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Home » Health Articles » 5 Fitness Lessons I Learned Being In The Military

5 Fitness Lessons I Learned Being In The Military

Can I share a quick secret with you?

You may not know this, but at the age of 30, I'm a war veteran. That's right, I served, sweated and ran (INCOMING!) when necessary in Iraq serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. During that time, I saw first- hand why America is proud to be the land of the free, home of the brave. If there's one thing I've learned about being in the military, it's that military members, no matter what they're background, all serve to better themselves, their country and to fulfill their sense of duty.

Now, when I first enlisted in the military is wasn't all roses - not by a long shot. The first few years were somewhat difficult for me simply because, well, it took some time getting used to. But over the years (wow, 7 years went by FAST!) I've come to realize there are a lot of lessons I've learned that I can not only apply to everyday life, but to training also. Here are few of those lessons I'd like to share with you:

1. Always focus on the goal

In any military unit you participate in whether you're active duty, guard, or reserve, you will be tasked to complete a mission. No good commander will ever send his people out without making sure they understand how important it is they focus on completing the objective. The same should go with your fitness program. Each time you step in the gym, you should know what you're there for. Everything you do during your workout should be to directly affect that particular goal.

2. Never Give Up

Far too many people give up well before they see any results. United States Marines live by, "SEMPER FI, DO OR DIE! HOOAH!!" (gotta love Marines). Although it's a very gung-ho way of looking at things, you shouldn't give up until you achieve the goal. Giving up before you've realized any progress is a sure-fire way to failure and you certainly shouldn't give up before you've actually seen results.

3. Plan your work, and work your plan.

That's a good ole' sayin' that's been around for quite a while. If you want to see what a truly confused individual looks like, just walk into any gym and ask someone who spends most of their time looking around what their workout plan is like.

As a Las Vegas personal trainer, I'm asked to write programs for people often. Now, don't think that a workout is just a "workout" to give you something to do. No sirree. A designed workout is a specific plan of action to help you achieve a particular goal, whether it's weight loss or weight gain. The best way to succeed with a fitness program? Follow it.

4. Take Time To relax and enjoy yourself

I'll never forget the time I deployed to Iraq. It was stressful, long, tedious, and an emotional roller coaster day-in and out. However, since my superiors realized this, everyone was given time off without being charged leave so they could rest and revitalize themselves. Now if you think about it, most of us need some time to unwind and relax after a hard day's work! Now, if you can imagine what that feels like to push your body hard for weeks and weeks on end without rest.

Eventually, your body would break down and that's not what you want. Your body can only take so much stress for so long so you need to take time off and relax. Usually 4-5 weeks into your program is ideal. Take a week off, relax, enjoy your time and come back the next week ready to go. You'll usually find that you're able to lift more and contract your muscles harder! And you know what that means...more results!

5. Make It A Part of your life

Although many people have a hard time admitting it, the military is a part of their life. It's been a part of mine for the past seven years. It hasn't been 'peaches-and-cream' the entire time, but the biggest lesson I've learned is to adapt the military to my way of life. You've got to do the same with your fitness program. Trying to "fit-in-a-workout-when-you-can" is difficult. However, if you make it a part of your life and you're able to always have time to train without thinking about it, you're on your way.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

How To Realistically Set Your Fees - Part 3

Effect of Benefits

We have previously examined realistic billable hours and the effect of business expenses on your hourly rate. Now we'll look at the effect of benefits.

Once upon at time, when we were employed, we received a benefits package from our employer. This usually included health, life and disability insurance. Many firms also had available pension programs, profit sharing, dental and vision coverage. In addition, one-half of your social security was paid by your employer.

As self-employed individuals, we have to provide these benefits for ourselves. This means an additional boast to the hourly rate we've calculated so far. For the sake of argument, let's figure a standard benefits package consisting of health, life, disability, pension and profit sharing. Let's figure health insurance costs at $300 per month; life at $50 per month; disability at $150 per month; pension (a SEP-IRA) at $500 per month and about 10% for a profit margin.

If we total these up we get a yearly figure of $12,000. Now keep in mind, that most of these will be paid for in after tax dollars. So, we need to add approximately an additional 30% to this number, for a true total of about $15,600 per year. The 30% represents the amount of taxes you need to pay to end up with the net amount of money needed to pay for your benefits package. Keep in mind that I chose 30% as a completely arbitrary number. Your own tax situation may be higher or lower.

How does this effect our hourly rate, let's see. Last article we left off at $56 per hour. This represented a yearly salary of $42,000 plus annual business expenses of $15,000. If we take the $15,600 in benefit costs and divide by our billable hours of 1100 per year, we get approximately $14 per hour. This brings our total hourly rate to $70 per hour.

Now, we need to factor in our profit sharing percentage. Once again, I choose 10% as a representative number. Your targeted profit could be higher or lower. If you take your $70 per hour rate, multiply by 10%, you end up with $7 per hour. Your total hourly rate comes to $77 per hour.

This is the amount you need to charge to cover all we discussed so far.

Compare this to the approximately $20 per hour you would need to get paid by an employer to earn our hypothetical $42,000 per year. And yes, I know today many employers require a co-payment on their benefits package. I stated it this way for simplicity sake.

So, you need to charge almost 4 times what you would earn in salary to end up at the same place. Don't be discouraged, there are many people out there that are charging a lot more than this and getting all the business they can handle. Remember, these numbers are hypothetical, your situation may be much different.

Copyright 2003, DeFiore Enterprises