San Diego -- Recruits of Company I, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, performed interval sprints before staring their cross-fit workout with the Circuit Course aboard the depot, Sept. 5.
The purpose of the Circuit Course is to build endurance, strength and stamina. Performing interval sprints before the course will test the recruits when they’re fatigued.
“This course builds all over body strength and increases the recruit’s endurance while they’re exhausted,” said Sgt. Aloha Tupou, drill instructor, Platoon 3203. “It takes mental and physical toughness to be able to push through when your body is drained.”
Recruits warmed-up for the course by running two half-mile interval sprints and then split into groups of 10 led by a drill instructor.
The Circuit Course is a series of stations with different exercises. Each station is designed to target a specific muscle group. Before they begin, the drill instructors informed the recruits how to properly execute each exercise. Recruits performed each exercise by synchronizing with the drill instructor that led their group. Recruits must continuously execute each exercise until the designated time runs out. Recruits performed each station for 60 seconds before moving on to the next one.
Then, drill instructors took the recruits to the next station where they would immediately start the designated exercise.
Starting this course fatigued, after running half-mile sprints, is what makes this course uneasy. Each station demands a new physical challenge such as pull-ups, incline sit-ups and jump ropes. Recruits feel the exhaustion set in as their bodies build endurance, explained Tupou, a San Diego, Calif. native.
“Each station builds endurance and puts your body in physical discomfort,” said Recruit Dominic V. Bernharda, a San Diego, Calif. native. “The drill instructors push us through it when it feels impossible to continue.”
Marines train to reach the peak of their physical fitness as it is demanded of them by the Marine Corps.
Even though they have a long road ahead, interval sprints combined with the Circuit Course is a way to prepare the recruits of Co. I for recruit training and their future careers as United States Marines.
“The Marine Corps demands high physical aspects out of all Marines”, said Tupou. “Marines must always be prepared, whether it’s running an annual Physical Fitness Test and Combat Fitness Test, or preparing for bigger things such as deployments.”