Flying in a new direction

So after a weekend of research in to the type of career which will not involve me working all day every day in the same room and with no exercise, I narrowed my choices down to the police, or one of the armed forces.  Upon further research of that, I narrowed it down to the police or the RAF.  Both require a basic level of fitness to be accepted, though one is much higher than the other.

After much though, consideration, reading and quizzes available online I decided that I will work towards a career in the RAF.  Not a fighting front line one, but a more sensible one where I will be managing people and resources.  I’ll still have desk work, and I will still get out and about.

What does this mean for my fitness and weight loss plan?  Quite simply that it needs a radical overhaul to meet the needs of the assessment.  The basic requirements for what I want to be doing are:

• As many 20m shuttle runs as possible, in time with an increasing timed beep
• As many press-ups as possible in 60 seconds
• As many sit-ups as possible in 60 seconds

Having spoken to someone today about a career in the RAF, they told me that the press-up minimum standard is around 15, and the sit-up minimum is around 20.  Whilst this may not seem like much, I can’t do more than 2 press-ups at the moment, let alone go for a minute.  As for the sit ups, they aren’t much better, thou I am half way there with 10.  I can, however do 23 half press-ups in a minute, so I am going to work on those and build up from there.

The shuttle run beep test they said is around about the same level of fitness required to run a mile and a half in about 12 minutes.  That seems fine as I can do a 5 minute 30 second mile.  This means I should be able to get through a mile and a half in around 10 minutes.  That is something I will test at the gym this week.

I’ll be at the gym tomorrow night after work, as usual, so I will see if I can get in for a program re-assessment to help me build my fitness quicker, build my muscle a little to do the weight bearing exercises, and also strengthen my core muscles to help support my growth and prevent injury.  I’ll post my new plan on here when I get it.

I know these are some big changes for me, but there is no specific time frame for me to do these.  I won’t formally start my application process until I can meet the minimum requirements, or get very close to them.  That way I won’t have to be rejected and wait 3-6 months before I can try again.  I’m hoping I can submit an application form in late May or early June, and take everything from there.

It isn’t going to be a quick transition.

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