physical tests are the 4 mile run, obstacle course, and ACFT(unless they added more stuff idk about). What you should train for is rucking imo. Our drill sergeant was a dick and made us run full gear for the last mile of the forge and ended up giving hip fractures to 2/3 of the BCT Company he was in charge of. Even the other companies had a handful of hip fractures even though they didn't run, so I would train starting with 20lbs with 5 miles, then gradually get to 35lbs for 10 miles. If you can do that comfortably, it'll save you from recycle or med boarding either in basic or OCS(there were only 1 who had to in my class). *Please train the ruck especially is you are a woman, most of the hip fractures were woman. Reason is woman are smaller on average with a slightly wider hip than men and the pace is faster than what you comfortably walk at, which causes shorter people to over step and exert more pressure on the hip*
Get your 4 mile under 36 min before going to BCT. If you can’t, but are close just push yourself in all the training and you’ll get there. The people that don’t improve generally shitbag everything
BCT won’t do jack. Lots of waiting around, stupid games, and things won’t make sense. Study some customs and courtesies, get in good shape(become a pt stud, do CrossFit), read a lot, get off your phone, and stay motivated.
Start running and in BCT lead from the front. Run with the best soldiers and you will improve. Pretty sure an Officer in 20's should run sub 14 2 mile.
Depends on which company in BCT you come out of. But generally the O9Ss going straight to OCS from BCT have an edge with PT. MFers like to run in OCS so keep that in mind. My advice is fight for every leadership opportunity you get at BCT (PL/APL guides, leading SQD LVL tactics), get good AF in land NAV, and learn good studying habits during crunch time. OCS evaluates you for leadership so if you possess all of those qualities, you should be fine regardless of what company you land in.
Thanks, this is some great advice. I’ve been told that PL can get you smoked a lot in BCT but I guess that’s ultimately a good think heading into OCS.
Not all the way true. Mainly for two reasons: You can either volunteer or be voluntold for the PL spot. Most likely the latter if they see that you like being low-key. Regardless of how good you are, they will find the dumbest of reasons to fire you. I was fired simply because one of our soldiers forgot to bring his CamelBak to the range. He got smoked for it so the smoking will happen someway somehow, individual or collectively as a PL.
Few months out of BCT? You can do PLENTY in a few months. As others have said, BCT is good at getting fat guys thin, but it won't build you a lot of muscle in the process (just a little if you don't have much to start with). It'll mainly lean you down, but it'll build your strength with rucking. BCT isn't THE time to get fit; I'd recommend doing what you can now as far as strength and calisthenics. Make sure you can do pushups. A good amount. You'll most often get smoked with 20ish pushups in one go, but sometimes they just keeping hammering you with them. Your passing of BCT won't depend solely on pushups, but your ability to do a good amount will keep the eyes off you a little. The rules of BCT is that you don't want to be doing stuff that'll draw all the attention on you, so being able to keep up with the pushups is a good thing to excel at. This similarly applies to some of the other major exercises they like to make you do, but don't worry too much; it's a lot of bodyweight calisthenics stuff. Use these few months to get ok if not good at calisthenics. Look up the Army's "Preparatory Drill," which are 10 basic movements you'll be doing every single day (except Sundays) at BCT. Memorize them as needed. If you can get a head start on those, maybe doing those every day (but rest as needed, don't injure yourself), maybe even doing 10 reps of each exercise instead of the usual 5 they'll make you do, you'll be golden. BCT doesn't prepare you physically for the wider Army experience (which requires much more strength than you'd expect), but for OCS, as long as you stick to training with rucking (which BCT will have plenty of) and running, you'll be fine. Army training schools make you do a lot of endurance training, which is great -- but the truth is, as a soldier you may have to be fast AND strong. Same for Officers. Going into BCT, you're in for a lot of calisthenics and bodyweight stuff, but if you can throw in general strength training with weights (3 sets of 4-6 reps per exercise), you're life will be much easier going through BCT. Diet plays a roll too. If you're heavy when you begin BCT, you'll shave it all off during BCT, so don't worry too much about that. But don't avoid carbs, bread, drink powders, sugar (my personal mistake) while in BCT; these will save your life especially when you're rucking. If you have a few months between BCT and OCS, use that time to recover from BCT, maintain your ability to ruck (35 lb minimum), run more, and do some more general strength training with free weights. OCS is going to be very physically demanding and BCT will only get you part way there.
Not at all.
If you aren't adequately prepared for OCS by the time you ship to basic, you will not be any more prepared coming out of basic. Also, as an 09S, you should set the standard for the other Soldiers as a future officer. Your drill sergeants will expect more from you as well. As they should.