Hello. I am a 36 y.o. female and I am in the process of enlisting. My question is this -
Will I be the only person my age there at BCT? I guess my only fear is that I will be a lot older than everyone else there. How would this change how I am treated, if at all? (hopefully not) I'm not worried about passing the physical fitness requirements, I have been running everyday, am at my optimum weight and body fat percentage (amazing since back in December of last year I was a size 22). I am working on getting up to where I need to be with the push-ups (any suggestions on how to build that particular set of muscles would be greatly appreciated as well!)

I am extremely motivated and I feel there is nothing that I can't accomplish, I just don't want to feel cut off from everyone else because of an age difference. Being away from my three young kids is going to be hard enough! Not whining though! I know what I'm signing up for and it's definitely what I want!

I would love any advice anyone could offer, or to hear from anyone who may have had a similar experience going in as an older recruit. Thank you!

I'm leaving for Basic soon. I have been worried about the different parts of the APFT as well. The best advice I have found, and can vouch for is to actually do the excercises. If you need to improve your push ups, do pushups. I have been working on getting ready for basic for about 2 months now. I do push ups and sit ups every other day, and I have greatly built up the muscles and increased the number that I can do in the time limit.
That's the best advice I can offer seeing as I haven't been through Basic yet.
Good Luck to you.

Dont worry, you'll be fine. We had several matured members in our company at BCT. The thing is, you need to be mentally ready for anything the drill sergeants throw at you. You're going to be disappointed too at the younger of the group. They wont take anything serious and will cause you a lot of smoking. You'll probably be given a leadership position if you can handle it. Dont worry at all for AFPT at all. If you aren't ready now then you'll be ready before the end. I started doing only 15 push ups and 26 sit ups and running a 22 minute two mile. By the end of basic i was doing 65+ push ups, 80+ sit ups and running 13 minutes and lower. I have an average score of 280 on a bad day now. Just be ready to handle a lot of the immaturity you'll experience it all the way through the army. Patience is the biggest thing i learned. You'll need plennnttttttyyyy of it.

During basic training yes you will be older than most. However, you will find that if you keep a positive attitude and add your ambition, you will fast track by most troops and earn rank quickly. It will turn out fine. I put a lady in the reserves who was 41. But she was 41 years young, not 41 years old. If your baody and health are ok then age isn't anything but a number.

quote:

Originally posted by Pvt Death:
Dont worry, you'll be fine. We had several matured members in our company at BCT. The thing is, you need to be mentally ready for anything the drill sergeants throw at you. You're going to be disappointed too at the younger of the group. They wont take anything serious and will cause you a lot of smoking. You'll probably be given a leadership position if you can handle it. Dont worry at all for AFPT at all. If you aren't ready now then you'll be ready before the end. I started doing only 15 push ups and 26 sit ups and running a 22 minute two mile. By the end of basic i was doing 65+ push ups, 80+ sit ups and running 13 minutes and lower. I have an average score of 280 on a bad day now. Just be ready to handle a lot of the immaturity you'll experience it all the way through the army. Patience is the biggest thing i learned. You'll need plennnttttttyyyy of it.

Thanks for replying! I have three kids and work currently with Alzheimers and dementia patients so I already have patience by the truckload!

quote:

Originally posted by Corvette1140:
During basic training yes you will be older than most. However, you will find that if you keep a positive attitude and add your ambition, you will fast track by most troops and earn rank quickly. It will turn out fine. I put a lady in the reserves who was 41. But she was 41 years young, not 41 years old. If your baody and health are ok then age isn't anything but a number.

Thanks for replying! I am probably one of the most positive people ever, maybe to the point of annoying, LOL. But I am very determined to succeed and willing to learn and do what I have to do in the Army.

quote:

Originally posted by SoldierML:
I'm leaving for Basic soon. I have been worried about the different parts of the APFT as well. The best advice I have found, and can vouch for is to actually do the excercises. If you need to improve your push ups, do pushups. I have been working on getting ready for basic for about 2 months now. I do push ups and sit ups every other day, and I have greatly built up the muscles and increased the number that I can do in the time limit.
That's the best advice I can offer seeing as I haven't been through Basic yet.
Good Luck to you.

I'm joining the YMCA tomorrow and am planning on working on building upper body strength so I can get up to Par on push ups. I am not gunning for being able to do what they expect a 36 year old to do, I am shooting for what they expect a 21 year old to do. I'll have to do everything else as well as them so I'm not going to be happy until I can keep up with the youngsters in every way!

If you do pyramids of different types of pushups, you'll make many muscles stronger and be able to do alot more pushups. Pyramids are like doing 10 pushups, then doing 9, then 8, so on and so on. You can do wide arm pushups, regular pushups, and diamonds to name a few. Even if your doing them on your knees at first, it will still help. Don't do any the day before you leave because 9 times out of 10 you'll get smoked when you get there just because, and you don't want to be tired. Good luck and stay motivated!