I get it, you are young and in excellent shape.  That is precisely what I thought when I joined the Army.  But you aren’t.  You may be in better shape than the rest of your friends but, trust me, after your first day at Basic Training you will be humbled.  After your first day at Basic Training, your legs and arms will feel like exhausted noodles for a few weeks.

Don’t worry.  If you weren’t capable of handling the training, the Army would never have accepted you.  Unlike civilian gyms and “fitness influencers”, Army Drill Instructors are professionals who realize the human body needs time to generate enough red blood cells to serve a demanding workout, and resilience of tendon and muscle to handle the strain.  The Army will not allow you to fail.  During Basic Training, follow directions with confidence.

After about the second week you realize what peak conditioning is all about.  You will no longer be winded during the morning run.  The palms of your hands no longer burn when you do pushups.   Everything you do becomes easier, immediate.  You are now prepared to achieve peak conditioning.  

Just imagine what peak conditioning is like.

And that is what service in a military conflict requires, peak conditioning.  If your cardiovascular system is not elastic and accustomed to the sudden, physical and hormonal stresses that “fight or flight” brings on, you are more likely to have a heart attack or experience pulmonary distress when the enemy attacks.

 

Ignore all of the above at your peril.  That is all the rah-rah you will get from me.

 

What you will not realize until you are my age is that you peak physically at around 25 years of age.  Earlier for most, later for a rare few.  Don’t count on being the rare few.

 

Use your brain.  You don’t need me to tell you the hard cold facts of life.  If everything from 25 forward is all downhill physically, then what you should focus on exclusively until you are 25 is achieving the highest peak possible.  That way the downhill ride is longer and less steep.

Get it?  Got it?  Good.

 

Monetary value of not dying when you are fifty?  I can’t say personally since I only just turned 60, but I can still run 2 miles to Army standards and half of the kids I knew in high school are either dead or facing serious health concerns.

 

Your recruiter is going to neglect this, the most important benefit of serving in the military.  Don’t you neglect it.  Later in life you will be willing to pay millions to be free of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney problems and the like.  You dodge those bullets when you are in your twenties.

 

Listen to an old man.  If for no other reason than to guarantee you reach Peak Conditioning, enlist for at least a three-year tour of duty.